Why do leads lie? Leads lie because we think they're saying something that they aren't. A lead is not ready to buy. They're typically not even ready to talk with one of your sales reps. A lead is merely somebody who indicated "tell me a little more," by clicking on a link, responding to an email, or registering on a site." The bottom line: by focusing on sales-cycle starts (opportunity-creates) rather than leads (visibility events), you'll be able to measure something that's meaningful to the business and provide a solid basis for collaboration among marketing, pre-sales, and sales teams. And that's the whole point of CRM.

via crmweblog.crmmastery.com

Thanks to Jim Berkowitz and his CRM Mastery E-Journal for pointing me to CIO article by David Tabor, When Leads Lie: