Short answer
A firm selling to other businesses finds customers by first writing down its ideal customer profile, choosing channels to reach those companies and recording every enquiry in the CRM with its source. LinkedIn, Google search, content and SEO, email, events and partnerships work together. Success is measured by opportunities that become sales, not by enquiry volume.
8 min read
What is lead generation?
Lead generation is the process of collecting contact details and buying interest from people and companies that may be interested in your product or service, and turning that interest into an opportunity the sales team can follow up. In B2B this process is longer and more layered than selling to consumers: the decision is usually made by a group of technical, financial and operational stakeholders, and the sale moves forward through proposals and meetings.
This article is a general roadmap for firms that are new to finding customers, the most measurable part of B2B marketing, or that want to review their current method. If you are considering running this work with us, we describe our method on our B2B lead generation service page.
Why is the ideal customer profile the first step?
The ideal customer profile (ICP) describes the shared characteristics of the companies that get the most value from your product or service, close within a reasonable time and stay on as customers. Sector, company size, region, the technologies they use and the problem they face are the core parts of this definition. The profile underpins every decision, from ad targeting to content topics to the sales team's priorities.
The most reliable way to build the profile is to look at your existing customers. Review your most profitable and longest-standing customers, the opportunities you lost and who took part in the buying decision together with your sales team. Add an exclusion list next to the profile as well: competitors, regions you cannot serve and customer types that proved unprofitable in the past.
Which channels can you use to find B2B prospects?
A single channel is rarely enough; each channel is useful at a different moment in the buying journey. Plan the channels below together, according to your ideal customer profile and sales cycle.
Because LinkedIn allows targeting by job title, seniority, department, sector and company, it is one of the most precise channels in B2B. It can be used organically through the company page and executives' personal posts, and as a paid channel through ads. Lead Gen Forms collect enquiries easily, but that ease can also increase low-intent submissions. For set-up guidance, see our LinkedIn, TikTok and YouTube advertising service page.
Google search
Search ads and organic search capture companies that are actively researching your solution. In B2B, search volume is low but intent is high. While product category, problem and comparison searches stand out, negative keywords that filter out people looking for jobs or training matter just as much as the target keywords.
Content and SEO
Decision-makers research for a long time before talking to a sales team. Content that clearly explains sector problems, solutions and comparisons makes you visible during that research. The same content can also be shown as a source in AI-powered search tools, and it keeps working even when the ad budget stops.
Email is the most efficient way to maintain a relationship with people who have shown interest but are not yet ready to buy. Cold email should be used carefully: do not send bulk messages without your legal adviser's approval regarding commercial message consent and data protection law.
Events and trade fairs
Trade fairs, sector meet-ups and webinars speed up trust-building in a long sales cycle. Entering the business cards and registrations collected at an event into the CRM straight away, and keeping the source information, is essential for measuring that effort.
Partnerships
Referral and joint content agreements with firms that sell a different product or service to the same customer bring enquiries that have already cleared the trust threshold. Complementary software, consultancies and dealer networks are common partners.
When does account-based marketing make sense?
If your target market consists of a specific, limited set of companies, targeting those companies individually rather than reaching a broad audience can be more efficient. This approach is called account-based marketing. Sales and marketing define the target company list together, identify the people in each company's buying group and reach them with tailored messages, content and ads.
The method makes sense for work with high contract values and long sales cycles. Its success is measured not by the number of enquiries, but by how many people are engaged at the target companies and how far those companies progress through the sales pipeline.
What is a lead magnet, and how do you choose one?
A lead magnet is a valuable piece of content or a service offered to a prospect in exchange for their contact details. For someone at the start of the buying journey, a sector guide, checklist or webinar works better; for someone approaching a decision, a calculator, demo or preliminary assessment is more suitable. A good lead magnet solves a real problem for your ideal customer and connects naturally to your product.
What are MQL and SQL?
An MQL (marketing qualified lead) is a person who fits the ideal customer profile and shows interest through a concrete action; for example, a manager from a target sector downloading a guide. An SQL (sales qualified lead) is a person in whom the sales team, after review, sees a real need, budget and timing. Writing these definitions together with marketing and sales largely ends the "marketing brings lots of leads, sales likes none of them" argument.
How does lead scoring work?
Lead scoring is a method of assigning each prospect a score based on profile fit and behaviour, and deciding which ones to pass to sales and when. On the profile side, sector, job title and company size raise the score; on the behaviour side, visiting the pricing page, requesting a demo or repeatedly reviewing different content does. The handover threshold should be updated regularly based on feedback from the sales team.
How do you set up the CRM and sales handover?
Every enquiry should be passed into the CRM along with the channel, campaign and content it came from. Who the enquiry is assigned to, how quickly the sales team will respond and how the outcome is recorded should be tied to a written handover rule. An enquiry that gets a late response wastes the effort of even the best campaign.
Sending the outcome in the CRM back to the ad platforms, that is, whether the enquiry became an SQL, an opportunity or a sale, teaches the algorithms to find real buyers rather than form-fillers. LinkedIn Insight Tag and offline conversion imports in Google Ads are used for this purpose.
How is lead generation success measured?
Measuring lead generation only by the number of enquiries is the most common and most misleading method. For a healthier picture, read the indicators in funnel order: what share of enquiries become MQLs, what share of MQLs become SQLs, what share of SQLs reach proposal stage and, in the end, which channel brings won customers. Because the sales cycle is long, looking at leading indicators in the first period is unavoidable; but if reporting is not built on CRM data from the start, the source of won customers will never be visible.
Common mistakes in finding B2B customers
- Setting targeting by job title alone without checking whether the company fits the profile.
- Offering every enquiry a sales call straight away and losing buyers who are still researching.
- Leaving enquiries in an email inbox instead of connecting them to the CRM and source data.
- Choosing a generic piece of content unrelated to the product as the lead magnet.
- Postponing content and SEO because they are long term, and putting the whole load on advertising.
- Judging channels on the first weeks of data without accounting for a long sales cycle.
For details of targeting options, see our LinkedIn platform page, and for a customer acquisition plan suited to your firm, get in touch via our contact page.
Frequently asked
- How long does it take to find B2B customers?
- It depends on the length of the sales cycle, the complexity of the product and the size of the target market. Search ads and warm partnerships can bring enquiries earlier, while content and SEO show their effect over time. Won customer data builds up as sales cycles complete, so the review should follow a schedule of several months.
- Can you find customers with purchased email lists?
- It is not recommended. These lists are often out of date, may have been collected without people's consent and carry serious risk under commercial messaging and data protection law. They can also damage your sending domain's reputation and push your legitimate emails into spam folders. Opt-in lists you have built yourself are always safer.
- What kind of content should you prepare as a lead magnet?
- Choose content that answers a question your target customer genuinely asks during the buying process. Sector-specific checklists, comparison tables, regulatory summaries or calculators are good examples. Content that delivers value quickly and connects naturally to the problem your product solves raises the quality of enquiries.
- Can a firm with a small sales team do lead generation?
- Yes, but capacity must be taken into account from the start. Collecting more enquiries than the sales team can respond to wastes both the budget and the prospect's interest. In that case it is more efficient to start with a narrower ideal customer profile, prioritise with lead scoring and nurture early-stage contacts by email.