US Patent 10373198 System and method of generating existing customer leads

One embodiment of an existing customer lead generation system comprises a vendor customer information database, a vendor criteria database, a web server, a matching engine, and a transmission component. The vendor customer information database identifies vendor's existing customers. The vendor criteria database determines which leads each vendor wants to receive. Separate criteria may be specified for consumers that are existing customers and consumers that are not existing customers. The web server receives characteristics of a consumer and a product or service. The matching engine compares the consumer characteristics with the vendor customer information database to identify vendors for which the consumer is an existing customer. The matching engine applies existing customer criteria to match the consumer with existing vendors. The matching engine applies non-existing customer criteria to match the consumer with other vendors. The transmission component transmits a lead identifying the consumer to the matched vendors.