There are some interesting stats in the Selling Power magazine article, Warning: There’s a Gash In Your Pipeline:

1. Salespeople win less than half the opportunities they forecast as new business (Sales Performance International (SPI))
2. Just one out of five new leads ever results in an initial sales meeting. (SPI)
3. CEOs / CSOs consistently cite demand generation as one of their top five barriers to top-line growth (SiriusDecisions).
4. in 2006, companies rating themselves as Dismal or Poor in the area of lead generation increased by 20 percent, according to CSO Insights.