Lead generation
Also: Lead gen, Demand generation, Prospect acquisition, Génération de leads, Génération de prospects
Marketing activities designed to attract and capture contact information from prospects interested in your offer, creating a pipeline of potential customers.
What it is
Lead generation is the set of marketing and sales activities that attract prospects and capture their contact information (name, email, company, phone) so they can be nurtured toward a purchase. A lead is any individual or organization that has shown interest by taking an action: filling a form, downloading content, requesting a demo, or subscribing.
Leads are usually classified by intent and readiness:
- MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead): matches your target profile and has engaged, but is not ready to buy.
- SQL (Sales Qualified Lead): vetted by sales as ready for a direct conversation.
- PQL (Product Qualified Lead): has used a free product or trial and shown buying signals.
Why it matters
Lead generation feeds the top of the revenue funnel. Without a predictable flow of qualified leads, sales teams have nothing to work, and growth becomes unforecastable.
- For the CMO: it is the primary measure of demand creation and channel effectiveness.
- For the CFO: it connects marketing spend to pipeline and revenue through metrics like CPL (cost per lead) and CAC (customer acquisition cost).
- For the CDO: lead data quality, consent, and unification across systems determine whether the pipeline is trustworthy.
- For AI leaders: models now score, enrich, and prioritize leads, and LLMs draft outreach and qualify inbound at scale.
How it is used in practice
1. Attract: content, ads, SEO, events, and referrals draw an audience.
2. Capture: a form or call to action exchanges value (a guide, webinar, trial) for contact details.
3. Qualify and score: rules or models rank leads by fit and intent.
4. Route and nurture: leads flow into a CRM, then into email sequences or sales queues.
5. Measure: conversion rates, CPL, and lead-to-customer rate close the loop.
Consent matters: capturing and using contact data is governed by regulations such as GDPR, so opt-in and clear purpose are required.
Concrete worked example
A B2B software company runs a LinkedIn campaign promoting a whitepaper.
- Ad spend: 10,000 EUR
- Form completions (leads): 500
- CPL = 10,000 / 500 = 20 EUR
- MQLs after scoring: 150
- SQLs accepted by sales: 40
- Closed deals: 8
If each deal is worth 5,000 EUR, the campaign returns 40,000 EUR in revenue against 10,000 EUR spent. The team then optimizes the form fields and targeting to lift the lead-to-SQL rate.
Frequently asked questions
What is lead generation?
Lead generation covers the marketing and sales activities that attract prospects and capture their contact details (name, email, company, phone) so they can be nurtured toward a purchase. A lead is anyone who has signaled interest through an action: filling a form, downloading content, requesting a demo, or subscribing. It feeds the top of the revenue funnel, which is what makes growth forecastable.
What is the difference between an MQL, an SQL and a PQL?
They mark three levels of intent and readiness. An MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) matches your target profile and has engaged, but is not ready to buy. An SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) has been vetted by sales as ready for a direct conversation. A PQL (Product Qualified Lead) has used a free product or trial and shown buying signals.
Why does lead generation concern the CFO and not just the marketing team?
Because it is the link between marketing spend and pipeline. CPL (cost per lead) and CAC (customer acquisition cost) let a CFO tie a budget line to revenue instead of treating it as an expense. The CMO reads the same activity as a measure of demand creation and channel effectiveness, and the CDO looks at lead data quality and consent, which determine whether the pipeline figures can be trusted at all.
How do you calculate cost per lead in practice?
Divide the spend by the number of leads captured. A B2B software company that puts 10,000 EUR into a LinkedIn campaign promoting a whitepaper and collects 500 form completions has a CPL of 20 EUR. CPL alone says little: the same campaign yielding 150 MQLs, 40 SQLs accepted by sales and 8 closed deals at 5,000 EUR each returns 40,000 EUR against 10,000 EUR spent.
What are the steps of a lead generation process, from first contact to measurement?
Five steps. Attract an audience through content, ads, SEO, events and referrals; capture contact details by exchanging value (a guide, a webinar, a trial) for a form completion; qualify and score leads by fit and intent using rules or models; route and nurture them in a CRM, then into email sequences or sales queues; measure conversion rates, CPL and lead-to-customer rate to close the loop. Capturing and using contact data falls under regulations such as GDPR, so opt-in and a clear stated purpose are required.