1. The Case for Lead Generation

Lead generation involves identifying prospective customers and qualifying their likelihood to buy in advance of making a sales call. In short, it’s about motivating prospects to raise their hands.

Lead generation is the single most important objective of any business-to-business (B-to-B) marketing department. Other objectives, such as brand building, brand stewardship, public relations, and corporate communications are also on the list, to be sure. But, providing a sales force with a steady stream of qualified leads is job one.

When asked, senior marketing executives back this up. In a 2010 study, Marketing Sherpa asked chief marketing officers (CMOs) about the challenges they face. The top answer was “generating high-quality leads,” named by 76 percents of respondents. Tellingly, the 76 percent response rate for this answer was up from 69 percent the prior year, so it appears that CMOs are increasingly under pressure in the lead-generation arena.

Furthermore, the other issues keeping CMOs up at night are also heavily about leads. In Table 1.1, you can see the survey results in detail.

Table 1.1. CMO Challenges

Which of the following marketing challenges are currently most pertinent to your organization?	Percent of respondents, 2010
Generating high-quality leads	76%
Marketing to a growing number of people involved in the buying process	45%
Generating a high volume of leads	39%
Marketing to a lengthening sales cycle	39%
Generating public relations “buzz”	39%
Generating perceived value in “cutting edge” product benefits	37%
Competing in lead generation across multiple media	32%

Source: Marketing Sherpa B-to-B Benchmark Survey

So, it’s fair to conclude that lead generation is critically important to business marketers. But, despite the importance of leads, the term “lead” is often misunderstood.