An effective Lead Generation program - tasked with producing "qualified sales leads" - determines business success or failure. For many businesses this means, Lead Generation - "LeadGen" for short - is more than an essential Sales or Marketing function. It's a critical path item. Unfortunately, misconceptions about Lead Generation, and about #Marketing and Sales in general (including conflating Lead Generation with tactics such as telemarketing or advertising), contribute to companies failing, or at least to their missing their revenue growth goals. The need to consider a LeadGen program is usually motivated by a failure somewhere in the Sell Cycle. It becomes critically important when everybody does what they're supposed to do and yet - somehow - the #business fails to meet its revenue goals. This necessitates an integrated approach and the accountability that it enables. Without it, you end up with finger-pointing, and a failure to achieve your revenue goals. Arguably, accountability for the quality of that effort extends LeadGen's role even farther into the Sell Cycle as a secondary focus. There are two primary reasons why the LeadGen process enables appropriate accountability where other approaches fail. First, the LeadGen process is linked directly to specific steps in the Sell Cycle. Equally important, the Lead Generation process holds itself accountable for the downstream requirements of the Sell Cycle, not just its own phase's deliverables. Second, the principal KPI of the LeadGen process is the Expected Value (EV) of the Sales Funnel - which is effectively the company's sales forecast. If the LeadGen function can accurately predict revenues, this represents a major risk reduction for the enterprise. In short, an effective Lead Generation function is uniquely capable of creating opportunities and driving them into and through the Sell Cycle – a business’s lifeblood. And, when it comes to #Sales and Marketing, that's the only thing that matters.