In today’s business world businesses somehow have to figure out a way to bring in customers to build their business.  It appears that some companies are better at doing this than others.  This is where lead generation comes into play and becomes very important to all types of business.   Cold calling works, but it is getting tougher and tougher with the do not call list and other methods consumers are using to filter out telemarketing/sales calls.  I was reading an article in Business Week that spoke about sales leads and really how many of them are really “sales ready” when that business buys them.  Sometimes half or so of the leads that are being purchased are not “ready”, and then there is always going to be the portion that are disqualified for one reason or another.  So the question is, what should a business expect out of the leads that they are purchasing?  Should they always expect a “sale”, and if not they should be able to get their money back?  If they expect that then should they expect to pay a large amount of money for those leads?  What would be the true value of a “ready” sales lead?   Isn’t it their job and their sales people job to ultimately turn a valid consumer/lead into a new customer of theirs?  Bottom line–>> what should we really expect from on-line leads that are being generated?