The 8 Pillars Of Demand Generation An Infographic of the Modern Demand Generation Ecosystem Demand generation and lead generation are often used synonymously, but they are actually quite different. The 8 Pillars of demand generation were developed to address a wide range of topics that include everything from building awareness to sales enablement. Demand generation is typically a multistep integrated marketing and sales process that varies in size and scope based on sales complexity. Demand generation can include building awareness, positioning and consumer research to support purchase behavior, sales enablement, customer onboarding and post-sale customer satisfaction. Lead Generation: Strictly speaking, lead generation is the process of generating interest in a product or service. Typically, leads are gathered to build a list that provides contacts for sales.