Demand Waterfall
A staged model tracking volume as it falls from inquiry through qualification to closed revenue, giving marketing and sales a shared vocabulary.
What it standardised
Before it, marketing and sales counted different things and disputed the difference. The waterfall's contribution was a common set of stage names with defined transitions, which made the disagreement measurable rather than rhetorical.
Its limitation
It models a linear path. Real buying involves accounts entering mid-way, stalling, and re-entering months later. Use it as a measurement frame, not as a description of the buyer's journey.
The value is the shared definition
RELATED TERMS
Revenue Funnel
The staged model describing how prospects progress from first awareness to closed revenue, used to locate where volume is lost between stages.
Sales Accepted Lead (SAL)
A lead sales has acknowledged and agreed to work, sitting between marketing qualification and genuine pipeline.
Stage-to-Stage Conversion
The proportion of opportunities moving from each stage to the next. The most localised view of where pipeline dies.
Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)
A lead that marketing considers ready for sales attention, according to a definition both teams have agreed. Without that agreement it is a marketing activity metric wearing a pipeline costume.
Learn how to apply this: RevOps 101: Revenue Operations Foundations
Definitions are the vocabulary. The courses are where you learn to operate it, with the interactive audit tools.
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