Lead prospecting and lead generation get used interchangeably, and they shouldn't, one's a marketing function, the other a sales function, and confusing them is why so many handovers fail. Here are seven practical lead prospecting approaches that every business can use, plus the three best practices that decide whether prospects convert into customers.
LinkedIn has 900 million members, 65 million decision-makers, and accounts for 50% of B2B social media traffic, and most B2B marketers still under-use it. Here's the exact scalable LinkedIn lead-generation process we ran for a mature B2B SaaS vendor at $16.76 per lead, broken down step by step from profile optimisation through campaign objective selection.
Twenty-five years in lead generation, and I still hate cold calling — and most prospects hate being cold-called. The good news is that B2B lead generation works fine without it, often better. Here's the playbook: referrals, public speaking, content, LinkedIn, all the warm channels that consistently convert at higher rates than the cold list, with the practical steps to set each one running.
Brian Carroll's prospecting rules say it can take 8 to 12 calls to reach a B2B prospect, and most callers give up after three. That's a great rule of thumb, and a terrible operational policy if your data integrity, right-party-connect rate or list quality are working against you. Here's what to weigh alongside Carroll's rule before you commit a telemarketing team to twelve attempts each.
Most sales teams paying for LinkedIn Sales Navigator use about a quarter of the platform's capability, then renew it. Here are the Sales Nav features that actually pay back: advanced filters, shared-interest bonding, trigger-event alerts, and account-based outreach. Sharper lead lists, better personalisation, less time wasted on prospects who were never going to buy.