Lead Generation

Lead generation is the process of identifying potential customers and capturing their contact information so your sales team has a pipeline of prospects to work.

It’s the lifeblood of any GTM operation. Without a consistent flow of new leads, your pipeline dries up, your sales team has nobody to talk to, and revenue stalls. The best GTM teams treat lead generation as an always-on system, not a sporadic campaign.

Lead generation breaks into two primary approaches. Inbound lead generation attracts prospects through content, SEO, paid ads, social media, and events — the prospect comes to you. Outbound lead generation involves proactively reaching out to target accounts through cold email, LinkedIn outreach, and phone calls — you go to the prospect.

Most mature companies run both motions simultaneously. Inbound tends to produce higher-intent leads at lower cost but takes time to build. Outbound gives you more control over targeting and volume but requires more manual effort and has lower conversion rates.

For example, an inbound lead gen program might include: publishing SEO-optimized blog posts that drive organic traffic, running targeted LinkedIn ads to your ICP, and hosting monthly webinars on topics your buyers care about. An outbound program might include: building targeted account lists, enriching contacts with verified email addresses, and running multi-channel sequences through email and LinkedIn.

The key metric isn’t just lead volume — it’s qualified lead volume. Generating 5,000 leads that don’t match your ICP is worse than generating 500 that do. Always measure lead generation against downstream metrics like SQL conversion rate and pipeline generated.

Lead generation platforms help you build and manage both inbound and outbound lead flow from a single system.