The technical vocabulary of lead generation directly determines pricing and risk. The core classifications covered include exclusive versus shared leads (exclusive commands 2-3x price premium), real-time versus aged inventory (leads lose 50% value every 24-48 hours), warm versus cold intent, and first-party versus third-party sourcing (90% match rate vs 50-60%). The holy grail is an exclusive, real-time, warm, first-party call lead, while every degradation in these factors causes exponential price drops. The market ecosystem includes publishers and affiliates on the supply side, brokers who take pricing risk by buying and reselling, aggregators who consolidate supply from hundreds of sources, and exchanges providing real-time bidding infrastructure. Understanding these terms is essential for contract negotiations, platform evaluation, and detecting when vendors use technical language to hide poor results. The example sentence about "18% returns on aged shared inventory because EPL dropped below floor" represents a real-time health report that incomprehensible jargon can obscure from those unfamiliar with the terminology.