How to Do B2B Lead Generation Better Than Your Competitors

If you’re a B2B company, the one thing that will make you sit up and take notice – no matter what – is lead generation. Even the most successful B2B businesses are all the time working towards making the process of B2B lead generation faster, cheaper, and more precise. 

And if you’re in the go-to-market (GTM) team, everything you do and every dollar you spend will be linked back to lead generation. B2B lead generation is the foundation on which everything a company does stands.

What is B2B lead generation?

B2B lead generation is the method or process of finding prospective customers who might be interested in buying your product or service, so you can reach out to them and make a sale. 

At the heart of every marketing team’s mission is one goal: B2B lead generation. And every go-to-market strategy revolves around finding and connecting with leads that align perfectly with your ideal customer profile (ICP).

There are several ways and channels through which B2B companies identify leads. 

Here are some of the common channels that are used for B2B lead generation: 

• Social media: engagements on your social posts, your competitor’s social posts, influencer interactions, your competitors’ employee engagements, employee advocacy, social ads, engagements in groups. Highperformr’s social media publishing and employee advocacy platform enables B2B businesses to elevate their social presence and track their social audience to identify B2B leads
• Content marketing: blogs, ebooks, videos, infographics, newsletters and interactive content like webinars, customer testimonials, case studies
• Search engine optimization (SEO): on-page optimization, link-building, ads
• Advertising: pay-per-click (PPC) ads, retargeting ads, display ads, native advertising, print ads, paid PR
• Email marketing: cold emails, drip campaigns, newsletters
• Competitor tracking: similarity search, keyword search, social engagement data 
• B2B events and tradeshows: brand events and user conferences, webinars, podcasts, community meet-ups
• Partnerships and referrals: affiliate marketing, strategic alliances, reseller programs, referrals, customer advocacy
• Lead magnets: downloadable templates, checklists or other giveaways, free trials or demos, discounts or coupons
• Outbound sales: cold calling, account-based marketing (abm), social prospecting, social selling 
• B2B lead databases and third-party platforms: lead generation tools, marketplace listings, freelancer platforms, crowdsourced lead databases 
• Intent data: social intent, social signals, website intent data, website visitor tracking. Highperformr is a B2B lead generation platform that helps businesses identify signals that help with leadgen and more effective outbound sales.  
• Publicly-available data: Information about businesses and entrepreneurs available in the public domain, such as social media, company websites, government documents, etc.

Why is B2B lead generation important?

B2B lead generation is the engine which drives any business forward, be it a solopreneur’s venture or a large enterprise. 

Without it, all the effort that goes into building a valuable product goes to waste because there’s no way to actually put the product in the hands of the people you actually created the product for.

B2B lead generation is critical to ensure that the business grows but it isn’t just about finding prospects. It has many other benefits and adds value to every function in the company.  

Here’s why B2B lead generation is important:

• Build a predictable pipeline: consistent B2B lead generation ensures a steady flow of prospects, helping you forecast growth and maintain sales momentum.
• Discover your total addressable market (TAM): the process helps you quantify the entire market of potential customers, giving you a clearer picture of growth opportunities. It also uncovers new opportunities, enabling businesses to expand their reach and tap into previously unexplored segments.
• Identify high-value customers: you’re able to invest in and  target businesses that fit your ICP, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of your outreach efforts.
• Improve sales pipeline flow: effective B2B lead generation ensures the pipeline remains full and streamlined, reducing gaps in the sales process and enhancing deal progression.
• Generate higher revenues: with more volumes of leads, businesses will be able to scale outreach and can close deals faster and more frequently.
• Assist with marketing efforts: the B2B lead generation process isn’t just about getting leads that sales teams can reach out to. The process of B2B lead generation can provide insights on how the market responds and how many leads you are able to generate. This helps refine your messaging and develop targeted content that resonates with your audience.
• Build brand awareness: reaching out to prospects increases your presence in the market, helping you increase brand recall, and also establish credibility and trust.
• Enable forecasting and revenue planning: B2B lead generation at scale provides reliable data to predict future revenue and plan effectively. With a steady inflow of leads, businesses can anticipate growth and allocate resources more strategically.
  

What Are B2B leads?

B2B leads are individuals, companies, or organizations that have the potential to become customers, and can be engaged by your sales team to pitch your product and make a sale. 

Unlike in the B2C context where the lead is the user, in B2B businesses, the lead might not be the end user of the product. For example, the lead and the person who makes the decision about buying the product might be a director or a vice president, but the end user might be a sales development representative (SDR) or an account manager. 

There are two types of B2B leads:

• Marketing-Qualified Leads (MQL)
• Sales-Qualified Leads (SQL)

Marketing-qualified leads, or MQLs, are leads that come into the sales funnel through marketing activities, and are categorized as those likely to become paying customers. These leads may not be ready to buy just yet, but have shown interest in your brand or the product category. 

Leads are categorized MQLs based on different kinds of intent signals, such as: 

• Engagement on your social media post 
• Visits or clicks on your website or blog 
• Participating in a webinar or event you’re conducting 
• Filling out a form on your company’s website
• Downloading a piece of gated content that your company created
• Clicking on an ad
• Talking about your company, brand, or product on social media 
• Following you on LinkedIn and engaging with your company handles 

Sales-qualified leads, or SQLs, are MQLs who have progressed along the sales funnel and have been certified by your lead development representatives (LDRs) or market research executives (MRE) team as leads that sales reps can reach out to for pitches or demos. SQLs typically are interested in buying a product sooner rather than later, and are probably evaluating multiple products like yours or your direct competitors. 

Leads are categorized SQLs based on signals such as: 

• Seeking a product demo by clicking on a “book a demo” button on your website or other content 
• Interacting with an SDR 
• Engaging with your direct competitor on social media 
• Responding to a cold email or cold call 

Who is responsible for B2B lead generation?

In nearly every B2B organization, the sales and marketing teams are responsible for B2B lead generation. For your go-to-market strategy to be executed well, the sales teams and marketing teams have to come together to take ownership of different parts of the B2B lead generation process. 

Marketing team's role

Usually, the marketing team takes care of demand generation and lead generation activities. This involves creating awareness about the product and brand, establishing the competitive differentiation, positioning the product before the ICP, attracting leads, capturing the leads, qualifying leads, and handing leads off to the sales team for outreach or nurturing.

They also take care of B2B lead generation through customer advocacy and employee advocacy. Among the different B2B lead generation channels that we discussed earlier, the marketing team is responsible for driving leads through activities and channels such as content marketing, lead magnets, or paid ads.  

Sales team's role

Every team within the sales function takes care of different B2B lead generation techniques. The sales operations team or revenue operations (RevOps) team is usually responsible for consolidating leads from different sources such as B2B leads databases or sales intelligence tools and website visitor data.

The SDRs in the sales team are responsible for generating their own pipelines from sources like social media and SDRs are responsible for outreach and lead nurturing. The account executives (AEs) are usually in charge of taking the prospect to demos and converting them into customers. 

Essentially, the marketing team is in charge of attracting leads, the sales team is responsible for nurturing leads and converting leads to customers, and the operations teams (MarkOps and RevOps) are responsible for orchestrating the activities and ensuring the teams have access to everything they need such as GTM workflow platforms, data enrichment tools, or B2B lead generation platforms that can help with B2B lead generation and prioritization to make personalized outreach more effective. 

How is B2B lead generation managed by businesses?

The B2B lead generation process involves a variety of activities aimed at generating demand and attracting leads. These are typically a collaborative effort between sales teams and marketing teams, supported by specialized operations teams like marketing operations (MarkOps) and revenue operations (RevOps). 

Marketing team and MarkOps team:

• Account-based marketing (ABM): identifying decision-makerts within ICP companies, customizing the marketing and advertising efforts, and tailoring messaging to reach these ICP accounts.
• Content marketing: creating and distributing valuable content such as blogs, whitepapers, case studies, and videos to educate prospects and drive inbound traffic. Highperformr’s social media publishing platform with a native Social Media AI Agent helps create and distribute content via social platforms and serves as the platform for last-mile connectivity between the content created by marketing teams and the B2B leads.
• Social media marketing: using social media to promote content, identify audiences and engage with them, and nurture social audiences into leads.
• Paid advertising: running targeted ads on Google, digital platforms, print media and broadcast media.
• Brand and PR: working with media houses for organic and paid coverage through articles and participation in industry events.
• Lead magnets: creating and distributing downloadable resources such as templates, checklists, ebooks, or guides.
• Email marketing: nurturing relationships with prospects and customers through newsletters, and drip campaigns.
• SEO: optimizing website content and structure to improve organic visibility.

Sales team and RevOps team:

• Outbound sales: cold calling, cold emailing, and personalized outreach to initiate conversations with potential leads.
• Social selling: building relationships with prospects on platforms like LinkedIn by sharing relevant content and engaging in discussions. Highperformr empowers every employee to find high-value ICP leads who may not be ready to buy now but can be ideal customers later, and nurture strong relationships with them so the sales pitch can be made at the right time.
• Sales cadences: creating and scheduling sequences of emails and calls across various touchpoints to nurture leads and book meetings for a sales pitch. 
• Upselling and cross-selling: identifying opportunities to expand existing accounts to either sell more products to the same customer or nudge the customer to upgrade their subscriptions or packages. 

What technology and tools can help with b2b lead generation?

We live in times when AI and such advanced technology tools are used for B2B lead generation and nearly every other activity in the sales process. 

Companies use B2B sales automation tools for lead nurturing, meeting scheduling, and cold calling and use marketing automation platforms for ABM and social media management.

Then there are data enrichment tools and email scheduling tools that both teams use regularly. B2B businesses also use integration tools or platforms that help sync data across the customer relationship management (CRM) system and other tools in the techstack.   

Highperformr is an AI-native B2B lead generation and GTM workflow platform that helps users identify and enrich ICP leads based on first-party data, use social signals and insight for precise outreach, and spearfish leads to make outbound sales more efficient.  

The platform enables users to manage their entire GTM workflow – from identifying B2B leads that match their ICP, building lists of contacts based on different kinds of intent data, enriching leads with contact information and social insight, and reaching out to high-potential leads based on their recent social activity. 

Users can build, consolidate, and organize their lead lists, enrich the lists with over 50 fields of information about the contact and provide them with real-time social insight to help with precise outreach that could increase response rates. 

Here’s what you can do with Highperformr: 

• Identify ICP leads from social media 
• Identity ICP leads using keyword search 
• Build contacts lists of all ICP contacts from a single target account 
• Get real-time insight on job changes, promotions, event participation, or other activity 
• Get weekly/monthly reports on a contact’s new connections on LinkedIn 
• Enrich leads with contact information, firmographic information, social intent signals, social activity insight, and other publicly available data. 

Learn more about how Highperformr helps with B2B lead generation by scheduling a free demo with one of our leadgen experts. 

Who needs a B2B sales strategy?

Any business or individual selling products or services to other businesses needs a B2B sales strategy. This includes:

• SaaS companies: Software-as-a-service providers need a robust B2B sales strategy to identify leads in companies that match their ICP. 
• Service providers: Businesses offering software solutions and services to other enterprises or companies need a B2B sales strategy to ensure that their target audience uses the services rather than manage the work inhouse. 
• Manufacturers and wholesalers: Businesses that produce or distribute goods that other companies need must have a clear B2B sales strategy to ensure that their products reach large businesses and they are able to secure large-scale production orders and contracts. 
• Consulting firms: B2B consulting services often focus on solving specific business problems, requiring targeted plans to connect with decision-makers at other businesses. Hot Cognition is one such B2B company that uses Highperformr for B2B lead generation. Read this article to learn more about how they identify ICP leads for themselves and their clients with Highperformr. 
• Marketing agencies: Companies providing B2B services like branding, advertising, or digital marketing require a strategy to identify clients and grow their business. 
• B2B sales agencies: Individuals or teams that specialize in outbound sales or lead generation for other businesses need a clear strategy to identify and engage their ideal clients. 
• Solopreneurs: Independent consultants or freelancers offering services such as coaching, content creation, or project management, need a clear B2B sales strategy to pitch their services to businesses and get long-term clients.
• Startups: New businesses targeting B2B markets need a focused B2B sales strategy and a robust go-to-market strategy to build relationships, establish credibility, and reach their ICP.
• SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses): SMBs focused on B2B products or services need a strategic plan to gain an edge over larger players. 
• Enterprise solution providers: Organizations offering complex, high-value solutions like CRM platforms, ERP systems, or cybersecurity services can’t ignore creating and following a B2B sales strategy to ensure large customers subscribe to and buy their products.

The B2B lead generation process

The B2B lead generation process involves a series of activities including identifying and attracting potential customers (leads) who may be interested in a product or service that a business offers.

The goal of the B2B lead generation process is to build a pipeline of qualified leads that sales teams can convert into paying customers. The process involves multiple strategies and activities carried out by both marketing and sales teams, often supported by specialized operations teams.

B2B lead generation starts with the demand generation activities that the marketing team does. This covers both inbound marketing activities (like SEO, content marketing, and social media marketing, advertising) and outbound marketing activities (such as, ABM, email marketing, sponsored events).

Alongside, the sales team also drives activities such as social selling to generate B2B leads. Once the data from these many channels enters the organization, the process of actually identifying the B2B leads begins. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of the process:

Step 1: Identify your ideal buyer

You’ll have to start defining your ideal customer profile (ICP). Not every business is an ideal customer for you, so it is important to clearly make note of who your ICP is and who is not. Then write out your buyer persona. You’ll be debating questions like :

• What is the ideal size of the company, and where is it located?
• How is the organization structured?
• What is the ideal persona’s job title, and what level of decision-making authority do they have?
• What are their primary goals or objectives within the organization?
• What are the main pain points or challenges they face?
• What barriers do they encounter when considering new business opportunities or partnerships?
• What criteria does the company use when making purchase decisions?

If you have multiple products or use cases and solutions, you’ll need detailed ICPs for each. Read this guide to learn more about ICP and getting started with charting out the ICP for your business. 

Step 2: Build a prospect list

Based on the ICP, compile a list of potential customers, and build a lead list and account book. This can be done using GTM workflow tools like Highperformr, data enrichment tools, or sales intelligence platforms. There’s no single source or channel for B2B lead generation; most organizations use a combination of products and tools.  

Step 3: Demand generation to attract ICP leads 

This is where the inbound marketing and outbound marketing activities come in. The marketing team keeps the ICP and buyer personas in mind to run branding and messaging campaigns to drum up awareness about the product and brand. The marketing activities are targeted at all the parts of the marketing funnel. The stages of the marketing funnel typically include:

Awareness: Drawing attention and informing/educating the target audience about your brand and product.

Interest: Building curiosity about the company, brand, and product offerings. 

Consideration: Engaging potential customers and getting them to evaluate your product.

Intent: Nudging the audience to engage with you and actively consider purchasing your product.

While the lead is then handed over to the sales team for conversion, the marketing team works closely with the sales team to ensure that the customer is happy and advocates the brand and product to others. 

Advocacy: This involves ensuring that every happy customer talks about the value they see from the product and are openly referring or recommending the product to others.

Step 4: Qualifying leads 

Not every lead that comes in is an ideal prospect, and even if they are, they might not be ready to buy yet but have the intent to buy at a later date. This step of the B2B lead generation process is where the leads are analyzed and prioritized based on their potential to become a customer in the immediate future. 

The leads are categorized and qualified as MQLs or SQLs so the marketing and sales teams respectively can nurture them appropriately - whether it is a warm nurture through retargeting campaigns or personalized emails, or hard selling through presales presentations and pitch meetings.  

To qualify leads, the team analyzes which stage of the buying cycle they are in and decides what the next course of action would be. The stages broadly are: 

• Awareness stage, where the buyer identifies a problem and explores potential solutions, often discovering your brand for the first time.
• Consideration stage, when the person evaluates possible products or services but hasn’t decided yet.
• Decision stage when the buyer is ready to choose, meeting with vendors, booking demos, and finalizing their decision.

Step 5: Prospecting

This is the final stage of the B2B lead generation process where the teams begin prospecting – reaching out to potential customers or prospects and engaging with them with the goal of turning them into sales opportunities. 

This is where the sales team comes in, and enriches the leads, understands them better, and reaches out through different channels. Highperformr has been built to make this process easier, faster, and more effective by enabling sales teams to enrich leads with contact information, signals, intent signals, and social insights that will help businesses not just with B2B lead generation but also spearfishing high-potential leads. 

B2B lead generation strategies

Businesses use several tactics for efficient B2B lead generation at scale. Here’s a list of some of the more common ones that have shown success:

• Social selling: Social media platforms are where your ICP leads hang out, have conversations with each other, and learn about the industry, so it is a great place for you to build meaningful relationships without pushing a sales pitch. This helps you understand their needs better and ensures your brand is top-of-mind when they are ready to make a purchase.     
• Analyze competitors’ social media engagements: Watching who your competitors engage with is a great way to generate leads that are aware of the industry you are in, and are probably also evaluating products in the space. 
• Identify profiles similar to your customers: Use AI and technologies such as similarity search to identify ICP leads similar to one lead that you have, and build a bigger account book. Highperformr enables you to easily find leads and companies similar to a profile you have in mind.  
• Participate in B2B events and tradeshows: Conferences, webinars, luncheon meetings, and such community meetups are a great way to discover and connect with B2B leads. 
• Repurpose and share content: In addition to standard content marketing campaigns, ensure you repurpose and distribute your website content or any long-form content in any many forms as possible.Broader distribution leads to better engagement and stronger lead generation. Highperformr enables you to repurpose your long-form content and distribute it using AI Agents. 
• ​​Track customer advocates: Spot loyal advocates by analyzing social interactions and nurturing those relationships to build brand loyalty. Keep track of people who were your key contacts (champions) and have moved to other companies. They could become new opportunities at their new organizations. 
• A/B testing: There’s no sure way to find ICP leads, so it is important to experiment with different marketing elements, such as formats, CTAs, and visuals, to identify what resonates most with your audience and attracts leads. 
• Customer advocacy with case studies and reviews: Work with customers and users to provide reviews on third-party platforms such as G2 so you can establish credibility and attract leads from those channels as well. Also invest in creating customer testimonials and case studies that you can share on your website or social media and attract engagement from relevant audience. 
• Optimize landing pages: Ensure that all pages on your website are optimized for search and are easy to discover and navigate through.
• Elevate your social media presence: Cultivate an audience and community on social media and bring together people who are relevant to your business irrespective of whether they are hot leads who are willing to buy now.
• Launch limited-time discounts and offers: Businesses of all sizes are always on the lookout for discounts and special deals. Create compelling offers, such as lifetime deals, to attract leads that you can later upsell or cross-sell to. Highperformr, for instance, offers a lifetime deal for small startups that was to enhance their B2B lead generation. 
• Ensure mobile optimization: Your leads are probably looking at your ads and social posts on their phones. Make sure your website’s mobile version is optimized and smooth to use, so you don’t lose your leads because of a glitchy interface. 
• Seek referrals: Identify possible referrals from your past or current champions who could help introduce you to new decision-makers in target companies.
• Invest in PR: Take time to nurture relationships with journalists for earned media and press coverage to improve brand visibility, establish trust, and eventually bring you ICP leads.

Generate more B2B leads than your competitors

You can ace your B2B lead generation efforts by using the leadgen tactics we mentioned above and effectively making use of a combination of all the lead generation channels available to you.

Streamlining your GTM workflow and using a B2B lead generation platform like Highperform can help you unlock new sources to generate ICP leads. To see how you can use Highperformr to identify and enrich high-value leads, set up a meeting with our leadgen expert and get a free demo customized to your business needs.