B2B Lead Generation

Nearly every dispute between marketing and sales traces back to an undefined lead. We start by writing the definition down with both teams: firmographic fit, role and seniority, trigger or intent signal, and the qualification questions sales will ask. Marketing is then measured against that definition, not against volume.

This has an immediate effect on channel mix. Once cost per qualified lead replaces cost per lead, the cheap sources that flooded the CRM with unusable contacts stop looking attractive, and budget moves to the channels that produce conversations sales actually wants.

We also agree service levels for follow-up. A qualified lead contacted within an hour converts materially better than the same lead contacted three days later, and no amount of campaign optimisation compensates for a slow handover.

Demand capture — search, comparison content, review sites, retargeting — harvests buyers already looking. It is efficient, measurable and capped by how many people are in market at any moment. Demand creation — thought leadership, paid social, events, partnerships, original research — builds the future pipeline that capture will later harvest.

We fund them separately and measure them differently, because the alternative is that creation work is judged on last-click attribution, found wanting and cut, after which capture performance quietly declines six months later with no obvious cause.

For most of our clients the split lands somewhere between sixty-forty and seventy-thirty toward capture in year one, moving toward creation as the brand's own demand grows.

Outbound works when it is specific and targeted at accounts that fit, and fails when it is a volume exercise. We build target account lists from your best-fit customer profile, then use intent data, trigger events and warm signals — content engagement, event attendance, job changes — to prioritise who gets contacted and when.

Messaging is written around the account's situation rather than your product features, and sequences combine email, LinkedIn and calling rather than relying on any one channel. Content built for inbound gets reused as outbound reasons to make contact, which is where most agencies fail to join the two motions.

We are candid about deliverability and compliance: domain warm-up, sending limits and data hygiene are unglamorous but decide whether the programme works at all.

Most B2B leads are not ready when they first convert. Nurture exists to keep the brand present and to move the buyer's understanding forward — case studies, objection-handling content, comparison material and proof — until a genuine trigger appears.

Lead scoring combines fit and behaviour so sales spends time on the right conversations, and we keep the model simple enough that both teams can explain it. Over-engineered scoring models get ignored within a quarter.

The handover itself is designed as part of the system: what context sales receives, in what format, and what happens to leads sales rejects, since those rejections are the most valuable feedback the programme gets.

We report on qualified leads, pipeline value created, conversion rate by stage and source, sales cycle length, and cost per qualified lead against closed revenue. Where cycles are long, we also track leading indicators — meetings booked, opportunity creation rate, engagement from target accounts — so performance can be read before deals close.

That measurement framework is agreed with sales and finance before launch, which is what prevents the month-three argument about whether any of this is working.