The 5 Best Sources of B2B Lead Prospects

5 best sources for B2B lead prospects

Here are five excellent lead prospect sources that B2B companies should pursue.

1. Customer referrals

Customer referrals generate the most-qualified lead prospects. These companies have likely already heard your existing loyal customers talk positively about your business. Buyers tend to know other companies in the same industry and have relationships with their counterparts. Companies with similar customer bases likely have the same customer personas and meet the criteria for solid lead prospects, saving you significant research time.

Of course, a current customer will feel comfortable referring a prospect to you only if they’re happy with your products and services, so prioritize your customer relationships. 

To generate referrals, regularly ask current loyal customers if they know other businesses that may benefit from your offerings. If they do, reward them with a thank-you gift, a handwritten note or a discount on a future order. 

2. LinkedIn and its Sales Navigator tool

To help qualify leads, LinkedIn provides detailed information, including a specific professional’s industry, company size, location and job title. You can also look at the content a potential lead posts to spot unmet needs and other information to help you qualify them further.

Saul Marquez, founder and CEO of Outcomes Rocket, calls LinkedIn an overwhelmingly powerful platform. “When I learned that 80 percent of B2B leads come from LinkedIn, it seemed to make perfect sense, since the platform has such sophisticated targeting capabilities,” Marquez said. “I like that LinkedIn can find decision-makers based on not just role and industry, but also engagement patterns and professional interests.”

Although a regular LinkedIn business profile will provide some information, it will be limited by your network. In contrast, LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator provides ample information and advanced filtering tools to help you find the exact people you’re seeking.

Here’s how to use Sales Navigator: 

1. Sign up for Sales Navigator.
2. Filter to find the companies and job titles that meet your criteria. 
3. Examine a prospect’s profile and posts to find something to reference in your invitation to connect. For example, you might comment on a recent post they made, mention something you have in common (like graduating from the same university), or ask their opinion on an industry issue or trend. 
4. Create personalized connection invitations, and send them to your prospects. 

3. Web scraping tools

You can search the internet for hours for companies that match your buyer personas, or you can use automated tools to do it in a fraction of the time. Web scraping tools peruse specific websites, gather data according to your specifications, and deliver the information in a spreadsheet. PhantomBuster and Data Miner are two popular web scraping tools. 

4. B2B databases

Quality B2B databases are excellent sources of B2B lead prospects. Check out these examples:

• Techsalerator lists over 320 million companies worldwide.
• UpLead offers a B2B database with over 160 million contacts and claims 95 percent accuracy.
• ZoomInfo has 65 million direct-dial phone numbers and 150 million verified email addresses.

Choose and sign up for a B2B database, input your criteria, and use the database to filter and create a list of likely prospects.

5. Trade shows and events

Trade shows are an excellent avenue for building awareness of your company and collecting leads. Because trade shows are specific to products or industries, most attendees and some exhibitors will match your buyer personas. 

Exhibiting at a trade show allows you to showcase your company’s products, services and capabilities. It also places company representatives in direct contact with potential buyers. These potential buyers are warm leads who may already know about your company. 

When you exhibit at or sponsor a trade show, consider these strategies: 

• Gather leads via a giveaway. Encourage attendees to put their business cards in a bowl for a chance to win something valuable. 
• Follow up with attendees. Ask the event coordinator for a contact list of attendees for follow-up. 
• Schedule a private dinner. If you want to target specific companies, consider having an invitation-only dinner during the event. Attendees will appreciate a free meal at a nice restaurant and be more open to hearing your pitch. 

Kyle Hall, CEO of PayKings, stressed the importance of making connections at industry events. “Being active in industry-specific communities and sponsoring events or conferences helps us build authority and trust, which naturally leads to better connections,” Hall said. “It’s human nature to trust familiar brands, and consistently showing up at key industry events makes us a familiar face that companies are comfortable approaching.”

What are prospects in sales?

Business prospects are potential customers who fit your target audience. They can be new prospects or loyal customers with the means and ability to buy what you’re selling.

For example, say you run an extermination business. Your business prospects might include small restaurants that need regular pest elimination in food preparation areas. However, your prospect isn’t the small business as a whole — it’s the person who makes purchasing decisions for the business. This person is sometimes called a “prospect customer.”

A prospect customer differs from a sales lead. A lead may express interest in what you’re selling, but you don’t yet know whether they fit your company’s ideal client profile. A prospect is someone who fits your client profile as your sales due diligence process has indicated. The sales pipeline ultimately flows toward selling to this person.

Tips to qualify and develop business prospects

Generating lead prospects is one thing; converting leads is another. Hall said properly qualifying leads is vital to maximizing your sales reps’ time and boosting your chances of success. 

“When it comes to qualifying leads, we focus on three main criteria: engagement, fit and need,” Hall said. “We prioritize leads who are interactive and show genuine interest, making sure they align with our products and services, and I look for a clear need that my product can solve.”

Not everyone will be a qualified lead, and that’s OK. Hall advised moving on if your primary qualification criteria aren’t met. “How can a company scale if your sales reps are spending all day chasing leads that are screening their calls, avoiding you?” Hall said. “‘Yes’ is the best answer, but ‘no’ is the second-best answer because it allows us to move on quickly to get to the next ‘yes.'”

The following tips can help you eliminate unsuitable business prospects and move qualified prospects to the next level of the sales process.

Develop B2B lead prospects via email.

Email is a highly effective way to qualify and nurture prospects. With opt-in email marketing, your recipients already have some interest in your company and its offerings. They can unsubscribe if they lose interest. 

Use email to educate, inform and (when appropriate) entertain your audience while pointing them toward the actions you want them to take. For example, you may want them to make an appointment with a sales rep, request more information, fill out a web form, visit your website or blog, or follow your social media accounts. 

The best email marketing services can make your campaigns specific, personalized and efficient. For example, if prospects have grown cold, previous customers haven’t purchased in a while, or website visitors haven’t taken action, create an email retargeting campaign with personalized offers.

Send B2B lead prospects to your website or blog.

Your website is your online presence, so it’s an excellent place for prospects to learn about your company. Once you contact prospects via email, phone, social media or in person, send them a link to your website. They can see if your products or services are a good fit for them. If so, they can gain the confidence to take the next step on the sales journey. 

When you send B2B lead prospects to your website or blog, keep these points in mind:

• Ensure that your website is high-quality. Your website design must be user-friendly, attractive and comprehensive. It should house valuable persona-focused content, contact information, and product and solution data. Your social, event, email and marketing efforts all drive traffic to your website. Encourage leads to go to your website for solutions and relevant information, and set up your website to collect valuable lead insights.
• Take full advantage of your blog. Blogging optimizes your website for new visitors, and it’s an effective way to nurture existing leads. To generate blog content, ask your social community what they think about a particular subject. Find common problems related to your industry, and use your blog to outline solutions. You’ll establish yourself as an industry expert, thereby boosting your credibility and getting people interested enough to investigate your company’s solutions. 

Your website and business blog should make it easy for visitors to engage with you in other ways, like subscribing to your email list, following you on social media, and attending your events. The more engaged the prospect is, the more likely they are to become a paying customer.

Use social media for ongoing B2B relationships.

Social media can help you nurture one-on-one relationships with prospects. For example, you can use LinkedIn to do the following: 

• Connect with B2B lead prospects
• Join relevant LinkedIn groups
• Comment on prospects’ posts
• Message prospects directly with product information, questions, links to helpful articles, and event invitations 

Daniel Walter, a fractional revenue operations advisor at Muffyn Advisory, emphasized the importance of genuinely engaging B2B leads by commenting on posts, asking questions and sharing insights. 

“Qualify leads by seeing who responds and starts a conversation,” Walter advised. “Small businesses that skip the ‘quick sell’ and focus on real, helpful interactions will get better results and build lasting connections.”

You can also use social platforms like Instagram, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) to build your company’s credibility by highlighting successful projects or implementations and posting testimonials, case studies and thought leadership articles.

Invite B2B lead prospects to an event.

It’s one thing to have an active internet and social media presence; it’s another to be physically present at big events and showcase your brand or product as something relatable to your prospects. Events are an investment for brands at all marketing and sales funnel stages, from generating awareness with new prospects to creating and retaining loyal customers.

Events are perfect opportunities to merge online and offline experiences. Consider generating hype for your event with a social media or email marketing campaign to start measuring lead activity. Be sure to include the details on your website as well.

Other sources of B2B prospects

Consider these additional ways to find quality B2B lead prospects: 

• Strategic partnerships: Businesses often make strategic partnerships with complementary companies. For example, a commercial interior design firm might partner with a furniture manufacturer, or an industrial safety equipment company could collaborate with a safety compliance software-as-a-service firm. Strategic alliances allow you to pool ideas, prospects and resources. Seek companies that can offer a mutually beneficial exchange.
• Cold calling: Even in the social media era, old-fashioned cold calling still carries some weight. The basics of cold calling are sound: You get to know the prospect’s potential and have a chance for an immediate conversion. While cold calling can be challenging, it’s a chance to grab the bull by the horns. If you’re out of ideas for prospect sources, review your script and start with cold calling.
• Peer lunches: Instead of pouring your resources into a big event appearance, you could create a series of small-scale lunch meetings with other sales reps. The information you share about potential leads you’ve all pursued and products you’ve sold can help you shape your sales targeting approach. If you’re lucky, you may even find partner companies to sell complementary products.