A sales lead is the identity of a person or entity potentially interested in purchasing a product or service, and represents the first stage of a sales process. The lead may have a corporation or business associated (a B2B lead) with the person(s). Sales leads come from either marketing lead generation processes such as trade shows, direct marketing, advertising, Internet marketing or from sales person prospecting activities such as cold calling. For a sales lead to qualify as a sales prospect (or equivalently to move a lead from the process step sales lead to the process sales prospect) qualification must be performed and evaluated. Typically this involves identifying by direct interrogation the lead's product applicability, availability of funding, and time frame for purchase. This is also the entry point of a sales tunnel, sales funnel or sales pipeline.

Once a qualified lead exists, extra operations may be performed such as background research on the lead's employer, the typically market of the lead, contact information beyond that provided initially or other information useful for contacting and evaluating a lead for elevation to prospect, the next sales step.

If a sales lead eventually makes a purchase, this is called conversion. The ratio of sales leads that convert is often referred to as the conversion rate, a way to measure the effectiveness of a sales process, sales team, or sales person.

Cinematic reference: the boiler-room salesmen in the movie Glengarry Glen Ross refer to wanting to get "the good leads" which will close more easily (result in closed sales, i.e. a financial transaction).

“The Rule of 45 is the basic premise from which you can measure the effectiveness of virtually all lead generation programs. It is a steady, reliable benchmark number that, simply stated, says that 45% of all inquirers will buy someone's product.”

James Obermayer, Managing Sales Leads: Turning Cold Prospects Into Hot Customers, (Mason, Ohio, Textere an imprint of Thomson/South-Western, 2007), and Racom Books, Page 10

Real time leads

Real time leads is a resource that allows an individual to build a home-based business such as a franchise or MLM. These leads contain names of and the means to contact individuals interested in purchasing a business opportunity.

What differentiates real time leads from more traditional business leads is the means by which they are harvested and timeliness. Traditionally, business leads were generated by a MLM or franchise owner cold-calling on individuals or by business/ social networking. Real time leads are harvested via websites targeting MLM/ franchise opportunity seekers. Individuals interested in such business seek out information on the web, choose opportunities best suited to themselves and fill out a form requesting contact from those selling the business opportunities.

One of the more intriguing facets of real time leads is how “fresh” they are. MLM/ franchise opportunity sellers can receive a request from an opportunity seeker the moment the form is completed. Within seconds of an online forms completion opportunity seeker and seller can be in direct contact with each other.

Fees for real time leads are based on supply and demand. Packages of such leads typically consist of at least 20 leads and cost at least $4 per lead.

An important thing to consider when purchasing real time leads is quality. It is reasonable to expect some leads are from unqualified opportunity seekers. Real time lead suppliers are aware of this. Reputable real time lead sellers offer 10% extra leads for free per order to compensate lead buyers for “bad” leads.Therefore, an order for 100 leads should include 5 to 10 extra leads for free.

A further type of real time lead is a new trend in marketing called "Live Lead Transfers." These leads are generated by an auto dialer that dials thousands of phone numbers a minute. When the dialer dials a home or business it plays a greating with an option for the listener to press 1 to be transferred to a live operator, or to press 2 to be deleted from the list. This is a very effective means of marketing and has been pioneered by such companies as Transferguru and leads direct marketing. The usual price one of these companies charges per transfer ranges from $3 up to $25. With the advent of the internet, VOIP has played a major role in Live Lead Transfer Technology.

Opt-in leads

Opt-in leads are similar to Real Time Leads in that they are generated by individuals seeking home based business opportunities via the internet. These leads are a resource for individuals building MLM, network marketing (NM) and franchise businesses.

Opt-in Leads should have at the very least the opportunity seeker's full name, postal address, email address, phone number and time zone. Quality Opt-in Leads, in addition to the aforementioned, will include the type of home based business, how many hours a week, level of interest, desired income and how much the prospect wants to make from the business opportunity.

Differentiators between Opt-in Leads and Real Time Leads are timeliness, cost and how they are used. Often, Opt-in Leads are approximately 72 hours old – Real Time Leads are seconds old.

Opt-in Leads are less expensive than Real Time Leads. One can expect to pay around $39 for 20 Opt-in Leads. Reputable sellers of Opt-in Leads overfill orders by 10% to allow for possible inaccurate information in a lead.

A further differentiator between Opt-in and Real Time Leads is how they are best used. Since Real Time Leads are seconds old, the opportunity seeker and provider can contact each other immediately. This being the situation, phone contact is best. Since Opt-in Leads are typically around 72 hours old they are best suited for email campaigns – but still can be used as phone leads.

Lead Sources

Leads can be generated by many different marketing campaigns or can have many different sources. It's possible to generate leads by mailings (fax, paper, email), fairs and trademarkets, phone (call centers), database marketing and the websites. Leads from the website are often called web leads.

Tools