Lead generation is the method of getting inquiries from possible customers. In the old pre Internet days of sales, lead generation occurred at places like trade shows visitors to a company's stall would fill out a card with their contact information and turn it in to receive a call back from that company's sales team. Since the rise of the Internet, many businesses use their websites as a lead generation option. Email also offers lead generation potential, since companies can buy another company's email marketing list or pay them to promote the company on their own marketing emails.
Most marketing experts recommend that companies use at least 10 different lead generation methods to ensure that their pipelines remain full.

Quality Is as Important as Quantity

Because lead generation is the first step in the sales process, both quality and quantity are important factors. Quality leads are leads that a merchant has a good chance of closing, which means they must at least have the potential to become customers. Every lead list will have a number of junk leads people who are not qualified to buy the product for some reason but the smaller the percentage of bad leads, the less time merchant will waste while processing that list. Quantity is also important because even a salesperson with a list of 100% good leads won't be able to close every one of them.
Each lead generation technique usually has exchange between quality and quantity. For example, a form on the company website that visitors can fill in to request a call back will produce high-quality leads these visitors are very likely to buy since they're interested sufficient to want to hear more but possibly won't generate a lot of leads. On the other hand, a lead list that's based on a newsletter subscription list from another company may generate a lot of leads, but they won't be nearly as interested or qualified.

Lead Generation Services

Many marketing agencies offer lead generation services for business that don't desire to expand their own systems. These agencies will frequently have a network of companies and websites that it uses to promote its client businesses. When a visitor expresses interest in one of the agency's clients, the agency passes that lead back to the client. Frequently agencies will promote their clients through a directory or list of providers, and when a visitor requests a quote for a specific service, the agency alerts the suitable client. Most agencies will allow clients to indicate the type of leads they would like to receive. For example, a company might choose to limit leads to a certain geographic region.
Search engines also provide lead generation options. Any business with a website can emerge on a search engine listing for related searches, and visitors can then click a link and be taken to that company's website. However, some search engines also offer a pay-per-click lead generation option. The search engine posts a link to the company's website at the top of the search results form, making it much more likely those prospective customers will choose to visit that website. However, when a visitor does click the link the search engine charges that company a small fee, as opposed to the free 'general' listings.
Companies that use pay-per-click advertising are advice to move cautiously at first, as an overly winning campaign can end up costing far more than expected.