## Overview

This guide will cover the common patterns that Lead Generation partners use to integrate with Blend, and point you to all the resources you need to enact those patterns for your Lead Generation channel.

## Lead Generation Patterns

Lead Generation is a one-way integration pattern with Blend that sends the consumer's integration into Blend to begin the transaction process. If you are using a combination tool for Lead Generation and CRM, you will want to look at the CRM Integration Guide

One-way integrations send consumer data to Blend in order to start an application. They do not receive updates as the consumer moves through stages of the transaction or if the consumer's data is updated in Blend.  

## Integration Walkthrough

One-way Lead Generation integrations are usually initiated from the LeadGen tool's side. Most often this is manually triggered by a button clicked by the consumer or sometimes automatically triggered based on logic in the LeadGen tool.

A consumer must be tied to at least 1 application in Blend, which means this process must also create the application the consumer's party will be attached to.

Follow the steps on the [Create a New Home Lending Application](🔗) page to create an application and add consumers parties to the application.