B2B Lead Generation: Process, Benefits & Strategies

Business-to-business (B2B) lead generation is the act of sourcing quality leads within other companies in order to sell them business products and services. Effective B2B salespeople or marketers first identify the correct company to sell to and then contact and build a relationship with the correct person within that organization who can make a purchase decision. 

How B2B Lead Generation Works

B2B lead generation is unique in that you’re not looking for individual consumers to sell to, but rather other businesses. This means that B2B salespeople often have to “swim upstream,” first finding the right companies that fit their ideal customer profile and then identifying the right person within those companies to contact. Sometimes this requires you to reach out to multiple people within the same organization to find that right person.

To do so, B2B salespeople follow a standard lead generation process of identifying your ideal businesses and then, through both inbound and outbound strategies, getting people with decision-making power to express interest in your product or service. Interested leads are marked as prospects and advance to the next stage of your sales pipeline for B2B lead nurturing.

The general B2B lead generation process is as follows:

• Define Your Ideal Type of Business: Create a customer profile identifying the business type that can benefit most from your product or service.
• Identify the Person(s) With Decision-Making Power: Define the decision maker within your ideal business to contact. Parameters can include title, responsibility, and more.
• Attract Leads to Your Business: Engage with your leads and attract them to your business through inbound and outbound lead generation, or a combination of both.
• Qualify Interested Leads as Prospects: Host a virtual needs assessment or a live discovery call and qualify interested leads as prospects for further lead nurturing.

While the overall process of B2B lead generation is standard, the strategies used to source and engage with B2B leads differ based on your product, service, industry, or process. Common B2B lead generation tactics often include manual sales prospecting such as cold calling, cold emailing, networking, and more. However, it’s also possible to generate inbound B2B leads with the help of a marketing team through efforts like paid social ads and more.

Who’s Involved in B2B Lead Generation

The people and departments involved in B2B lead generation differ based on the organization. Typically, it falls under the domain of either the sales and marketing departments, or both. The salesperson or team usually focuses on outbound lead generation or manual sales prospecting, while the marketing person or team handles inbound lead generation.

Let’s take a look at how both are involved in the B2B lead generation process:

Apart from the direct sales and marketing team, upper management might get involved depending on the company. For example, a VP of sales might leverage their network to add leads to the funnel. And a CEO might ask for referrals. It’s a team effort, even though smaller organizations may only have one salesperson or marketer. Pull in resources from each team to efficiently strategize and determine how to generate leads for your B2B business.

Top B2B Lead Generation Strategies

There are many high-level and granular lead generation strategies for both outbound and inbound lead generation. Big picture, these strategies include things like cold calling or cold emailing as well as generating online leads through free and paid strategies. However, for each of these high-level strategies, there are many strategies for optimizing each method.

To help, let's go over each big picture B2B lead generation strategy. From there, we have detailed articles on each method, which include more granular strategies for your chosen approach:

Outbound B2B Sales Prospecting

Outbound B2B sales prospecting — or outbound B2B lead generation — is the act of manually sourcing and reaching out to leads who match your ideal customer profile. The most common strategies include cold calling and cold emailing but can also include networking, referrals, and more. Sales prospecting is typically carried out exclusively by a B2B salesperson or team.

Outbound B2B sales prospecting follows a standard process:

1. Compile a List of Leads: Source a list of potential leads that match your ideal customer profile through various tools and methods.
2. Research Each Lead: Research each lead prior to reaching out so you can add a personal touch that’ll start the relationship off on the right foot.
3. Conduct Manual Outreach: Adopt an outreach strategy or strategies to manually reach out to each lead, personalizing the messages you send or deliver.
4. Qualify the Sales Lead: Use a needs assessment or discovery call to qualify the lead as a sales qualified lead (SQL) or prospect for further lead nurturing.

For more information on the sales prospecting process, check out our article on the lead generation processes. Otherwise, keep reading for a list of the top outbound B2B sales prospecting strategies for sourcing quality business leads:

Outbound B2B Sales Prospecting Strategies

Check out this list of the top sales prospecting strategies for B2B lead generation. For more information on each, you can read our overarching guide on sales prospecting below as well as our individual articles on each strategy:

• Cold Calling: The act of calling potential leads directly. This can be effective for B2B lead generation specifically because business contacts are more inclined to pick up the phone and discuss opportunities. For more detail, check out our ultimate guide on cold calling.
• Cold Emailing: A common practice for B2B lead generation where salespeople source business emails and then reach out with a cold introduction, following up as necessary to get a response. If interested, check out our detailed guide on cold emailing.
• B2B Networking: Another great way to source B2B leads since there are many business and professional networking events, both general and industry-specific. For more information, read our robust guide on business networking.
• Social Selling: A virtual way to make personal connections with B2B leads using social platforms like LinkedIn. If interested, check out our ultimate guide on LinkedIn lead generation.
• Cold Canvassing: Also known as door-knocking or door-to-door sales, this is great for B2B sellers looking for local leads. If you’re interested in learning how to use this strategy, check out our detailed article on door-to-door sales.
• Business Referrals: Through referral programs or by delivering stellar service to existing customers, it’s possible to generate warmer B2B leads than the other approaches. For more, read our guide on business referrals.

It’s common for businesses and sellers to adopt multiple of these strategies at once. For example, cold calling and cold emailing can happen together. Next, we’ll dive into online B2B lead generation.

Inbound B2B Lead Generation

Inbound (or online) B2B lead generation is the act of generating online traffic and capturing lead contact information through the use of a relevant lead magnet like a content upgrade, free trial, free consultation, and more. Inbound leads are usually generated by a marketing person or team, who then passes them along to a salesperson for further lead qualification and nurturing.

Inbound B2B lead generation follows a slightly different process than outbound:

1. Share and Promote Free Content: Utilize marketing channels like social media and Google and leverage organic and paid efforts to share free content with your audience.
2. Offer a Relevant Lead Magnet: Provide leads with a lead magnet like a downloadable template or free trial relevant to your audience once they begin consuming your content.
3. Convert Interested Leads: Prompt your lead to take a desired action in return for the lead magnet, such as signing up with their email or scheduling a demo.
4. Qualify the Marketing Leads: Qualify engaged leads as marketing qualified leads (MQL) using a lead scoring system, passing qualified leads to the sales team.

For more information on the inbound lead generation process, check out our article on the lead generation processes. Otherwise, keep reading for a list of the top online B2B lead generation strategies for sourcing quality inbound business leads:

Inbound B2B Lead Generation Strategies

Here’s a list of the top inbound or online lead generation strategies, along with links to detailed articles on each strategy. For a more robust overview of the online lead generation steps or strategies, you can also read our ultimate guide on online lead generation below:

• Lead Generation Website: Optimize your website for lead generation so you can create a destination for the online traffic you generate. For more, check out our detailed article on creating and optimizing a lead generation website.
• Valuable Lead Magnet: Capture the traffic you generate using a valuable lead magnet. This includes things like a content upgrade, free trial, or free consultation. For more, read our ultimate guide on creating a lead magnet.
• Organic Social Media: Leverage an organic social media strategy that grows your following count and engages your target audience. For more information on this method, check out our article on social media lead generation.
• Paid Social Media: Supercharge your organic efforts with paid social media ads that you can send to your leads as well as those who look like your ideal customer. For additional detail, you can read our social media lead generation article.
• PPC Advertising: Pay-per-click (PPC) ads are search ads like Google Ads that let you target specific keywords and show up in the top search results. For an in-depth look, read our ultimate guide on PPC lead generation.
• Content Marketing: Create and publish valuable blog content on your website and optimize them for SEO so interested leads can find you organically through search engines. Read our SEO lead generation article for an in-depth look.

Apart from lead generation companies, there are social media and Facebook ad agencies that can help you generate and convert leads through online campaigns. Agencies like these can help you implement any of the above strategies.

3 Best B2B Lead Generation Tools

There are plenty of software and tools that can help you meet your lead generation goals. They enhance your social selling, capture more website visitors, or give you lists of quality B2B leads to reach out to and manage. Three of the best B2B lead generation tools to consider are lead capture software, B2B lead databases, and lead management platforms.

These tools will help you not only collect but also qualify and engage with leads more efficiently. There are several providers to consider for each type of tool we’ve mentioned above, depending on your specific industry, business size, or goal.

Top 3 B2B Lead Generation Companies

There are companies out there dedicated to helping businesses create and enact B2B lead generation strategies. You pay them and they send you pre-qualified leads. Using one is great if you want to skip out on financing a lead gen team, or if you want your sellers to spend their time talking to leads, not finding them. Some of the best B2B lead generation companies in the market are Callbox, CIENCE, and EBQ.

The typical core offerings from B2B lead generation companies are inbound marketing, lead scoring functionality, reporting and analytics, CRM integration capabilities, and more. These four services ensure you’re able to receive and monitor high-quality leads as they enter your sales pipeline.

Benefits of B2B Lead Generation

Implementing B2B lead generation into your sales process can bring a multitude of benefits to your business. This includes sourcing high-value leads, saving money, and increasing your general brand or solution awareness. Below, we'll dive into those three benefits in even more detail.

Keeping these benefits in mind can make your approach to B2B lead gen more pleasant.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How Do B2B & B2C Lead Generation Differ?

The main difference between the two is that B2C lead generation caters to individual consumers, while B2B lead generation caters to other businesses and companies. Unlike in B2C, where everyone has purchasing power, in B2B this power usually resides in upper management. The market is, therefore, narrower. Plus, it can be tricky to find the right decision maker(s) at each new company.

The buyers in the B2B space just care about improving their business. They listen for terms like “higher profit margins” and “efficiency.” Meanwhile, B2C buyers care about improving their personal lives. They’re also more impulsive.

Also, since the price points trend higher in B2B sales and the implementation is a big time commitment, B2B buyers are usually more rational when deciding whether to enter into a sales cycle. So B2B lead generators have to do a better job of educating and nurturing the lead before they’re ready to move into the next phase.

Bottom Line: B2B Lead Generation

To generate B2B leads, you have to find people (often strangers), engage them, and get them interested in your product or service. Luckily, there are various strategies for doing so, from outbound ones like cold calling to inbound ones like content marketing. Next, check out the top B2B lead generation tips from sales experts to learn more ways to get quality leads through online and outbound strategies and business networking.

This article was written by Sam Rinko and updated by Allyssa Haygood-Taylor.