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I think that www.itsprofiles.com should be added to external links. It fits just as well as the other ones listed under external links. so should www.hoovers.com

- Sellingpursuit.com is a lead generation blog that focuses on Enterprise B2B Lead generation. I am affiliated with this blog, so I cannot add it myself.

www.directconnectionsint.com should be added to the external links. They are a top lead generation company. They only do B2B, but most lead generation is B2B anyway. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.238.107.189 (talk) 18:34, 11 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

QED Enabled Services (P) Ltd. is a Sales Lead Generation Company based in Pune, INDIA —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.8.141.54 (talk) 09:19, 15 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Strong objection. Wikipedia is not a link farm. Especially where commercial gain is suspected (as in this case), it is generally better not to link to any companies doing business in the area. The only exception might be if a company is sufficiently noteworthy to warrant mention for reasons verifiable via third-party sources. (A company press release touting its own newsworthiness does not even remotely qualify.) 71.41.210.146 (talk) 23:03, 26 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, Can u tell me what exactly u mean by lead generation. Is it a prospective of Business development as Business research Analyst? And how it is different from Business Marketing? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.143.79.10 (talk) 19:47, 5 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Note: wikipedia is not a link farm. The only exception might be if a company is sufficiently noteworthy to warrant mention for reasons verifiable via third-party sources. Well, these 3rd party sources include: Forrester reports: B2B Lead Management Automation Market Overview:Multiple Vendor Choices And Confusing Claims Slow Adoption How Mature Is B2B Lead Management?: Mature Lead Management Practices Yield Superior Results Marketing Automation Buyer's Kit - conducted by Marketo

The links to the lead generation companies might be external but they are legit - as confirmed by reliable sources such as Forrester etc. The former list of lead generation companies just do not feature in any independent list of leading lead gen companies. For this reason, please leave this update as is. It's far more reliable than the former list of companies listed (where no substantiation is given for them ). --JanHart (talk) 17:40, 5 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have reverted the addition of these external links. Links to wiki-articles on the subject is fine but a list of external links is not. Keith D (talk) 18:56, 5 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Merge

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Seems an effort to merge this article to Sales lead did not have traction. Now, Sales lead is an unreferenced stub, barely WP:DICDEF, and after taking a look at the articles, it seems more productive to redirect Sales lead to the referenced and more robust Lead generation. Dl2000 (talk) 23:01, 29 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I started to do this, but find that for some unaccountable reason it's objected to in sales lead (a lead is distinct from lead generation, but clearly belongs in the same article, no? Apparently not). Pol098 (talk) 12:28, 4 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
It seems like these two topics used to be distinct, but are very much one process now (seconds apart, rather than days). Perhaps a compromise would be merging Sales lead in to Lead Generation, but expanding on it more than the current article does (perhaps in a historical light?). This page:[1] sums it up nicely. It is a blog, but it is a company blog. So it must be held to some level of oversight, allowing it to qualify as a RS. RandomArticleEdits (talk) 00:08, 6 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Merged. —Asgardiator Iä! Iä! 21:36, 11 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Merging (or just blanking and turning into a redirect) is a good idea, but that source is not usable. Anonymous corporate blogs are not good for much. They are used too often on articles but they do not meet WP:RS and are often inserted as a form of SEO spam or similar. Better nothing than that. Grayfell (talk) 21:45, 11 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, my mistake. Thanks for the advice! Either way, I'm glad to see the discussion finally closed. — Asgardiator Iä! Iä! 23:56, 11 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
No prob, the redirect makes sense. Because of the high potential for spam in this article and articles like it, sources need to be vetted carefully. Mansfield Sales Partners is a company which provides commercial sales consulting and services, so they have a vested interest in making themselves appear to be experts, but they don't have a reputation for reliability and fact-checking, and are about as far from neutral as its possible to be. The blog post may possibly be interesting or useful, but it's not a reliable source. Looking at the article, it's not the only spam that's slipped through the cracks recently, either. Grayfell (talk) 02:46, 12 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
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This article is incomprehensible

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I've still no idea what lead generation is. Can it be re-written in English please? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 185.4.167.148 (talk) 10:41, 13 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Opening sentence confusion

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The opening sentence currently reads as follows:

"In marketing, lead generation (/ˈliːd/) is the initiation of consumer interest or enquiry into products or services of a business."

This is unclear to me. What is "initiation"? Does lead generation involve creating consumer interest or does it involve gauging interest? Does lead generation involve judging existing products or creating new ones? The sentence as it stands is almost completely incomprehensible to this user. AnonGUser (talk) 20:48, 8 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

What is a lead?

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Before we start generating a lead, it would be good to know what a lead is. Fortunately, we have online dictionaries, and according to this definition, a lead (in business) is "a person or thing that may be useful to you, especially a possible new customer or business opportunity". But an opportunity is something very different from a human being. Besides, even if we can generate an opportunity, we cannot generate a human being. After all this article is not about procreation. We can, at most, find a human being, not generate. In my opinion, the definition from the Oxford Dictionary is a bit inconsistent, but still better than the lack of any definition in our article. 85.193.228.103 (talk) 01:10, 10 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Unsourced content

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Please don't add unsourced content and avoid adding non WP:RS content to this article. It will likely get reverted. Thankyou. Djm-leighpark (talk) 21:32, 30 May 2021 (UTC) Do to massive failures in WP:V I've placed a tag on the page ... uncited/unsourced content will be hard pruned after a month. Thankyou. Djm-leighpark (talk) 05:00, 31 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 5 October 2021

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On page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_generation), the following paragraphs doesnt seem to be relevant "Healthcare "The number of Cyberchondriacs has jumped to 175 million from 154 million last year, possibly as a result of the health care reform debate. Furthermore, frequency of usage has also increased. Fully 32% of all adults who online says they look for health information "often," compared to 22% last year." said Harris Interactive in a study completed and reported in August 2010 with demographics based in the United States of America.[6]".

Suggest removing it. Ameyckulkarni137 (talk) 17:29, 5 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

  •  Done: Not sure if precisely correct format was used but reasoning for removing suggested content seems valid. 18:14, 5 October 2021 (UTC)

Direction of the page

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Hey all, I just took a pass as a way of trying to clean up the page, but thought I'd also open this thread to continue conversations.

A few questions:

  • Do we need the marketing operations box in the intro? There's not even a marketing operations page on Wikipedia at this time.
  • Possible sections needed include one on tactics, maybe one on data considerations (like GDPR, privacy, etc.?) .... what else?

I think this is an important article for Wikipedia in the marketing space, but it certainly has a long way to go. SportsGuy17 (talk) 21:24, 29 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 8 March 2022

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Note: Your current entry for Lead Generation is grossly incorrect. Below is a suggested replacement. I would be happy to incorporate citations and additional material, if you are open to this re-work. Otherwise I won't waste your time or mine. Please let me know. I've written two books on this subject, given hundreds of lectures, and published dozens of papers on it. I previously submitted a critique of your current entry. Jeff Josephson Jeff@LeadGen.com.


Lead Generation, or "LeadGen" for short, is a hybrid marketing/sales strategy designed to create "Qualified Sales Leads" (QSLs), and thereby fill a business's Sales Funnel with viable sales opportunities that have a high probability of closing successfully and profitably. An effective Lead Generation strategy, therefore, can result in a significant increase in revenue and market share for any business, while potentially also reducing cost, time-to-market and risk.

In the Lead Generation business development model, a Qualified Sales Lead is defined as "an expression of interest by or an appointment with a qualified prospect (i.e. someone who potentially has the ability to buy), who has a qualifying need (i.e. a need that you, as the potential vendor, can fulfill), and who wants to talk with you about how you can help". There may also be attributes of urgency, budget and/or authority that contribute to the qualification criteria, depending on the company. And there may even be variable qualification criteria depending on the situation (in particular, the availability of sales resources at the time). But what distinguishes a Qualified Sales Lead is that it belongs in the company's Sales Funnel, and is worth the time and attention of someone on the sales team to try to close it.

In the Lead Generation approach, each lead is assigned a Potential Revenue (PR) and a Probability of Closing (PC) which, when multiplied together, create an Expected Value (EV). In most cases each lead is also assigned an Expected Close Date, which thus provides the company with a highly accurate revenue forecast to which the strategy can be held accountable.

Similar to traditional sales models, the Potential Revenue, the Probability of Closing, the Expected Value and the Expected Close Date will be impacted by activities of the sales team during the Sell Cycle. But unlike traditional sales models, by holding both the Marketing and Sales functions accountable to the same revenue forecast, a Lead Generation strategy eliminates siloing between these functions, avoiding finger-pointing, and therefore increasing the probability of success. And it provides a number of powerful tools for both Marketing and Sales Management, thereby making it easier to manage the business.

Contrasting Lead Generation with Other Approaches

In some approaches to marketing, the term "lead generation" is used as a shorthand for a specific promotional tactic such as telemarketing, email, networking or pay-per-click. However, Lead Generation is more appropriately viewed as a high-level business growth strategy that bridges both the Marketing and Sales functions. And it is hierarchically supraordinate to marketing plans and sales plans in the "GOSPA" model of goals, objectives, strategies, plans and activities. As such, marketing plans and sales plans should be designed within the context of a Lead Generation strategy, rather than the other way around.

The danger of inverting this hierarchy can be seen when a company attempts to append "lead generation" (in the form of some promotional tactic) to an otherwise underperforming marketing or sales program, and it fails to fix the problem. Instead, a Lead Generation strategy - which often requires modifications to the company's positioning, value proposition, branding, pricing, promotion, sales process, CRM and messaging to be successful - should be specified before the marketing or sales plans are written, or else the result is likely not to produce qualified sales leads, nor therefore the desired revenue.

The definition of a "lead" in traditional or colloquial use is another point of contrast with, and a misconception about, Lead Generation as a strategy. Some marketers and list vendors, for example, define a "lead" as a name on a mailing list. But if such a definition were appropriate there would be no need to "generate" a lead. Only if the lead is qualified, as defined above, would the concept of, or investment in, the "generation" process make sense.

Likewise, some marketers differentiate between Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs). The contrast with the Lead Generation paradigm is that the MQL/SQL concept reinforces barriers between the Marketing and Sales organizations, and it disables the very accountability needed to effectively fill and drive opportunities through the Sales Funnel. The Lead Generation model is only concerned with Qualified Sales Leads - whose attributes are linked directly to progression through the Sales Funnel, forcing the Sales and Marketing organizations to work together, and again increasing the probability of success.

Another contrast to conventional approaches concerns where in the Sell Cycle Lead Generation fits. Rather than impacting one specific step in the Sell Cycle (such as causing downloads or clicks, or even setting appointments), the Lead Generation paradigm is concerned with all the steps necessary to fill the Sales Funnel with viable opportunities. And so it often includes educating the prospect, uncovering needs, getting in the door, and obtaining a commitment to move the sales process forward. It even allows for a dynamic scope that can expand and contract as necessary to accommodate the varying availability of sales resources.

Ultimately though, most important contrast is that, in conventional approaches, Marketing departments tend to demur when it comes to accountability for revenue. This is partly because the metrics available in conventional approaches (e.g. clicks, hits, traffic, impressions, downloads, inquiries, etc.,) can't easily be translated into revenue. Most marketing departments also lack access to the tools and resources necessary to directly impact the company's lead qualification, lead conversion, sales or closing processes. With a Lead Generation strategy, however, those tools and resources are directly accessible by Marketing, enabling the team as a whole to operate both more collaboratively, effectively and efficiently.

Building an Effective Lead Generation Strategy

As with any business initiative, the Lead Generation process starts with developing a business case. This might include an identification of the target market, the specific needs you want to satisfy, and the products and/or services you can sell to satisfy them, along with an estimate of the required investment. Assuming that a reasonable business case can be made for the initiative, the next step is to put together the pre-requisites for the Lead Generation strategy.

As pre-requisites to building an effective Lead Generation strategy, companies generally need to create and/or adapt specific documents and analyses, typically including the following:

1. Case histories 2. Needs analysis 3. Applications analysis 4. Economic value to the customer (EVC) analysis 5. Competitive analysis

These enable the company to create the core components of the Lead Generation strategy itself, which include:

1. Statements of value proposition 2. Positioning statements 3. Targeting criteria 4. Available media and channels 5. Initial benefit statements 6. Screening criteria and questions 7. Probing questions 8. Objections and rebuttals 9. Concrete steps

Once these have been developed, action plans can be put together to execute the Lead Generation process:

1. Identify potential prospects 2. Get their attention 3. Stimulate their interest 4. Get them to want to consider buying, and then 5. Get them to take a meaningful step to move the sales process forward.

While the details of these plans will be unique to the company, each of these steps requires specific activities to execute, as well as specific checkpoints or metrics to confirm that they've been executed effectively.

This includes especially the Expected Value of the opportunity in the Sales Funnel, which should increase as it progresses through the Sell Cycle.

Summary

Lead generation is often mis-characterized as a tactic that can be appended to a marketing program as a way to extract value, or as a way to convert unqualified leads into qualified leads. It is also often mis-characterized as a forethought to the sales process, or a gap between market and sales that needs to be filled. Both of these uses of the concept are incorrect, and they typically lead to failure.

Understood and applied properly, Lead generation is a strategy that is supraordinate to the marketing and sales programs, one that can make both of them perform better, leading to significantly improved sales results. 73.199.138.66 (talk) 14:07, 8 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 15:39, 8 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 5 July 2022

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In marketing, lead generation [1] JazzyK83 (talk) 13:54, 5 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

 Not done: see WP:RS and WP:PROMO, not seeing why this particular site should be linked Cannolis (talk) 16:57, 5 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

References

  1. ^ https://www.seobloggertips.com/2022/07/what-is-lead-generation-in-internet-marketing.html

What is up with these sections in the middle of the article?

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I came across this article while briefly researching lead generation as it was a term I was unfamiliar with, but what caught my eye is that three sections (technically four, but one has since been removed) were appended onto this article in early January that seem extremely unfit for a Wikipedia article:

  • The first section, "An Overview of Lead Generation", is completely pointless. The overview of lead generation, as is true with every other Wikipedia article, is at the very top of the page, and it makes no sense to add another overview in the middle of the article that communicates no new information.
  • The second section, "Methods to Generate Leads", which follows a typical process of lead generation through a call-center model; there is nothing inherently wrong with this, but there are no citations at all and it reads more like a tutorial for running a call center than an explanation of how it's run.
  • The third section, "Lead Generation Best Practices", is similar to the second in that it's more formatted like a tutorial than an article, but it does have relevant enough information in it that it could be reformatted and still contribute to the article.

All three of these sections are also headlined in title case (this is what caught my eye to begin with) and, barring the first paragraph of the first section, completely devoid of any citations. They seem more suited for a PowerPoint presentation than a Wikipedia article. Myforce2001 (talk) 22:22, 20 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

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