LEAD GENERATION .The supplier's task is to ensure it is considered when customers are or could be in the market and searching for a supplier. Identifying good leads and converting them to sales requires the marketing and sales organizations to take a coordinated, multichannel approach to the role of trusted advisor to prospective customers. Marketing must work together with sales to define what makes a "sales ready" prospect and cooperate to send the right messages via sales calls, trade shows, online activities, PR, events, direct mail, and referrals Marketing must find the right balance between the quantity and quality of leads. Too many leads, even of high quality, and the sales force may be overwhelmed and allow promising oppor tunities to fall through the cracks; too few or low-quality leads and the sales force may become frustrated or demoralized.40 To proactively generate leads, suppliers need to know about their customers. They can obtain background information from vendors such as Dun & Bradstreet and InfoUSA or information-sharing Web sites such as Jigsaw and 41 LinkedIn. suppliers that lack the required production capacity or suffer from a poor reputation will be rejected. Those that qualify may be visited by the buyer's agents, who will examine the suppliers manufacturing facilities and meet their staff. After evaluating each company, the buyer will end up with a short list of qualified suppliers. Many professional buyers have forced suppliers to change their marketing to increase their likelihood of making the cut