Legacy lead generation and its once-sacred truisms like ...

• All sales leads from marketing should be followed up.
• Its critical to get to the lowest possible cost per lead.
• More leads are better because more leads mean more sales.

... are past their prime but continue to negatively impact the success and productivity of sales and marketing initiatives.

With this post, I'm introducing a series of blogs that look at three legacy concepts from a Lead Generation 2.0 perspective.

Part 1: A Lead By Any Other Name ...

The first blog looks at challenges that arise when sales and marketing don't agree on the definition of what a lead is. Ideal lead qualifying criteria are set forth to bridge this gap and clearly identify sales-ready buyers, the highly qualified sales opportunity that warrants attention from sales representatives.

Part 2: Comparing Cost-Per-Lead Apples & Oranges

The second challenges the logic that something called a "lead" can and should be had at consistently lower price points where it will still deliver value. In reality, the cost per lead is going to be driven by how a lead is defined, the nature of the solution and selling process and the type of metrics used to measure marketing performance.

Part 3: The Sales Lead Paradox: Less Is More

Given these tough economic times, one might think the best way to lift sales numbers is to turn to high-volume lead generation to fill pipelines with more and more leads. Not necessarily so. The third blog looks at the counter-intuitive relationship between lead volume and sales performance. Sales reps actually need fewer leads.

By Dan McDade