Should Lead Generation be Under Marketing or Sales?

Lead generation has evolved into a very important part of business operations such that there is an ongoing debate on whether telemarketing should be considered an expense or a profit center. There is the question of whether lead generation should be under marketing (which makes it part of the company’s expenses) or under sales (which makes it part of the profit center).

In the past, lead generation has been treated as part of the marketing department. These were the
days when lead generation was limited to collecting business cards, putting up booths during trade
shows, and sending junk mail and hoping that somebody will actually send back the postage free reply card. But with the evolution of lead generation that was brought forth by the evolution of the internet
and the social media, lead generation had become increasingly complex and yet increasingly effective
and efficient for those who know what they are doing. With this development, many lead generation
companies have sprouted up offering lead generation services. These appointment setting companies have
developed systems that makes it possible to actually quantify the leads being generated, the conversion
of leads into sales and also provide other relevant information like customer demographics, satisfaction
and even predictions of customer behavior. Because of this, lead generation has lost the vagueness it
once had that made it more apt of belonging to marketing.

Taking all the factors into consideration, the debate still continues.