The “overnight success 10 years in the making.” So go for a breakthrough, but don’t bet your company on the fairy tale. Because it’s 99% more likely that, whatever you launch, people won’t even know or care. And you’ll have to work your ass off to first get them to come, and then to help the right people buy. Yes, you do need a great product or service and some happy customers, but that’s not enough. Can you drive pipeline and leads predictably – whether from new prospects or current customers/users? Lead generation is your gasoline for growth. Yes ­ you do need a great product or service and (some) happy customers, but that’s not enough. That won’t sustain growth if you can’t proactively drive new leads that can turn into customers. 3 Types of Leads 1) “Seeds” are many­to­many leads, created from word­of­mouth, networks and relationships. Usually grown through creating happy customers who refer others, and who remain as customers for years. Salesforce.com, Google, Facebook and Slack have all ignited hyper­growth through Seeds. The best way to methodically grow your seeds is with a repeatable program or systems that ensure your customers are successful. This field is now commonly called Customer Success Management. It means systematically reducing customer churn, increasing upsells, increasing referrals, and helping capture more and better case studies and testimonials. But this is really important: Customer Success is not about increasing customer satisfaction, but creating revenue growth. 2) “Nets” are one­to­many marketing campaigns,including the now­popular approaches of content and inbound marketing. 3) “Spears” are targeted outbound prospecting or business development campaigns.Usually a human is involved, working through a targeted list, calling, emailing or using any other technique that helps them make contact and get appointments. Too many companies obsess over a single form of lead generation and ignore the others. To build a house you need multiple tools: a hammer, a saw and a screwdriver. Likewise, Seeds, Nets and Spears are complementary. Know why, how and when to use each tool. The three lead types – Seeds, Nets and Spears – have different funnels, conversion rates, expectations, sales cycles, average deal sizes, ideal target customers and methods of increasing them. The important thing is to know which type(s) will work best for your business, and in what mix or balance.