Definition of B2B lead generation

B2B lead generation is the process of identifying other businesses as potential buyers of a business's products or services. In other words, it’s the process of businesses trying to find other businesses to sell to.

Finding these leads is essential to building customer relationships that generate revenue and drive growth. Lead generation strategies can involve traditional approaches, like cold calling and direct mailers, or more modern, data-savvy methods, like social media campaigns and networks that connect buyers and sellers. Both can generate leads, of which there are two types:

• Marketing qualified leads (MQLs): These leads have shown interest in a business’s products or services by engaging with its marketing efforts. For example, they have entered the sales pipeline by signing up on a website or attending a company event.
• Sales qualified leads (SQLs): These leads have shown high interest in a business’s products or services by indicating intent to purchase. They may have contacted a sales team member by phone or requested a demo.

The key difference between MQLs and SQLs is their level of interest and where they are in the sales funnel. MQLs are higher in the awareness or interest stage, whereas SQLs are further down in the consideration and decision stage.

Why B2B lead generation matters

B2B lead generation matters because it provides businesses with a consistent supply of potential customers in their sales pipeline. Without leads, there are fewer customers, less revenue, and slower growth.

Effective lead generation strategies should also enable businesses to discover their total addressable market (TAM), build brand awareness, and provide creative direction. The collected lead engagement and conversion data can also help refine targeting to prioritize the highest potential leads. Businesses can then use the insights to tune their content creation or sales cadence to adapt to trends or headwinds.

Who owns B2B lead generation?

Both marketing and sales teams are responsible for acquiring leads for B2B, and close collaboration between the two is vital to aligning goals, messaging, and performance metrics. In some organizations, members from both teams can form a revenue team to work together to meet revenue targets.

Traditionally, marketers focus on generating awareness and attracting interest in a business’s products or brand. They research to gain deep insights into buyer personas, pain points, and intent signals. These insights then inform the creation of campaigns—the more relevant and tailored the content, the more likely a prospect is to engage and become an MQL.

Salespeople, by contrast, focus on SQLs with a high intent to purchase. Their goals are less about nurturing leads and more about converting them.

Ideally, sales and marketing should coordinate closely to handle lead generation services. With revenue teams, roles often overlap or converge under a unified go-to-market strategy. This way, lead generation strategies are less siloed and more synchronized.

B2B lead generation strategies

Businesses exploring how to generate B2B leads will find most strategies fall into two main categories:

1. Inbound marketing: Focuses on attracting leads who actively seek solutions and voluntarily contact companies. These leads reach out to vendors, for example, after engaging with a relevant social media post, webinar, podcast, or paid search ad.
2. Outbound marketing: Involves the company reaching out to leads, for example, via e-mail, phone call, or message on a social media platform.

Inbound marketing leads are of higher quality since they intend to purchase and involve shorter sales cycles. In contrast, outbound marketing leads are of lower quality because it takes more time and effort to determine whether they have the same level of intent.

However, when it comes to leads for B2B, outbound marketing may be more effective. A skilled sales representative making a persuasive and personalized call to a decision-maker could make your company stand out amongst the options available to them.

Ultimately, there’s no reason to choose one or the other—a balance of both accommodates the customer journey.

Other strategies you can complement your marketing plan with include:

• Referral and partner programs: These programs incentivize your existing network of customers, vendors, and partners to refer you to other potential leads. This works by leveraging existing relationships to establish credibility in the same way word-of-mouth recommendations work, resulting in high-intent leads with low customer acquisition costs.
• Events and webinars: Both promise value in the form of networking opportunities or expertise in topics, and both also generate leads by inviting attendees to register with their contact information. If done correctly, hosting events and webinars can also help build awareness of your brand as a trusted thought leader.
• Supplier-buyer platforms: Platforms provide a centralized place where businesses can match with high-quality leads ready to purchase products and services.

Metrics to measure B2B lead generation success

Metrics are what B2B marketers use to monitor the performance of a campaign. By quantifying the impact of marketing activities, businesses can set clearer goals more aligned with business objectives.

Traditional metrics include:

• Cost per lead: CPL is the cost of a campaign divided by the number of leads generated. A lower cost per lead can indicate efficient B2B lead generation tactics.
• Conversion rate: Also known as “lead to close conversion rate” (CVR), this is the number of sales divided by the number of leads generated.
• Pipeline contribution: This refers to the portion of leads in a sales pipeline generated by each campaign or department. Separating leads by category can show how many leads the sales team generates compared to the marketing team.

By measuring these key performance metrics (KPIs), businesses can identify which lead source delivers the highest ROI and allocate spend accordingly, increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of campaigns.

B2B lead generation challenges

Finding high-quality leads—even with the help of powerful data-driven tools—remains a significant challenge for B2B sales and marketing teams.

Low-quality leads with little to no purchase intent, for example, clog up sales pipelines and drain resources. Sales teams may spend significant time and energy trying to convert them, only to discover too late that these leads weren’t a good fit from the start. These mismatch issues can stem from poor data quality. Even the best outreach efforts will fall flat with inaccurate or outdated lead information.

Another challenge is the misalignment between sales and marketing teams. When these teams work in silos, they emerge with different metrics for success, goals, and strategies, leading to a disjointed buying experience for the customer. Imagine marketing teams attracting leads with one set of messaging and the sales team trying to close with another. The inconsistency may confuse customers and harm your business’s credibility.

That’s why businesses are increasingly integrating sales and marketing efforts into a cross-functional revenue team. This way, they can align strategies, share data, and create a more unified customer journey.

How B2B lead generation platforms are changing the game

Today, B2B lead generation is primarily driven by technology, enabling businesses to scale and refine their marketing efforts more efficiently.

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems empower sales and marketing teams to operate more efficiently while delivering greater impact. By automating routine tasks and unifying customer data across touchpoints, CRMs streamline customer-facing activities and enable teams to provide personalized, timely experiences at scale.

Networks that connect buyers and suppliers are also redefining B2B lead generation today. These networks emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000s as a more efficient way to handle procurement than traditional catalogs and manual outreach. Early platforms offered product listings and vendor profiles in searchable databases.

They’ve since evolved to include tools that automate transactions, integrate with CRM and ERP software, and manage relationships between suppliers and buyers. In other words, these platforms enable businesses to handle the entire sales cycle in one place.

The recent advent of AI has only made it easier for them to connect. With behavioral data and contextual insights, AI tools can match sellers with high-quality leads in real time. Built-in analytical tools and dashboards can also help monitor campaign performance, segment audiences, and optimize lead generation strategies more precisely.

As a result, platforms today aren’t just passive product directories—they’re dynamic, data-driven marketplaces. What can emerge is a vibrant network of companies built on transparency and trust, leading to more efficient procurement processes, stronger B2B relationships, and better customer experiences.

The future of B2B lead generation

B2B lead generation is moving from generating as many leads as possible to identifying and nurturing the right ones—quality over quantity. Businesses recognize that a smaller pool of high-intent, well-qualified leads often delivers far greater long-term value.

This shift is a response to the change in today’s buyers, who are more informed and selective than ever. Equipped with access to insights and research, they are no longer passive targets of generic marketing outreach but empowered decision-makers who expect transparency and trust from their partners. Customers now demand personalized solutions that align with their unique operational challenges and will seek suppliers who demonstrate a deep understanding of their needs.

B2B platforms are rising to meet these expectations by creating marketplaces and networks optimized for high-value connections. Verified profiles ensure credibility, reducing the risk of fraud or wasted outreach. AI tools analyze behavioral data and purchasing intent to connect buyers and sellers. Built-in analytics tools provide insights to refine targeting strategies and deliver increasingly personalized engagement.

These platforms are not just directories of product pages—they are intelligent matchmaking systems that help buyers and sellers find what they’re looking for.