1. Lead Generation for
Business
Development
Generating Leads for Sales Growth & Improved Service
This white paper serves as a resource to discuss the purpose, methodology, research,
segmentation, qualification, process, implementation, and change management inclusion of
lead generation for Business Development.
By Brent Pritchard, Business Development Manager, Swagelok Alabama | West Tennessee

2. Lead Generation for Business Development
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Lead Generation for
Business Development
Generating Leads for Sales Growth & Improved Service
Purpose
Lead generation is a key facet of the future development of sales
revenue and new opportunities. Leads will serve as the chief source
of new customer development and improved service to current
customers. Without an influx of and action on new leads, sales will
stagnate and provide fewer new channels to grow a customer base,
expand product lines and services, and better align resources in
efficient, targeted efforts.
By sourcing, researching, segmenting, and qualifying potential
leads then following established processes and life-cycles, sales
teams will have significantly improved leads to act upon to create
new sales opportunities and expand opportunities with current
customers.
Methodology
The basic methodology of lead generation is:
1) Understand and record common themes among your
markets or industries served. This can be done by using key
words in the business name, how the business describes its
services, or how it markets itself to its customers. Search
engine optimization and Optical Mapping are key tools to
this step. Additionally, understanding customer markets
served and the customers they service help align sales
objectives.
2) Once common themes, customer understanding, and sales
objectives are identified, lead sources are employed to
develop prospect lists. If needed, prospects can be further
segmented at this point.
Lead Generation
as a Key to Team
Based Sales
  
Lead Generation creates
Qualified Opportunities
for External Sales
Teams.
Established customer
visits diminish once
qualified opportunities
fill the sales pipeline.
The 80/20 rule can be
positively altered with
new, qualified leads
routed to an external
sales staff that is
aggressive and ready
for new opportunities.
Internal and External
Sales Teams begin
account sharing and
joint-ownership once
sales objectives and
activities are shared.
Lead Generation can
transition inefficient
sales activities to
focused, successful
actions through
researched and
qualified leads.

3. Lead Generation for Business Development
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3) Prospect lists are evaluated and initially qualified.
4) Qualified prospects are then advanced through the lead generation cycle to be developed into a
potential opportunity.
5) Implementation of change management processes should always remain a core facet of the
Lead Generation process.
Lead Sources
Sources of leads can derive from both obvious and unconventional avenues. Traditional sources can be
found in online databases such as Hoover’s, Data.com, and Manta. These pay-for-data sources can
provide company information, contact information, key contacts within the organization, financials,
and many more data points to use for analysis and lead qualification. By identifying NAIC categories,
you can refine searches to fit the industries required.
Unconventional sources can be obtained through marketing efforts, customer referrals, current
customer analysis, and sales force generated prospect lists can provide fresh prospect ideas to
incorporate into your stream of lead sources.
Lead Research
Additional research may be relevant for each lead. It may be imperative to try to quickly verify current
employment of a key contact within a lead, ensure a business is still in operation, or better understand
a company’s operations or customer base. This type of research can be carried out by internet searches,
but more specific information, particularly for key contact verification, may require the use of a
premium LinkedIn account.
Lead Segmentation
Leads can be segmented into countless sub-categories. Slicing and dicing the data is necessary to
correctly target leads, execute germane prospecting efforts, qualify their viability, and progress them
through the lead generation life cycle.

4. Lead Generation for Business Development
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By Industry
NAIC codes can help segment leads into a generalized industry. Once a list is compiled, the use
of key words can further refine the list to a sub-category of the industry. Paired with specific
products, sales strategies can be focused to specific industries.
By Need
By understanding the nature of how a lead markets itself and its products, your products and
services can be matched to customer needs. Specific product market baskets and services can
target the needs of these prospects. Understanding the core nature of a sub-market and
targeting sales campaigns provides more efficient sales efforts.
By Job Title
Marketing and selling products to the correct contact within a lead is crucial. With viable data,
leads can be segmented to contact the audience receptive to your products and services. By
reaching the relevant decision maker early on in the qualification process, leads are much more
likely to transition to viable opportunities through targeted sales campaigns directed to meet
customer needs.
Lead Qualification
Primarily, lead sources will already have a certain level of lead qualification if sourced and segmented
properly. Once outbound communications are initiated, sales activities, or customer conversations,
progress through a “Yes/No” Process Map. Leads are further qualified with their varying levels of
interest in sales campaign information or by information leads provide regarding current or future
opportunities.
Lead Entry into CRM
Once leads are generated, researched, and further qualified, they can be entered into CRM as a Lead.
From this point, leads can be assigned to specific sales associates and they progress through the Lead
Management Process.

5. Lead Generation for Business Development
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Lead Generation Process
The lead generation process is the maturation and life cycle of a lead through specific stages to either
become an opportunity or to be disqualified. Each phase requires a specific set of actions to occur
correctly. While the process is simple, maintaining the necessary discipline to execute the specific steps
is crucial to qualifying actionable leads and creating better sales opportunities.
Included is a simple process to transition a lead to an opportunity and track it in CRM.
Lead
Generated
from Sources
Lead
Segmented &
Qualified
Sales Team
Acts Upon
Lead
Additional
Lead
Qualification
Lead
Converted to
Opportunity
or
Disqualified
Opportunity
Tracked in
CRM and
Conversion
Rate Measured

6. Lead Generation for Business Development
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Lead Contact Process
To convert leads to opportunities, specific channels should exist for each step in the overall process.
Each channel is based upon a certain customer outcome and should be based upon a predetermined
sales activity objective.
While each process can be similar, specific objectives require unique processes. For example, the
objective of the process provided below is to set a customer appointment to further demonstrate service
capabilities. Note, there are specific steps to transition the lead into a meeting or receive other positive
interactions before the lead is disqualified.

7. Lead Generation for Business Development
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Timing of Lead Contact
The cadence of lead contact is crucial to increasing the conversion rate of a cold lead to an opportunity.
The example provided in the previous page includes 5 customer “touches” over a 14 day period. The
timing of each period needs to reflect your sales objective.
Lead Generation Implementation
Once a commitment is made to execute Lead Management as a mechanism to create and manage sales
leads, these steps and processes outlined above can be implemented as a basic start to a Business
Development (Inside Sales) strategy.
Frequent renewal and review of each stage in the process is key to ensuring that the process
perpetually operates. Control and overview of the process will need to be the responsibility of a key
manager.
Change Management
Implementation of the Lead Generation and Lead Management process needs to occur within a Change
Management Process, such as Kotter’s Eight Steps of Change. It is crucial to create the climate for
continual improvement, engage all involved in continuous improvement and buy-in,and then enact
and perpetuate the change as it occurs. Change managementhas to be included as an element of the
overall Lead Generation strategy for positive change to occur and to continually improve the process.
The theories and processes discussed above will require continual refinement as time progresses, both
as the process, team, and sales objectives mature. An organization with values aligned with
communication,continual improvement, and a dedication for success lend itself well to executing
ongoing improvements through a Change ManagementProcess.
Conclusion
Any organization currently using or planning to implement Opportunity Management as the chief
conduit to track significant sales opportunities, Lead Generation and Management are the next steps to
the maturation of CRM Optimization.
Sales objectives need to be further refined to correctly guide Lead Generation efforts, but the initial
concept can be implemented with relative ease once a Business Development Team (Inside Sales) is

8. Lead Generation for Business Development
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hired and trained. After a lead generation service is selected and paired with sales objectives, leads can
then be further researched, qualified, and the Lead Management Process can commence. It is crucial
that this process occurs within CRM.
Initial success also needs to be tempered with sales objectives. If sales objectives are tied to large scale
projects or goals, review of the process and the efficiency of the Lead Generation Cycle and the Lead
Management Process must be evaluated as the initial success factors of the campaign. Lower value, but
higher yield sales objectives such as, out of territory customer sales, website customers, etc., can net
more immediate sales success from the Lead Generation Process. A combination of sales objectives,
with low yield and high value and high yield and lower value, may serve as a successful strategy as a
pilot for implementing outbound sales activities using Lead Generation and Lead Management within
the Opportunity Management mechanism.