Glossary
What is lead generation?
Lead generation is the work of finding people or companies that could buy from you and getting them into your pipeline. It covers inbound methods, where they come to you, and outbound methods, where you search for them and make the first contact.
Published by Sellinger AI. Numbers and settings checked on 19 October 2026 against the fact register. Report an error.
What are the main methods?
| Method | Direction | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Content and search | Inbound | A guide that brings form fills |
| Paid ads | Inbound | Lead form on a social network |
| Database search | Outbound | Filter by title and industry |
| Signals | Outbound | People engaging with a competitor |
| Referrals | Warm | An introduction |
How do you compare the cost?
Cost per lead is spend divided by leads. Example with made up numbers: $600 spent and 40 leads gives $15 per lead. A lead is not a customer, so also track cost per meeting. If 5 of the 40 meet you, that is $120 per meeting.
Quality varies by source. A person who filled in a form asked to be contacted, while a person found in a database has not. Judge each source by meetings per lead, and drop the sources that produce names but no conversations.
How Sellinger handles it
Leads can come from several places. People Search covers a database of 700M+ contacts, filtered by job title, industry and location, and you add the people you want. You can import a CSV or HubSpot contacts. Facebook lead form leads are polled every 60 seconds and Google Ads leads every 300 seconds. Intent signals turn people who engage on LinkedIn into leads.
A lead needs a campaign and a connected account before it is contacted, so a list is not outreach until someone assigns it. Duplicates are skipped when ad form leads are created. See lead enrichment, sales prospecting and AI SDR vs lead generation agency.
Common questions
Is lead generation the same as prospecting?
Does Sellinger sell leads?
What is a lead in Sellinger?
Sources and method
Sellinger lead sources: people search, imports and ad pollers, checked 19 October 2026.
Related: Sales prospecting, Lead enrichment, Buying signals, Ad leads.
