B2B Lead Prospecting Methods To Fill Your Pipeline

B2B prospecting is the backbone of a strong sales pipeline. It helps sales teams engage and generate business leads that fit their ICP.

In this guide, we’ll break down the best prospecting strategies, data sources, and tools to help you connect with the right prospects faster.

AI highlights

• Sales prospects are high-intent leads who have expressed interest in your product but haven’t committed to a purchase yet. Sales reps engage them through direct outreach: calls, emails, and LinkedIn to drive conversions. In comparison, marketing prospects are broader audiences nurtured for future sales via content, ads, and webinars.

• The best tools for B2B prospecting process include:

• Key B2B sales prospecting strategies for sales reps:
  

• Boost your sales prospecting efforts with PhantomBuster. Start a 14-day free trial today!

B2B sales prospects vs B2B marketing prospects

Sales prospects are potential customers who have expressed interest and are actively engaged by sales teams through 1:1 outreach.

Marketing prospects, on the other hand, are broader audiences targeted through content, ads, and campaigns to generate and nurture future buyers. Here’s how the two compare:

Practical B2B sales prospecting techniques for sales reps

If your outreach isn’t delivering results, you’re either targeting the wrong prospects or engaging them at the wrong time. Here are 10 sales prospecting strategies to help reps connect with the right buyers more effectively.

Build a list of qualified leads from people who engage with competitors on social media

Instead of reaching out to random prospects, focus on leads who interact with your competitors and industry leaders on socials. These prospects are already interested in industry discussions and more likely to engage with you.

We recommend using LinkedIn Post Commenters Export to automate the entire task.

Enter the post's URL in the tool, and the automation will source LinkedIn profile data from people who engaged with that post. This way, you'll get a list of warm leads enriched with critical data like job titles, location, and their original comment.

Leverage intent data for prospecting

The most valuable prospects are already in the market for solutions like yours. Intent signals—actions that indicate buyer interest—help you identify them early. One strong signal is LinkedIn event attendance. When someone joins an industry event, it shows they’re actively engaged in relevant topics and more likely to be open to conversations about solutions that address their needs.

That’s where PhantomBuster's LinkedIn Event Guests Export comes in. Extract up to 1000 prospect profiles from the event URL and share the fresh list of high-intent leads with your sales team.

Start your free 14-day PhantomBuster trial now!

Enrich your lead lists with real-time data from LinkedIn

Basic prospect lists with only a name or job title lack the necessary depth for effective outreach. To engage the right leads, you need accurate, up-to-date data like contact details, job history, and mutual connections.

PhantomBuster's LinkedIn Profile Scraper provides this. Feed your LinkedIn lead list into the tool to enrich your leads with 47+ key data points.

Once enriched, you can easily sync the data into HubSpot for one source of truth.

Use AI to identify qualified leads in your list and prioritize them

AI helps you focus on high-potential leads by scoring and qualifying them based on specific criteria. Use PhantomBuster's AI LinkedIn Profile Enricher to analyze extracted data (job role, experience, industry) and score each contact.

Say you're looking for leads for your AI-assisted marketing automation platform. You could set criteria to prioritize Head of Sales with specific skills in America.

Here's an example of a comprehensive prompt:

Analyze the provided LinkedIn profile data for each lead and assign a lead score from 1 to 5, where 1 is the lowest quality and 5 is the highest quality. Base the score on the following criteria, which are relevant to [Company Name]'s Ideal Customer Profile (ICP):

**Scoring Criteria:**

**Job Title (Weight: 40%):**
* Score 5: Decision-makers with titles like: "VP of Sales," "Head of Sales," "Sales Director," "Chief Revenue Officer," "CEO," "Founder," "President" (at smaller companies).
* Score 4: Sales management roles like: "Sales Manager," "Regional Sales Manager," "Director of Sales Operations," "Sales Operations Manager."
* Score 3: Individual contributor sales roles like: "Account Executive," "Sales Representative," "Business Development Representative."
* Score 2: Roles related to sales but not directly involved in selling (e.g., "Sales Enablement Specialist," "Sales Analyst").
* Score 1: Roles unrelated to sales, or titles indicating junior positions (e.g., "Intern," "Assistant").

**Seniority Level (Weight: 30%):**
* Score 5: C-Level, VP, or Director level.
* Score 4: Senior Manager or Manager level.
* Score 3: Individual Contributor.
* Score 2: Entry-Level or Associate.
* Score 1: Intern or Assistant.

* **Company Size (Weight: 20%):** (You'll need to provide company size data, if available; if not, the AI can *infer* it to some extent from job titles and experience)
* Score 5: 101-500 employees (our sweet spot).
* Score 4: 51-100 employees or 501-1000 employees.
* Score 3: 11-50 employees.
* Score 2: 1001-5000 employees.
* Score 1: 1-10 employees or 5000+ employees.

* **Location (Weight: 10%):**
* Score 5: Major US metropolitan areas: San Francisco, New York, Boston, Austin, Chicago, Seattle.
* Score 4: Other US metropolitan areas.
* Score 3: United States and Canada
* Score 2: Major European cities (London, Berlin, Paris).
* Score 1: All other locations.

* **Skills (Bonus):**
* If the profile lists skills related to "sales automation," "lead generation," "CRM," or "sales technology," add +1 to the final score (up to a maximum of 5).

**Output Instructions:**

For each profile, provide the following:

1. **Lead Score:** (A number from 1 to 5)
2. **Justification:** A *brief* explanation of the score (e.g., "Score: 4. Director-level role in sales management at a mid-sized company in a target location.").

Here are some examples of our results using this prompt with PhantomBuster's AI.

Use AI to personalize outreach to your target audience

You can also use AI to analyze prospect data—job roles, past interactions, and interests—to generate tailored emails, LinkedIn messages, and follow-ups that feel authentic.

AI tools like PhantomBuster's AI LinkedIn Message Writer make this process scalable. Set up a custom prompt, and the automation will create personalized messages for each prospect.

Here’s an example:

Write a LinkedIn connection message based on the LinkedIn profile data fed to you, the below context, format and content:

Context:

LinkedIn connection messages must be limited to 280 characters,

My name is <your first name>, and I work as a <your job title> at <your company name>,

I am looking to connect with interesting and experienced professionals to expand my network and stay in touch with them,

I do not possess similar experience and skills to them,

I am not looking to offer them any services or recruit them.

Format of your message:

must contain less than 280 characters,

must be written in English,

Content of your message:

must quote one or two data points from the profile,

must be written in a fun, casual way,

must not use the word "fellow".

Here is an example of a good connection message:

"Hey Ben! Impressed by your experience leading sales teams at GoodProduct Inc. Would love to connect and learn more about your expertise in business development and SaaS. No sales pitch, just a curious recruiter expanding his network!"

The message must be shorter than 280 characters. If the message is longer than 280 characters, rewrite it to be shorter than 280 characters.

You'll get personalized messages that you can automate.

You can also A/B test variations to refine your approach and maximize engagement without spending hours researching.

Automate outreach efforts to enhance your prospecting process

Once your lead list is enriched and you've created personalized messages, use PhantomBuster's LinkedIn Outreach automation to set up structured workflows to send connection requests, introduction messages, and up to three follow-ups automatically.

It ensures your outreach stays consistent across multiple touchpoints: a personalized connection request, an engaging intro message once they accept, and follow-ups if they don’t respond—all scheduled at the right intervals to keep you top of mind.

Use different text placeholder to personalize messages from scratch or insert the AI messages previously generated.

Always sync leads inside your CRM

Sync your lead generation with your CRM to keep your sales and marketing teams aligned. Teams may overlap outreach, send mixed messages without real-time integration, and create a poor customer experience.

PhantomBuster's HubSpot Contact Sender can solve this challenge by syncing lead data to HubSpot without any manual effort. This gives teams clear visibility into prospect status, streamlines the sales pipeline, and allows them to focus on conversions instead of double-checking data.

Your HubSpot lists will always stay up to date.

Test different sales cadences across multiple channels

Sales cadences create structured touchpoints using emails, phone calls, and LinkedIn messages and keep prospects moving through the buying journey. To maximize impact, you’ll need to tailor cadences based on buyer personas, industry, or purchase intent.

AI makes it easier to understand your ICP by analyzing customer data, their active platforms, and engaged companies. You can feed your data to an AI tool and use a prompt to extract meaningful insights from it:

This analysis might show that healthcare decision-makers prefer a formal, fast-paced approach (six touches in 14 days), while tech startup marketers respond better to a slower, more casual cadence (six touches in 30 days).

Keep an eye on sales-critical KPIs like conversion rates, cold open rates, and response rates. They will help you fine-tune the frequency and timing of your touchpoints to improve engagement.

Use lead forms to capture marketing qualified leads

Use progressive profiling in forms to collect only essential details first, like name, email, and company, in your first interaction with a lead. As prospects engage further, such as signing up for a webinar, the form auto-fills known details and requests additional information like job title and company size.

Segment leads coming from trial signups based on self-qualification and automate next steps.

Use webinars to attract potential customers

Co-hosting webinars with industry influencers or complementary brands will help expand your audience and add instant credibility.

Make your webinars on demand after they go live to collect leads continuously.

To nurture prospective customers after the webinar, follow up with personalized emails to key decision makers, relevant resources, and 1:1 consultation offers.

Best B2B lead prospecting data sources

Effective lead prospecting needs high-quality data to thrive. The right insights help you match prospects to your ICP, reach decision-makers, and craft personalized outreach.

Good data also helps you filter out poor-fit leads to improve lead quality and account-based marketing (ABM).

The top sources to fuel your B2B prospecting efforts include:

B2B Sales prospecting tools

To make the most of modern prospecting techniques, you need B2B sales prospecting tools that combine AI-driven personalization, lead list enrichment with quality data, and automation of sales cadences across multiple touchpoints.

Here are the top B2B prospecting tools we recommend for sales teams:

B2B lead prospecting FAQs

What is B2B prospecting?

B2B prospecting is the process of identifying and reaching out to potential business customers who fit your ICP. It involves researching leads, qualifying them based on relevance and purchase intent, and engaging them through calls and emails to move them into the sales pipeline.

What are the stages of a B2B prospecting sales process?

The main stages of the B2B prospecting process include:

• Prospecting: Identify high-potential leads using data-driven methods.

• Qualification: Filter out weak leads and focus on those ready to buy.

• Engagement: Build trust through social selling before making direct contact.

• Proposal: Present compelling offers tailored to each lead.

• Closing: Negotiate terms, finalize paperwork, and secure the sale.

• Customer handoff: Transition to customer success for retention.

Sales pipeline vs sales funnel

Sales pipeline and sales funnel are often used interchangeably, but they serve different functions. The sales pipeline tracks active deals across specific stages, from prospecting to closing. It’s a structured workflow showing how opportunities move through the sales process. A sales funnel, on the other hand, shows the decreasing number of prospects as they move toward a purchase. At the top, you have a large pool of leads, but only a fraction converts into customers.

What are the most common B2B prospecting methods?

Common B2B prospecting methods include:

How much should you pay for B2B leads?

The cost of B2B leads varies widely depending on lead quality, industry, data source, and purchase intent. Your monthly spend is shaped by the tools and services you use, like: CRM software ($7–$60), marketing automation ($10–$209), SEO tools ($119–$999), lead scraping tools ($56–$99), agency leads ($50 each), and PPC campaigns ($1,500–$10,000). Knowing these costs upfront helps you plan an efficient lead gen strategy without overspending.

How to measure the success of your B2B prospecting efforts

Critical metrics and KPIs to measure B2B prospecting success include:

What is the best B2B lead prospecting tool?

PhantomBuster is the best B2B lead prospecting tool for sales teams looking to build a fuller sales pipeline. The tool comes with:

• Automated LinkedIn prospecting to extract attendee lists and scrape profiles.

• Lead enrichment and qualification workflow by pulling data from multiple sources.

• Unified outreach sequences with up to three follow-ups and no manual intervention.

Start your free 14-day PhantomBuster trial now!