How to Generate B2B Outbound Leads

Struggling with inconsistent sales pipelines? Many businesses miss out on potential opportunities because they aren’t doing outreach. Waiting for leads to find you is going to be a long wait and without a steady stream of qualified leads, growth stalls, and revenue targets become harder to hit.

By proactively reaching out to potential customers, you’re in control of your sales process. However, a successful outreach isn’t just about making contact otherwise every Tom, Dick and Harry would be an outbound pro. To succeed, you need a structured approach where you aren’t just putting in effort, but also getting results. How then do you create an outbound strategy that fills your sales pipeline with qualified leads?

Define Your Target Audience

Decision-makers get between 50-100 messages daily. Without a well-defined audience, your message will blend in with the noise and likely end up in the spam box.

Want to stand out? First things first is creating an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) for your services. Your ICP describes your ideal buyer based on factors like demographics, location, job title, seniority, company size, and industry. It’s not just a fancy to-do list, it makes your messaging more targeted, ultimately increasing response rates and higher chances of closing deals.

If you already have a customer base, don’t look too far. Start by analyzing the deals you’ve already won. Look at some of your best leads profiles who converted successfully and shape your ICP with the data.

If you’re just getting into the game, consider which attributes align closely with your solution. Is your product better suited for larger companies? Then prioritize company size. Are you focusing on decision-makers? Pay attention to job title and seniority or combine all to make it more targeted. The more you understand what drives your customer, the clearer your ICP becomes.

**You can use the template below as a guide: \ (Source: Pipedrive).

It’s also recommended to create three different profiles for your ICP. Test them over time, refine them, and stick with the one that delivers the best results.

Build a High-Quality Prospect List

**Once you’ve defined your ICP, it’s time to find the right buyers to reach out to. Sales intelligence tools help you people find profiles that are a great fit. I use Apollo.io to find leads as it has dozens of filters and buying signals, helping me find people in the market to buy now. You can do your research and select tools that would serve you well, then plug in your ICP to create a targeted list. \ You can also generate leads from the social platform where your leads are most active. As a B2B business, I assume that would be LinkedIn, and with the LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can plug in your ICP to create a lead list. But having a strong list is only half the battle. How do you ensure that your message resonates with those prospects? That’s where a compelling Unique Value Proposition (UVP) comes in.

Create a Unique Value Proposition

**A value proposition is a statement that summarizes what your business offers, who it’s for, and what makes it unique. Think of it as your elevator pitch—the key message in your outbound communication that makes your prospects think, “Yes, I need this!” \
That said, writing a great value proposition starts with having the right information. This means understanding your offer inside out, knowing your customer (as we discussed earlier), and being able to connect the value of your solution to their specific needs.

Start by listing your prospect's pain points. What problems are keeping them up at night? Then, outline the benefits of your product or solution and highlight what makes it uniquely capable of solving those problems. Once you’ve gathered these insights, use this simple UVP formula:

I help (audience/niche) to (achieve result/solve problem) by (service/product).

It might feel a bit awkward or wordy at first, but this formula provides a solid starting point, explaining the core of what needs to be communicated. For example, in the case of e-signature software, here’s what I’ve got:

This is a thoughtful process that requires careful consideration. It’s also a good idea to create three different versions of your UVP, and then test them to see which resonates most with your target audience. And once you have the UVP, it’s time to decide your channel of delivery.

Choose Your Lead Generation Channels

Humans are unpredictable—just like you and I—so please do yourself a favor and wear the hat of an experimenter willing to try different approaches till you find what works. In this context, I mean trying out various campaign strategies. It’s also wise to adopt an omnichannel outreach. If they’re not responsive via email, you can reach them through calls, texts, or even on social media.

1. Email Campaign

Email campaigns are a cost-effective way to generate leads. But then I want you to know that all leads are not equal as your campaign's success will largely depend on this. As Chet Holmes explains in The Ultimate Sales Machine, only 3% of your audience will be ready to buy at any given time. That’s why you should categorize your contacts into different segments:

• Those ready to buy

• Those able to buy

• Those Unaware of the Need/Not Ready to Buy

  
  

Depending on your buying signals, people are actively looking for what you offer. They might be hiring or preparing to save on an upcoming subscription renewal. You should focus most of your time on them, personalizing your outreach and engaging consistently with leads in this segment because they’re closest to making a purchase. You can leverage Samantha McKenna's #SMYKM approach to personalization—it’s helped me improve my email engagements significantly.

Don’t know where to get personalized info? Check the company updates, podcasts, LikedInpost, school attended, mutual connection, and a whole bunch of others. Also, ensure your message is clear, and relevant and focuses on how you could help the prospect. The key is empathy.

Those ‘able to buy’ are a fit for your solution. They know they have a problem, but they aren’t just ready yet. They could be checking different solutions or skeptical about whether your offer is the right choice.

Rather than selling aggressively, your goal with this group is to build trust. Be that consultant ready to address their concerns by sharing case studies, success stories, or educational materials—showing how your solution has worked for people like them. Since they aren’t ripe for one-on-one personalization, you can group them into segments based on industry, location, or tech stack, and send personalized mass messages.

The third category is the least people you should spend your time on. They don’t know they have a problem and are happy with their current state. If you can think long-term, they can be influenced through relationship-building, content marketing, and consistent outreach. You can also engage with them through educational content like blog posts and webinars, which subtly educate them on problems they are unaware of.

Again, remember that not all leads are equal and should be engaged with accordingly. Personalise for the top guns and spend less time on the other leads.

2. Cold Calling

Many people avoid cold calls, and I don’t blame them—it can be awkward talking to strangers. But if you want real-time feedback, you’ve got to shove the nervousness aside and just dial the number. Why dial? Calls are effective, as studies show that sales reps who make cold calls meet their quotas 10-20% more often than those who don’t. It also provides an opportunity to handle prospects' objections.

That said, a common mistake with cold calling is obsessing over booking a meeting. While that’s important, you might come across as a desperate salesperson who cares only about the sales. Why not instead, focus on determining if the prospect is a good fit? Ask qualifying questions, explore their pain points, and address objections before presenting your solution. Here’s a great cold call from Call of Fame.

People buy from those they trust and like, and you want to empathize with prospects and become that person they trust. Furthermore, while having a script is useful, conversations can take unexpected turns, so be adaptable and ready to respond to different objections as they come.

3. Social Selling

LinkedIn reports that 78% of social sellers outperform peers who don’t use social media. This shows that adding social selling into your strategy brings greater success than relying only on traditional methods. Great social selling combines building relationships, establishing a personal brand, finding the right people, and engaging with insights. They all make your Social Selling Index (SSI)  score.

(Source: Zendesk).

So, how do you become good at social selling? Build a personal brand strategy first, then define your topics and goals and tailor your content to address your audience’s pain points. Attention spans are short, so you must grab people’s attention and break through the endless scrolling. To increase your chances of success, use hooks that generate curiosity, tell a story, or provoke emotion in your audience. For example, you could say:

• "Imagine you’re... [e.g., struggling with a low open rate]."

• "Here are the 5 secrets to building a loyal audience that turns into customers."

• "Let me be real for a moment."

  
  

There are no hard and fast rules, but overall, you want to show up as your authentic self to your audience consistently. Also, share case studies and demonstrative content of clients you've helped to build trust.

Furthermore, don’t be that person who simply posts and runs off the platform, you also need to engage. Follow industry leaders, peers, and newcomers you admire. Actively engage with thoughtful comments and friendly chats, and over time, you'll build a community that reciprocates your energy, boosting your visibility.

Don’t also come off as pushy in the DM, “pitch slapping” people immediately after you connect. Remember, the goal of social selling is to build trust, so avoid pitching right away. Instead, focus on adding value and building relationships, and the pitch can come after.

Implement Lead Nurturing Techniques

"People lose because they want things fast, forgetting that life is long." Sales is a long game, and the winners are the persistent, steadily nurturing prospects toward the ultimate goal—a closed deal.

The typical salesperson includes about 7-15 touches in their outbound cadence. While these touches may be targeted, value-driven, or multichannel, as discussed above only a small percentage of people are ready to buy at any given moment. And usually, the messaging timeline is too short to catch them hot.

Rory Sadler's approach which I recommend says to ditch the break-up email and add nurturing steps to your sequence instead. Some might argue that “this isn’t my responsibility”, but as a seller, it's also your job to educate your audience and demonstrate how your solution can solve their problems. That said, to stay top of mind, send short, educational emails every 4-6 weeks. And please, avoid random case studies and keep them relevant, and you’d better check to see if your efforts are working.

Measure and Optimize

You must always be testing, using the data from those tests to optimize your outreach. The industry standard for email open rates is between 15-25%, but with experimentation, you might even push past 25% like I did.

It’s important to track open rates because if no one opens your emails, no one knows what you’re selling. A low open rate could signal that it's time to rethink your subject line.

Also, look out for the response and engagement rates. Some emails are too long and can’t hold a prospect's attention. If you’re seeing low response rates it could be you’re asking for the prospect's most precious resource—time, without first providing some value. What about offering free lead magnets, a trial, or providing helpful insights before asking for a meeting? For instance, I once saw a post where an SDR sent doughnuts to a prospect after discovering it was his favorite and then got a response that led to a business relationship.

All said, conversion, however, is the most important metric. A high conversion rate indicates that your messaging, targeting, and nurturing tactics are effective. A low conversion rate suggests hints at a disconnect preventing leads from buying. To fix this, you’ll need to review the sales process to find the disconnect. You can also use feedback from leads and your team to smooth out those hurdles.

Conclusion

There are countless tips and tricks out there, but if you never get into the game and implement what you’ve learned, that knowledge won’t serve you.

What works for someone else might not work entirely for you, so it’s essential to test different approaches and tailor them to your style and audience. The market is more complex than ever, and while automation tools can help with repetitive tasks, lazy prospecting just won’t cut it anymore.

At the end of the day, B2B lead generation isn’t just about filling the top of the funnel. It shapes you as a professional, just as it has shaped me—making me more empathetic, an effective communicator, and persistent in guiding prospects toward conversion and building strong business relationships.