lead generation hub
Table of Contents
What is Lead Generation?
Lead generation is the process of identifying potential customers, stimulating their interest and moving them towards a conversation with your sales team. In B2B, that process involves more touchpoints, more stakeholders and more nuance than most businesses anticipate when they start.
This guide covers what modern lead generation actually involves, how it differs from broader marketing activity and what a well-structured approach looks like in practice.
What is a lead?
Demand Generation and Lead Generation
Demand generation and lead generation get used interchangeably in B2B, but they do different jobs at different stages of the sales process. Conflating the two leads to campaigns that either build awareness without capturing anything actionable, or chase conversions before the groundwork’s been laid.
This guide breaks down what each approach actually involves, where one ends and the other begins, and how a combined strategy drives more consistent pipeline.
Read on to see where lead gen begins
Inbound vs Outbound lead generation
What is direct lead generation?
Finding high-quality leads is harder than it’s ever been. Inboxes are crowded, attention is short, and the days of blasting a bought list and waiting for replies are long gone. Direct lead generation is the targeted alternative: identifying the right prospects, engaging them with personalised outreach, and building the kind of pipeline that actually converts.
In this guide, we cover what direct lead generation involves, how the process works and how to improve what you’re already doing.
What is direct lead generation? Find out here
Why is lead generation important?
Service page
Most B2B businesses know they need a stronger pipeline. The challenge is building one that delivers consistent, qualified opportunities rather than a steady stream of names that go nowhere. Generic outreach and automated campaigns have made that harder, as buyers have become better at filtering out anything that doesn’t feel relevant to them.
E360 takes a dedicated, personalised approach to lead generation, connecting you with the decision-makers who matter to your business and moving them towards a genuine sales conversation.
How neglecting lead generation hurts start-ups and their founders ?
Most start-up founders know they need to generate leads but the problem is consistency. Lead generation tends to get attention when the pipeline’s empty and gets deprioritised when things are busy, which is precisely when it matters most.
This piece looks at what that stop-start pattern actually costs, and why building a steady approach early is one of the most important things a founder can do for long-term growth.
How to generate leads?
Knowing you need more leads and knowing how to generate them consistently are two different things. The mechanics of B2B lead generation have shifted considerably, and what worked a few years ago, broad lists, generic messaging, single-channel outreach, produces far weaker results now.
The resources below cover the practical side: which strategies drive the best results for complex B2B propositions, how to qualify what comes in, how to nurture prospects through a longer sales cycle and how modern techniques and tools are changing what good outreach looks like.
Explore E360’s lead generation services or get in touch to talk through your approach.
What are the most effective B2B lead generation strategies?
Enterprise lead generation strategies that drive ROI
Enterprise lead generation operates by different rules. The buying committees are larger, the sales cycles are longer and the margin for generic outreach is essentially zero. Approaches that fill a pipeline with SMB opportunities rarely translate, and treating enterprise accounts like a scaled-up version of your standard campaign is one of the more expensive mistakes a B2B sales team can make.
This guide covers the strategies, tactics and considerations that actually move the needle at enterprise level, from account-based marketing and outbound execution to understanding the difference between targeting enterprises and start-ups.
Explore what drives successful enterprise lead generation
How to generate new B2B leads?
Buying committees are bigger, buyers are further through their research before they’ll speak to anyone in sales, and the volume of automated outreach has made decision-makers considerably harder to reach. The conditions that made straightforward outreach effective a few years ago have shifted, and the teams generating consistent pipeline now are the ones who’ve adapted their approach accordingly.
This guide covers seven practical methods for generating new B2B leads in an environment where relevance and personalisation matter more than volume.
Explore 7 practical ways to generate new B2B leads
Why the telephone is the strongest channel for direct lead generation?
Automated outreach has made it easier than ever to reach thousands of prospects at once, and harder than ever to get a response. As inboxes fill with templated sequences that read identically, decision-makers have become quicker to ignore them, and the channel that’s cutting through most consistently is one that never really went away.
This piece makes the case for the telephone as the most effective channel for direct lead generation in 2026, and why skilled BDRs are outperforming automation where it counts.
Explore why the telephone is still effective for direct lead generation
Lead generation for startups: Quality vs. Quantity of meetings booked?
For early-stage businesses, the instinct is to book as many meetings as possible. More conversations should mean more opportunities, and more opportunities should mean more revenue. In practice, filling a calendar with the wrong prospects wastes the limited BD time a start-up can least afford to lose.
This piece looks at how to find the right balance between lead volume and lead quality, and how that balance should shift as the business grows.
Read on to find the right balance between lead volume and quality
5 Strategies to prospect for new customers online
Finding new customers online is straightforward in theory and genuinely difficult in practice. The channels exist, the tools are available, and most B2B sales teams know what they should be doing. The gap tends to be in doing it consistently and in a way that actually reaches the right people.
This piece covers five prospecting strategies that work in the current B2B environment, from referrals and email to LinkedIn, content and the phone.
Discover five B2B prospecting strategies that work today
The best prospecting strategy to increase sales
Most B2B sales teams know they need a prospecting process. The harder question is what that process should actually look like: which channels to prioritise, how often to follow up, and how to tell a qualified prospect from one that will never convert.
This guide walks through a five-step prospecting framework, from defining your ideal customer profile to evaluating what’s working, along with the methods that consistently produce results.
Curious about the five-step B2B prospecting framework? Take a look now!
How to generate impactful top of funnel activity
A healthy pipeline in the second half of the year is built in the first. For businesses with sales cycles of six months or more, the top-of-funnel activity happening now determines what closes later, which means waiting until pipeline looks thin is already too late.
This piece covers practical, lower-cost approaches to generating impactful top-of-funnel activity, from content and webinars to the outreach and nurturing that turns early engagement into qualified leads.
See how to generate impactful top-of-funnel activity
How to qualify B2B leads?
The best market mapping strategy for sales prospecting
Before you can prospect effectively, you need a clear picture of the market you’re operating in: where your competitors sit, where the gaps are, and which segments are most worth pursuing. Market mapping gives you that picture in a form the whole team can work from.
This guide covers what a market map is, how to build one and how to use it to sharpen your prospecting strategy and targeting.
Learn more about market mapping and prospecting
B2B market segmentation: a Complete Guide
Generic outreach fails in B2B because buyers can tell when a message wasn’t written with them in mind. Market segmentation is the process that makes personalisation at scale possible: dividing your target audience into meaningful groups so your messaging speaks to what each one actually cares about.
This guide covers the five types of B2B market segmentation, why each one matters and how to put them to work in your lead generation strategy.
Discover our complete guide to B2B market segmentation
Lead nurturing
10 tips to close the SaaS sales cycle
SaaS sales cycles are longer and more complex than most, with multiple stakeholders, extended evaluation periods and budget scrutiny at every stage. The deals that stall tend to do so for predictable reasons, and the ones that close tend to follow a more deliberate approach to building trust, demonstrating value and keeping momentum through a drawn-out process.
This piece covers ten practical tips for closing the SaaS sales cycle more consistently, from the first conversation through to signed contract.
Explore 10 tips to close the SaaS sales cycle
Modern lead generation techniques
How to leverage AI for intent-based lead generation
AI has changed what’s possible in lead generation, particularly when it comes to identifying which prospects are actively researching a purchase and reaching them with something relevant. Intent-based lead generation sits at the intersection of that capability and the human judgement still needed to act on it effectively.
This piece covers how AI can enhance intent detection, build targeted lead lists and improve personalisation, along with the tools worth considering and the limits that still apply.
Read on to discover how AI can enhance intent-based lead generation
How A/B testing can help enterprises improve lead generation?
Enterprise lead generation involves too many variables, markets and buyer personas to rely on instinct about what works. A/B testing turns those variables into data, giving sales and marketing teams a structured way to improve conversion rates, refine targeting and make better decisions about where to focus resource.
This piece covers how enterprises can apply A/B testing across messaging, channels, segmentation and follow-up sequences to drive more consistent pipeline results.
See how A/B testing can improve enterprise lead generation
Why your SaaS sales cycle is getting longer (and what you can do about it)?
SaaS sales cycles have been getting longer, and most teams selling into the enterprise space have felt it. More stakeholders, tighter budgets and increased scrutiny over software spend have all added time and friction to deals that might once have moved faster.
This piece looks at what’s driving that trend and, more usefully, what SaaS businesses can do about it across user experience, content and lead generation strategy.
Want to understand what’s driving longer SaaS sales cycles? Find out what you can do about it
How to use customer-centric outsourced sales teams to drive faster business growth?
Most outreach fails because it isn’t relevant to the person receiving it. Buyers have become quicker to disengage from anything that feels generic, which means the sales model behind the outreach matters as much as the message itself.
This piece looks at what a customer-centric outsourced sales team actually involves, why the model drives better pipeline results, and how to manage that kind of partnership effectively.
Learn more about customer-centric outsourced sales teams
Dedicated BDR vs pay-per-lead sales models: Which is best?
Two of the most common outsourced lead generation models work very differently and tend to produce very different results. Choosing between a dedicated BDR and a pay-per-lead arrangement is a decision that affects lead quality, brand representation and the long-term sustainability of your pipeline.
This piece compares both models across cost, quality, alignment and ROI to help you work out which approach suits your business.
Explore the differences between a dedicated BDR and pay-per-lead
Benefits of A/B testing your internal lead generation team with an outsourced agency
If you already have an internal lead generation team, the question of whether to bring in external support isn’t always straightforward. A/B testing your internal operation against an outsourced agency answers that question with data rather than assumption, giving you a clear picture of where performance can be improved and whether outsourcing offers a genuine advantage.
This piece covers three reasons why that kind of structured comparison is worth running, and what it tends to reveal.
Want to know what A/B testing your sales operation can reveal? Find out
What is the future of global B2B lead generation?
Generic cold outreach is producing worse results than it did five years ago, and most B2B sales teams already know it. Buyers are better informed, quicker to filter out anything that feels templated, and often well into their decision-making before they’ll speak to a salesperson.
This piece looks at where global B2B lead generation is heading and what an effective outbound strategy looks like when you combine the right technology with the human judgement that closes deals.
Discover where global B2B lead generation is heading
What is the best lead generation software?
The right tools make a meaningful difference to how efficiently a B2B lead generation programme runs, but the market is crowded and the claims made by individual platforms rarely survive contact with a real sales operation. What really matters is how tools fit together and whether the stack supports the way your team actually works.
The resources below cover the most useful lead generation software available, how to evaluate what you need and how to build a tech stack that adds genuine capacity rather than complexity.
Explore E360’s lead generation services or get in touch to talk through your setup.
The best lead generation tools for 2026
The lead generation tools available in 2026 are considerably more capable than they were a few years ago, but having the right tools and having them working effectively are two different things. A fragmented stack where data doesn’t flow between platforms produces worse results than a simpler setup that’s properly connected.
This guide covers the best lead generation tools available right now, how they fit together into a functioning revenue engine and why the managed approach consistently outperforms a DIY setup.
Ready to build a lead generation stack that actually works? See which tools can help
How to build a modern sales tech stack for 2026?
The sales technology market has expanded rapidly, and most teams now have access to more tools than they know what to do with. The challenge is building a stack that actually fits your sales process, integrates properly and delivers a return on what you’re spending.
This guide covers how to assess what you need, what to look for across each layer of the stack, and the common mistakes that stop businesses getting value from the tools they’ve already invested in.
Discover how to build a sales tech stack that delivers
How to implement a sales tech stack in your B2B sales process?
Implementing a sales tech stack is a significant investment and getting it wrong is expensive. The technology available is more capable than ever, but the process of defining what you need, choosing the right tools and getting your team to actually use them effectively is where most businesses run into difficulty.
This guide walks through the seven steps E360 followed when building its own stack, along with the common challenges that come up during implementation, and how to handle them.
Read on to learn how to implement a sales tech stack effectively
How sales technology can grow your business?
Most B2B sales teams are using some form of technology already, whether that’s a CRM, an email platform or a prospecting tool. The question is whether those tools are working together effectively enough to make a measurable difference to pipeline and revenue.
This piece covers the key benefits of a well-built sales tech stack and the types of tools worth considering across each part of the sales process.
See how sales technology can grow your business
Lead generation vs Demand generation: What’s the difference?
These two terms appear together constantly in B2B marketing, but they describe different activities with different objectives. Mixing them up leads to strategies that try to do both jobs at once and end up doing neither particularly well.
We set out exactly where the distinction lies and how to structure a combined approach that builds awareness and converts it into qualified pipeline.
If you haven’t already, discover the difference between demand generation and lead generation
Outsourced vs In-House lead generation & sales
At some point most B2B businesses face the same question: should we build an internal team or bring in external resource? The honest answer depends on where you are as a business, what you’re trying to achieve, and how quickly you need to move.
The resources below look at both sides of that decision across different business stages, from startups weighing up their first dedicated sales hire to enterprises evaluating whether outsourcing specific markets makes commercial sense.
Explore E360’s lead generation services or get in touch to discuss your options.
Should your enterprise outsource lead generation?
Enterprise lead generation carries a specific set of requirements that most in-house teams struggle to meet consistently: precise ICP targeting, multilingual capability, data quality at scale, and the capacity to run multiple campaigns simultaneously. When those requirements start to strain internal resource, the pipeline shows it quickly.
This piece looks at how enterprise lead generation differs from other businesses, the signs that outsourcing might be worth considering, and the practical benefits of bringing in a dedicated external team.
Explore the practical benefits of outsourcing enterprise lead generation
Outsourced lead generation vs building an internal team
Building an internal lead generation team and outsourcing to an agency are both viable approaches, but they suit different businesses at different stages. The right choice depends on how quickly you need results, what budget you’re working with, and how much internal capacity you have to manage the function.
This piece covers the practical pros and cons of both models to help you work out which makes more sense for your business right now.
Read on to compare the pros and cons of in-house and outsourced lead generation
Benefits of outsourcing lead generation for B2B scale-ups
Scale-ups face a particular lead generation problem. The business is growing, which means founder and leadership time gets pulled into operations, product and delivery, and top-of-funnel activity quietly drops down the priority list. The pipeline looks fine until it doesn’t, and by then the gap is already six months deep.
This piece covers the signs that a scale-up might benefit from outsourced lead generation and the practical advantages of bringing in external resource at this stage of growth.
Looking for a scalable approach to lead generation? See how outsourcing can help
In-house vs outsourced sales teams: Which delivers faster ROI for founders?
For founders building a sales function from scratch, the choice between hiring in-house and outsourcing is one of the most consequential early decisions they’ll make. Get it right and the pipeline builds quickly. Get it wrong and you’re six months behind, having spent budget you can’t recover.
This piece compares both models directly across cost, speed, flexibility and ROI to help you work out which approach fits where your business is right now.
Learn more about choosing between in-house and outsourced lead generation
3 challenges start-Ups face when building an internal lead generation team
Building an internal lead generation team sounds straightforward until you’re in the middle of it. Founders who’ve never run a sales function before quickly find that hiring a BDR is the easy part, but structuring the role, choosing the right tools and keeping that person motivated through the grind of daily outreach are where things get complicated.
This piece covers three specific challenges start-ups run into when building internally, and what to consider before committing to that path.
Discover three challenges of building an internal sales team
Would an outsourced SDR work for my business?
Outsourcing your SDR function is an option more B2B businesses are considering, particularly when building internally feels slow, expensive or risky given current headcount pressures. Whether it’s the right move depends on where your business is and what you’re trying to achieve.
This piece covers the key benefits and challenges of outsourcing SDR work, and what to look for when choosing a provider.
Explore the benefits and challenges of outsourcing SDR work
Global vs Local lead generation agencies for European campaigns
Expanding into European markets creates an immediate question about how to resource lead generation across multiple territories. Managing separate local agencies in each country gives you local knowledge but creates coordination headaches. A single global partner offers consistency and efficiency, but only if they have genuine in-market capability rather than just international reach.
This piece looks at the practical differences between both approaches and the factors that should shape the decision for your business.
Which approach works best for European lead generation? Find out
B2B lead generation skills & performance
Generating leads consistently requires more than a good process and the right tools. The quality of the conversations your team has, how well they handle objections, how clearly they can articulate value and how they measure their own performance all shape what the pipeline actually looks like.
The resources below cover the skills and metrics that matter most in B2B lead generation, from handling a difficult discovery call to tracking the KPIs that tell you whether your outreach is genuinely working.
Explore E360’s lead generation services or get in touch to talk through your team’s approach.
Selling to the C-suite: What do CEOs really want to hear in meetings?
Getting a meeting with a C-suite executive is difficult but keeping their attention once you’re in the room is harder still, and most sales teams lose it early by leading with the wrong things.
This piece covers what senior executives actually respond to, how to build a point of view that earns traction, and the common mistakes that end C-level conversations before they’ve really started.
Discover what C-suite executives actually respond to in sales meetings
The 14 best objection handling skills your sales team need to know
Objections are a normal part of B2B sales, but how your team responds to them separates the deals that progress from the ones that stall. The instinct to counter or push back rarely works with informed buyers; the skills that do are less obvious and take deliberate practice to develop.
This piece covers fourteen objection handling techniques your sales team can apply immediately, from active listening and reframing through to persistence and creative problem-solving.
Read on for 14 objection handling techniques your sales team can use
9 customer service principles in sales (that should never be compromised!)
The experience a prospect has during the sales process shapes whether they buy, whether they stay and whether they recommend you. Customer service principles aren’t just for post-sale account management, they apply from the first outreach call through to close, and the businesses that get this right tend to see it reflected in their conversion rates and retention.
This piece covers nine customer service principles that B2B sales teams should build into how they work, and why compromising on any of them tends to be costly.
Learn more about the customer service principles that support successful B2B sales
10 tips to close the SaaS sales cycle
SaaS sales cycles are longer and more complex than most, with multiple stakeholders, extended evaluation periods and budget scrutiny at every stage. The deals that stall tend to do so for predictable reasons, and the ones that close tend to follow a more deliberate approach to building trust, demonstrating value and keeping momentum through a drawn-out process.
This piece covers ten practical tips for closing the SaaS sales cycle more consistently, from the first conversation through to signed contract.
Explore 10 practical tips for closing the SaaS sales cycle
19 B2B sales metrics & KPIs you should be tracking to grow your business
Tracking sales performance without a clear view of which metrics actually matter tends to produce a lot of data and not much insight. The right KPIs connect directly to revenue and tell you where the sales process is working and where it isn’t, which makes them worth understanding properly rather than just monitoring.
This piece covers 19 B2B sales metrics and KPIs worth tracking, what each one tells you and how to use them to make better decisions about your sales strategy.
See which B2B sales metrics and KPIs are worth tracking
The cost of a bad hire: Why getting SDR recruitment right matters
A poor SDR hire rarely looks like an obvious mistake at first. The problems tend to show up gradually: a pipeline that’s thinner than it should be, metrics that don’t add up, a sales team that’s quietly carrying someone who isn’t contributing. By the time the decision is made to move on, months of pipeline and management time have already been lost.
This piece covers the three ways a bad SDR hire damages a business and how long recovery typically takes.
Find out how a bad SDR hire can impact your business
How to create a business growth strategy
Most businesses have a general sense of where they want to go. Fewer have a documented plan that connects that ambition to specific actions, timelines and measurable targets. Without that structure, growth tends to be reactive rather than deliberate, and the gap between where the business is and where it could be quietly widens.
This piece covers how to build a business growth strategy from the ground up, including the frameworks, growth models and planning steps that give it real direction.
Read on to discover how to build a business growth strategy from the ground up
Seasonal best practices for lead generation
B2B lead generation doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Buying behaviour shifts across the year, decision-makers go quiet at predictable times and the teams that plan around those patterns consistently outperform those that don’t.
The resources below cover how to adapt your outreach strategy to the times of year that typically slow pipeline down, so your programme keeps producing results when others go quiet.
Explore E360’s lead generation services or get in touch to talk through your pipeline planning
How to be strategic with sales during the European summer holidays?
The assumption that European offices go dark in summer and sales activity should pause with them is outdated. Offices get quieter, but they don’t close, and the teams that treat summer as dead time tend to arrive in September with a thinner pipeline than those who used it strategically.
This piece covers what the European summer actually looks like for B2B sales now, and how to keep your pipeline moving through it.
Explore how to keep your B2B pipeline moving through the European summer
How to overcome lead generation challenges during Christmas!
December is when most SDRs dial back their activity and wait for January. It’s also when the teams that stay engaged tend to build the pipeline that makes Q1 productive rather than slow. The Christmas period is harder for outreach, but it’s not a write-off.
This piece covers three practical ways to adapt your lead generation approach during the holiday season and arrive in the new year with momentum rather than starting from scratch.
Find out how to keep your lead generation moving during the Christmas period
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