Complete guide to business leads in 2024

What are business leads?

Business leads, or sales leads, are individuals who are at the beginning of the buyer’s journey. They have shown interest in your products or services and can be converted into a paying customer. You may attract business leads through outbound strategies like cold calling or running ads, or they may come in through inbound methods such as blog content and social media posts. 

Not all business leads are alike, and some may never turn into customers. The sales team must understand how to gauge the likelihood of a lead converting and brainstorm how to attract similar leads to streamline the sales process. 

Why are business leads important?

Every business runs on the revenue it brings in from paying customers, and at some point, each customer was once a business lead. In other words, business leads are the source of sales for your company. They are your lifeblood. Without them, your sales pipeline would dry up, leaving your business struggling to make ends meet without any incoming revenue from new customers. 

Business leads can provide your sales team with valuable data, helping them understand the types of people most likely to become customers.

Business vs. generic leads

To understand what are business leads and why they’re so valuable, it’s important to know how they differ from generic leads. Generic leads are those that you’ll receive from a lead generation service provider. You’ll mostly get many of the same leads as everyone else who has purchased the list, and they’re not necessarily tailored to your specific audience or business. In contrast, business leads are those generated specifically for your business. These are typically higher-quality leads, which can lead to more conversions. 

How to generate business leads

You can generate leads from a number of sources, including both outbound and inbound strategies as mentioned above. The method you use to bring in leads may vary depending on the nature of your business, the customer base you’re selling to, and your industry. 

For instance, a company that sells apparel to Gen Zs will have a different approach to lead generation than a company selling commercial plumbing products to enterprise customers. Below, we’ll provide you with an overview of some of the most common ways to generate more business leads. 

Social media marketing

In the digital age, your company’s social media presence can be a critical asset that helps you build awareness for your brand and bring in new customers. It’s a way to let people get to know your brand identity even before they directly interact with anyone on your team. There are numerous ways to use social and content media marketing to generate business leads, like through sending personalized messages to potential leads or using influencers to promote your product or service to their audience. 

Social media marketing isn’t just effective for generating leads in the younger demographic—plenty of older consumers are now active on these sites too. According to some estimates, 68% of Millennials and 56% of Generation Z are active social network users, but 52% of Generation X are also present on these sites, as are more than one-third (37%) of Baby Boomers.  

Email marketing

Another method for business lead generation is email marketing. This allows companies to engage with individuals who consent to be added to their email list, likely after responding to a lead magnet like a coupon or promo code on the person’s first purchase or an educational ebook download on a subject that’s relevant to the company’s customer base.

By offering potential customers something of value in exchange for their email addresses, email marketing becomes a powerful way to generate leads. It also helps you nurture leads with follow-up sequences and email campaigns to lead them down the funnel until they eventually make a purchase. 

Cold calling

The traditional sales tactic of cold calling may not be as appealing in today’s business environment. However, it can still be an effective way to get directly in touch with potential buyers and generate business leads. After all, an incoming phone call is harder to ignore than an email. 

The effectiveness of cold calling will likely depend on the nature of your business, the sales script your team uses, and who your ideal customer is. So, even if you don’t use cold calling as your sole method for generating leads, it may be worthwhile to test it out to see how your target audience responds. 

Ads

Paid advertisements are a tried and true method for generating business leads. This strategy allows you to target individuals who fall into a certain demographic or criteria that best fits your ideal customers, directly promoting your product, service, or other assets within your sales funnel. 

There are numerous channels where you can run paid ads, whether on search engines, social media platforms, or print, giving you the flexibility to reach your ideal customer base in locations that are the most effective for your business. The ROI of paid advertising can vary depending on the quality of your strategy, how precise your targeting is, and the channel where you’re advertising, so make sure you test and tweak your campaigns to find the winning formula that generates the best leads for your business. 

Retargeting

Again, not all business leads will end up making a purchase. But, just because they don’t buy your products or services immediately does not mean they won’t ever be interested in what you have to offer. With retargeting campaigns, you can reach back out to leads who have previously shown some level of interest in your company, like if they filled a cart with products but never finalized their purchase. Retargeting campaigns help you stay top of mind with business leads and possibly give them the final nudge they need to make a purchase. 

Buying leads

In certain industries, buying leads can be a quick and effective method to fill your sales pipeline with potential buyers. When using this strategy, your team has more time to focus on follow-ups, nurturing, and other sales activities to help close more deals. 

This method is particularly useful in the B2B space where your target market may be more niche and harder to find than a consumer brand that sells to the masses. Not all lead generation services will provide you with a quality list of leads that fit into your ideal buyer profile. So, be sure to find a provider that is reputable, has a proven track record, and attractive pricing so you can get a good return on your investment.  

Content

The content you publish on your site, like blog posts, helps build authority in your industry and trust among potential buyers. If an individual or company comes across your content organically, like through search results, you can capture new leads and foster further interest in your brand. The strategic use of call-to-action (CTA) buttons and links can make it easy for an interested lead to get in touch with your team and learn more about what you have to offer. 

Of course, the key here is having high-quality content, as something that is inaccurate, incomplete, or hard to understand can only frustrate readers and leave a sour taste in their mouths about your brand.

Types of business leads

Not every business lead will become a paying customer. Your sales team has finite resources available to them, so how can they determine which leads are the most likely to convert so they can decide where to dedicate their time and efforts? 

Understanding the different types of business leads can help your team discern which leads are most worth pursuing and which will require more nurturing before closing the deal. Here are the main types of leads you may come across during the sales process. 

Cold leads

These are the leads who fit your ideal customer profile but have not previously shown interest in your company. Cold leads may have never even heard of your business, and likely come in through lead purchasing services or software. 

Since you have yet to build any rapport or trust with cold leads, they’re often seen as the most difficult to convert and require a bit more nurturing until they’re ready to make a purchase. But, these are often the most common type of business lead, so it’s worth knowing how to connect with them and address their biggest pain points so you can be seen as an authority and a possible solution to their needs. 

Warm leads

Potential buyers who are more familiar with your business and its offerings compared to cold leads. Maybe they have come across your blog or social media posts before, or even just recognize the name of your company. 

Warm leads need to be nurtured until they convert into a customer. You may need to have casual conversations to get to know their pain points and challenges so you know how to best position your company with your value proposition. 

Hot leads

Hot leads are those who have displayed clear interest in your company and often have a pressing need for your product or service. This means you don’t need to spend too much time focusing on brand awareness or educating them on your solutions. For instance, they may have already completed a demo of your product or gotten a referral from someone in their network. 

However, hot leads are not a guaranteed sale. They still require a certain level of nurturing and attention, otherwise, their interest could fade and they could seek out a competitor. 

Information-qualified leads (IQL)

When a business or individual fills out a form on your site or shares their contact information to download a valuable resource like an ebook or webinar, they are considered an information-qualified lead (IQL). 

These individuals or companies have provided you with some key pieces of information like their contact information, title, and company in exchange for access to a specific asset, though you may not know if they’re interested in your solution. It can be useful to insert these leads into your nurture campaigns or reach out to them directly to find out more about their pain points and see if they’re interested in learning more about your company. 

Marketing qualified leads (MQL)

Another common type of business lead is the marketing qualified lead (MQL). These leads are a bit further down the sales funnel than information-qualified leads, because they are actively searching for solutions for their pain points. 

These leads can be easier to convert to customers, though you still may need to follow up or meet with them for a demo or product presentation. If they’re actively researching your offering, they’re likely doing the same with a competitor, so you need to act quickly and be persistent to close the deal. 

Sales ready/accepted leads

Finally, you may also deal with sales-ready leads (SRL), which are considered to be at the bottom of the funnel and ready to meet with one of your salespeople. Each organization has its own criteria for what’s considered a sales-ready lead, so you may need to take some time to determine when it makes sense to pass them off to your sales team. 

Some may consider a lead sales-ready if they’ve filled out a form on the website, whereas others may not make this designation until they’ve sat through a product presentation or demo.

What to do after generating leads

Generating leads is only the first step towards filling your pipeline and bringing in more sales. Once you have a list of potential buyers, the following steps are what determine whether you’re able to drive more conversions or lose business to your competition. 

Lead qualifying and scoring

Not every business lead will be the right buyer for your goods or services. Passing them along to the sales team without any idea of whether they’re ready to buy could only waste your team’s resources. 

You need to qualify the lead to make sure they are serious about buying. You can score the lead based on firmographics, interactions with your brand, etc. to determine how likely they are to make the purchase. After lead scoring, the sales team will know where they should focus. 

Distribute to the sales team

Once you have qualified and scored business leads, they can be transferred to the sales team. Each company will have its own method for distributing leads to sales reps, whether it’s through a manual process or an automated platform. Either way, you should have a structured lead distribution system in place to ensure your team can take advantage of all sales opportunities coming their way. 

Follow up

Lastly, make sure all leads in your pipeline receive a follow-up from someone on the sales team. Only a small fraction of deals are closed during the first interaction, so being persistent with follow-ups allows your business to take advantage of the large majority of deals that require a bit more effort. If a lead is still on the fence, all it takes is one message, email, or phone call check-in to put your business top of mind and nudge them towards a purchase decision.

Business lead trends in 2024 and beyond

The business landscape is constantly changing, and companies continue to find new ways to bring in leads while still leveraging trusted methods like cold calling and advertising. Even still, many companies struggle to generate high-quality leads, with one source reporting that 37% of marketers say this is currently one of their biggest challenges. 

To help remedy lead quality problems, more companies in 2024 are relying on AI and automation tools to streamline the lead generation process. In fact, one report shows that companies using marketing automation to nurture prospects saw an increase of 451% in qualified leads. As AI continues to revolutionize all corners of business, the impact on lead generation will be profound over the coming years.

Enhance your lead generation practices with Freshsales

Understanding what is a business lead and how to generate them lays a great foundation for any sales-driven company. Then, when you’re ready to optimize your lead generation and bring in higher-quality leads for your sales team, consider leveraging an advanced tool like Freshsales CRM. 

Our platform comes with AI-powered lead scoring and deal insights so you can help your reps easily identify which prospects to prioritize. Plus, you can automate follow-ups in your sales sequence so reps have more time to meet with prospects and close deals. If you want to see how a tool like Freshsales can help improve conversions and get more out of your business leads with the help of AI, try it for free today.