Everyone defines lead generation differently, which makes this tricky to answer. In modern B2B campaigns, it leans more toward marketing due to the need for specialized tasks like data scraping lead lists, enriching the data, and setting up campaigns.
A lot of work involves campaign strategy, customer segmentation, copywriting, creative work, targeting, budgeting, monitoring, A/B testing, and reporting. After that, it moves to lifecycle nurturing with communication flows, message templating, further segmentation, and qualification. At this stage, a Marketing Qualified Lead gets handed off to the sales team.
We’re facing similar challenges in our B2B market. Casting too wide a net hurt our numbers. Conversion dropped from 4.5% to 1.2% when we scaled broadly. We ended up with too many small businesses that couldn’t afford our $40k+ solution.
We’re switching to Account-Based Marketing (ABM), focusing on specific segments and key contacts at target accounts. The data shows: 8.5% engagement on targeted campaigns vs. 2% with broad outreach. Our sales cycle dropped from 180 to 145 days. Our focus is manufacturing companies with $50M+ revenue and 200+ employees.
We also moved to “demand generation” and “demand capture” to clarify our approach. We use a demand capture score (DCS = [Marketing Qualified Accounts × Intent Signals × Engagement Rate]). A score under 150 indicates demand issues, while a score over 150 with low conversion suggests capture issues. For ERP companies, a DCS of 120-180 is typical for enterprise accounts.
You can definitely drive demo requests and build awareness, but you have to manage long-term expectations.
P.S. We specialize in B2B marketing. If you’re looking to improve your lead quality, switch to ABM, or boost engagement with targeted campaigns, we can help. Feel free to reach out if you need assistance.