Internet-enabled lead generation

Abstract

A method of generating intender leads in a distributed computer system includes the steps of identifying purchase indicators and extracting prospect identifiers from the purchase indicators. Purchase indicators are pieces of data that represent a potential future purchase by a prospect. For example, an online classified advertisement selling an automobile is a purchase indicator for a potential future purchase of a new car by the old car seller. The prospect identifier, such as a telephone number or email address, uniquely identifies the prospect likely to make the future purchase. Preferably, the method also contains the steps of obtaining full contact information for the prospect from a profile database, applying a predictive model to the prospects to select intender leads, and transferring the intender leads to an interested party, such as a direct marketing service or sales force. An intender lead is a lead for a person intending to make a purchase of a particular product or service within a given time period. Only some of the prospects are actual intenders. Preferably, the method also includes the steps of extracting auxiliary data that is independent of the prospect from the purchase indicator, and obtaining data enhancement information about the prospect from data enhancement databases. The predictive model is preferably also applied to the data enhancement information and auxiliary data. The method is particularly well-suited for the Internet, which is a large source of publicly-available purchase indicators that is constantly updated. The intender leads are preferably transferred over the Internet, e.g. by email, so that they arrive at the sales force when they are still 'hot.'