In-House vs Outsourced Enterprise Lead Generation in 2025 – A Cost-Benefit Playbook

Major Takeaways: Enterprise Lead Generation

Outsourcing Cuts Costs by Up to 60%

• Companies outsourcing enterprise lead generation can save 40–60% compared to in-house teams, thanks to reduced salary, tool, and management overhead.

In-House Teams Cost Over $300K Annually

• A basic internal team of 2 SDRs and 1 sales manager costs $300K–$400K per year, driven by salaries, benefits, and software subscriptions.

Enterprise SDR Salary Averages $70K+ Fully Loaded

• With base pay, bonuses, and benefits, a single enterprise SDR costs companies approximately $70K–$90K annually, excluding onboarding and churn costs.
  

Multi-Channel Outreach Increases Conversion Rates

• Campaigns using email, LinkedIn, and phone outperform single-channel outreach by 31%, making omnichannel engagement essential for enterprise lead gen.

In-House Teams Face Long Ramp Times and High Turnover

• New SDRs take up to 6 months to ramp, and turnover exceeds 35%, adding recruiting, training, and opportunity costs that stall pipeline growth.

Outsourced Teams Ramp Faster and Scale Efficiently

• Providers can launch in weeks and adjust quickly to changing sales needs, offering flexible capacity without long hiring cycles or fixed payroll costs.

Data-Driven Targeting Enhances Lead Quality

• Enterprise lead generation success hinges on refined Ideal Customer Profiles and intent-based prospecting, improving lead-to-opportunity conversion rates.

The Right Partner Delivers ROI and Strategic Alignment

• A qualified outsourced team uses consultative messaging and analytics to deliver qualified leads aligned with your sales objectives—driving predictable revenue growth.

Introduction

Enterprise lead generation has never been more critical – or more complex. High-growth B2B companies are under pressure to keep their sales pipelines full of qualified enterprise leads, yet the resources required to do so are substantial. Consider this: fully staffing an in-house enterprise lead generation operation (including management, SDRs, and marketing support) can cost up to $650,000 per year in salaries alone (3). On the other hand, **outsourcing lead generation can cost 50-60% less while often delivering superior results – one study found companies that outsource lead generation achieve up to 43% better outcomes (measured by positive ROI) than in-house efforts (4). With stats like these, it’s no surprise that in 2025, B2B marketing and sales leaders are re-evaluating the trade-offs of in-house vs. outsourced lead generation more carefully than ever.

So which approach makes the most sense for your enterprise? In this playbook, we’ll break down the real costs (from salaries to software) of building an in-house lead gen team versus partnering with an external provider. We’ll also explore the benefits and drawbacks beyond just dollars – including control, expertise, scalability, and speed – all through a data-driven lens. Whether you’re a CMO, CRO, VP of Sales, or SDR Manager, our goal is to provide a comprehensive, factual comparison to inform your strategy.

Throughout, we speak from experience as a provider of outsourced sales development (at Martal, we operate as an extension of our clients’ teams). We’ll share why an omnichannel, consultative approach to enterprise lead generation yields the best results, and how leveraging external expertise can drive more sales ready leads at lower cost. Let’s dive into the numbers and insights shaping enterprise lead gen decisions in 2025.

The 2025 Enterprise Lead Generation Landscape

Enterprise sales cycles are long and buyer committees are large – meaning lead generation at the enterprise level is a high-stakes, resource-intensive game. In fact, new research by Forrester shows that an average of 13 people are involved in a typical B2B buying decision, and nearly 89% of purchases involve multiple departments on the buyer side (7). Generating leads that can navigate these complex buying groups requires a sophisticated approach. It’s not just about quantity of leads, but targeting the right stakeholders at the right companies with tailored messaging.

Enterprise software lead generation in particular exemplifies these challenges. Tech buying teams tend to be even bigger – often 12 to 14 participants in the decision, far above the norm (7). Selling an enterprise software solution might involve engaging IT, finance, operations, and executive leadership, each with different concerns. As a result, enterprise software companies must often invest heavily in multi-touch, outbound campaigns (content marketing, events, outbound prospecting, etc.) to educate and nurture prospects over months. It’s telling that 53% of B2B marketers allocate at least half their budget to lead generation initiatives (8). Without a robust engine to produce and nurture enterprise leads, even the best product can stagnate.

Despite the hefty investments, many organizations struggle to generate enough quality leads. In 2024, about 45% of B2B businesses reported difficulty hitting their lead generation targets (8). Longer sales cycles and increased competition are partly to blame. The majority of new leads won’t convert immediately – one dataset shows 80% of new B2B leads never translate into sales without proper nurturing (8). These realities are pushing companies to refine their strategies and, in many cases, to seek outside help.

Outsourcing inside sales or portions of the B2B lead generation process has become increasingly common as companies look for more cost-effective and scalable solutions. Harvard Business Review found that businesses outsourcing sales, marketing and lead generation can save around 25% of their marketing costs on average (9). And it’s not just about cost savings – external lead gen experts leverage specialized tools and skills that can be hard to build internally. In fact, according to industry research, outsourcing sales development can produce 35–45% average cost savings for SaaS companies and similar B2B firms (11). No wonder a growing number of brands – from startups to Fortune 500 – now partner with agencies or SDR-as-a-Service providers to supplement or replace in-house teams.

Notably, multi-channel marketing campaigns achieve a 31% lower cost-per-lead than single-channel campaigns (8) – a testament to the effectiveness of blending email, calls, LinkedIn, and more (we’ll discuss this omnichannel approach later in the playbook). It’s clear that enterprise demand generation in 2025 is about working smarter: using data to target ideal customers, engaging prospects across multiple touchpoints, and doing so as efficiently as possible. Now, let’s zero in on one of the biggest strategic decisions: do you build these capabilities in-house or partner with an external provider?

The True Cost of In-House Enterprise Lead Generation

Building an in-house lead generation team means investing heavily in people, technology, and processes. Before deciding on this route, it’s crucial to understand the full scope of costs involved – which go far beyond just an SDR’s salary. In this section, we break down the major cost components of an internal enterprise lead gen program.

Enterprise Sales Manager and SDR Salaries 

Human talent is the largest cost driver of an in-house team. At minimum, a robust enterprise lead generation program requires Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) to do outbound prospecting and follow-up, and a Sales Manager (or SDR Manager) to oversee the strategy, coach the team, and coordinate with Marketing/Sales leadership. Many organizations also employ additional roles like data researchers, marketing ops, or content marketers to support lead gen, but we’ll focus on the core outbound team roles here.

• Enterprise SDR Salary: In the U.S., an enterprise SDR (Sales Development Rep) earns an average base salary of about $55,000 per year (2). This can vary by region and experience – for instance, an SDR in San Francisco or New York might earn closer to $70k, whereas other regions might be slightly lower. Keep in mind this is base pay; with bonuses or commission for meeting SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) quotas, the on-target earnings could be 20-30% higher. For budgeting purposes, companies often assume total direct compensation around $70k–$80k per SDR when factoring in incentives.
  
• Enterprise Sales Manager Salary: A Sales Manager overseeing an enterprise SDR team commands a significantly higher salary. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wage for sales managers is about $135,000 (1). In technology and enterprise software sectors, it’s not uncommon for experienced sales managers to earn well above this – the top 25% of sales managers earn around $196,000 or more annually (1). For a seasoned enterprise sales development leader, a realistic estimate is in the $120k–$180k range for base salary, with potential bonuses for pipeline or revenue targets.
  
• Benefits and On-Costs: Hiring full-time employees carries additional costs typically equating to 20–30% on top of base salary for benefits, payroll taxes, and other overhead. This includes health insurance, retirement contributions, paid time off, and so on. For example, an SDR with a $60k base may incur ~$15k in benefits; a sales manager at $150k base might incur $30k–$45k in benefits. These are real dollars the company must budget.

When you add it up, just one SDR plus one manager can easily run $200k–$250k per year in direct payroll expense. And most enterprise programs need more than one SDR. Let’s say you have 2 SDRs and 1 manager: that could total roughly $300k+ annually in salaries/benefits. (Indeed, one analysis found an in-house SDR’s base salary and bonus ~$74k can balloon to $150k per year when benefits, training, and overhead are included (11).) These labor costs are the primary reason in-house lead gen is so expensive.

Tools, Technology, and Data Costs

Beyond people, an effective lead generation engine needs a tech stack and data resources. This is another area where costs add up for in-house teams:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software: A CRM or sales engagement platform is essential for tracking prospects and outreach. Enterprise-grade CRM subscriptions (e.g. Salesforce) can cost on the order of $750 per month for 10 users ($9,000/year) (3), though prices vary widely based on seats and add-ons. Even using a more modest CRM or free version (like free HubSpot CRM) often isn’t truly free once you need reporting, integrations, or upgraded features.
  
• Prospect Database/Lead Lists: Access to quality contact data is critical for outbound prospecting. Many teams license B2B databases like ZoomInfo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, D&B Hoovers, etc. ZoomInfo, for example, often runs about $15,000 per year for a basic package (3). Other tools might add several thousand more. On average, companies can spend $8,000–$12,000 annually on prospecting databases (3), and using multiple data sources is recommended to improve accuracy.
  
• Sales Engagement & Automation Tools: These include email sequencing tools (Outreach, Salesloft), dialing software, sales enablement platforms, and marketing automation for lead nurturing. Such tools easily amount to $10,000+ per year in licensing (3). For example, Outreach.io costs around $150/user/month plus onboarding fees (3), and marketing automation add-ons (like Salesforce Pardot) can be thousands per month for enterprise editions (3).
  
• Other Software & Subscriptions: Don’t forget LinkedIn Premium or Navigator seats, data enrichment APIs, content/ sales collateral creation tools, and general office software – they all contribute. It’s common to underestimate these “miscellaneous” tools, but they can be significant.

According to one detailed analysis, the total cost of outbound lead generation tools averages around $27,000 per year for a typical team (3). This figure encompasses CRM, database access, outreach software, and automation. If your organization already owns some of these for other purposes, the marginal cost might be lower – but often dedicated tools or extra licenses are needed to support an SDR team’s work.

Recruiting, Training, and Ramp-Up Time

Another often overlooked expense of an in-house approach is the time and money spent to hire and ramp the team:

• Recruiting Costs: Sourcing quality SDRs and sales managers can incur recruitment agency fees or significant internal HR effort. Companies might pay 20% of first-year salary to a recruiter for each role – that’s $10k+ for an SDR and $30k+ for a manager at enterprise salary levels. Even without external recruiters, internal HR time and job ads have a cost.
  
• Training and Onboarding: Once hired, a new SDR typically takes months to become fully productive. Training involves not only product/service knowledge but also messaging, tools, and prospecting techniques. HubSpot reports that new sales hires take an average of 3.2 months to ramp up to full productivity (6). For complex enterprise offerings, it can be 6+ months before a rep consistently produces qualified opportunities. During this ramp, you’re paying salary without equivalent output.
  
• Manager Oversight: Your sales manager will spend considerable time (and thus salary) on hiring and training activities, which is an indirect cost. Seasoned enterprise sales managers often note that they spend 30-40% of their time on recruiting, onboarding, and personnel issues in a growing team.

Importantly, the cost of hiring and training isn’t just monetary – it’s also lost opportunity cost. If it takes 4-6 months to get a new rep fully up to speed, that’s time your team could have been generating leads if you had an already-functional team or an outsourced solution in place. A Harvard Business Review study noted that the average cost of hiring and training a single B2B sales rep exceeds $100,000 (4), once you factor in salary during ramp and the resources spent to recruit and educate them.

• Employee Turnover: After all the investment to get an in-house rep productive, there’s always the risk they leave. And sales roles are notoriously high-churn – the average sales rep turnover is around 35% annually, roughly 3X higher than the average for all industries (6). In practice, many SDRs move on to closing roles or other companies within 12-18 months. Each departure forces you to incur recruiting and training costs all over again (not to mention the lost pipeline momentum). This revolving door can become extremely expensive. (Industry data suggests turnover and ramp costs can bring the fully loaded cost of a single SDR to as high as $150k/year as noted earlier.)

In summary, maintaining an effective in-house enterprise lead gen team is a significant ongoing investment. Let’s recap the major cost components with an illustrative comparison of in-house vs. outsourced options:

Table: Rough cost comparison of building an in-house enterprise lead generation team versus hiring an outsourced agency. In-house figures reflect U.S. averages; outsourced assumes a full-service retainer (e.g. ~$10K/month for multi-channel SDR-as-a-Service).

As the table illustrates, the all-in annual cost for a small in-house team can easily reach 3 times the cost of outsourcing a comparable function. Even if your numbers vary, the in-house option will be in the hundreds of thousands, whereas outsourcing tends to be a fixed monthly fee that often falls in the $5K–$15K per month range (i.e. ~$60K–$180K/year) for enterprise-focused programs (10). Many providers offer scalable packages – for example, an omnichannel outreach program at ~$10K/month could generate 10–20 qualified meetings per month (10), which might otherwise require a couple of experienced SDRs to produce.

Of course, cost isn’t the only factor in this decision. We also need to consider qualitative factors like the quality of leads, control over the process, and strategic alignment. Next, we’ll weigh the pros and cons of in-house vs. outsourced lead generation beyond just the budget impact.

In-House vs. Outsourced: Beyond the Cost – Pros, Cons, and Considerations

Every organization must balance control versus cost and weigh the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. Here we break down the key benefits and drawbacks of in-house and outsourced enterprise lead generation, so you can evaluate which aligns best with your needs.

Advantages of Keeping Lead Gen In-House:

• Deep Brand and Product Knowledge: Your internal team lives and breathes your product, value prop, and brand ethos. An in-house SDR can speak in your company’s voice naturally and understands the nuances of your solutions. This can be helpful for highly technical or specialized products where extensive internal knowledge is needed to have credible initial conversations.
  
• Direct Oversight and Control: With in-house teams, you have immediate oversight of daily activities. Managers can easily adjust messaging, targets, or tactics on the fly (5). You set the lead generation KPIs and can ensure the team adheres to your processes and quality standards. Some leaders simply feel more comfortable when the people generating their leads are down the hall (or at least on their payroll).
  
• Integrated Feedback Loop: Internal SDRs can feed insights directly to your sales and marketing org. They sit in on product meetings, share anecdotal feedback from prospects, and are tightly aligned with Account Executives. This tight integration can help refine targeting and messaging quickly based on real market responses.
  
• Cultural Alignment: Your employees are part of your company culture and understand your customer-centric values. They often have a greater sense of loyalty and long-term commitment to the company’s success (though high turnover in sales can challenge this benefit).

Drawbacks of In-House Approach:

• High Fixed Costs: As detailed, the salary and overhead burden is substantial. You incur these costs regardless of how many leads are produced each quarter. This can make scaling inefficient – e.g. if one SDR isn’t at full capacity, you’re still paying full freight. It also represents a significant upfront investment before seeing ROI (hiring and ramping can take months).
  
• Longer Ramp and Skill Gaps: Standing up a team from scratch is slow. Recruiting can take months, and new reps need training time. If you require a range of skills (cold calling skills, email copywriting, LinkedIn social selling, etc.), you might find some team members excel in one area but not others. It’s challenging for a small in-house team to master all channels at once, potentially resulting in a weaker multi-channel outreach compared to lead generation specialists.
  
• Talent Retention and Turnover Risk: With average rep tenure around 1.5 years in many sales orgs (6), you’ll likely face churn. Replacing an SDR can cost 16-20% of their annual salary in recruiting alone, not to mention the lost pipeline during the vacancy and new ramp time. High turnover can thus severely disrupt your lead generation momentum and continually drain managerial time.
  
• Limited Scalability: Scaling an in-house team means hiring more people – a process that can take 60+ days per rep in the current job market (6). If you need to quickly ramp up lead generation (say you’re entering a new market or have a big push for Q4 pipeline), an internal team might not be able to scale fast enough. Conversely, if you need to scale down, you’re faced with tough decisions (and possibly layoffs), whereas sales and marketing outsourcing provides more flexibility to dial resources up or down.

Advantages of Outsourcing Lead Generation:

• Cost Efficiency & ROI: As we saw, outsourcing can reduce lead generation costs by roughly 40-60% in many cases (5). You replace large fixed salaries with a relatively lower fixed fee. Many vendors also operate on shorter contracts or pay-for-performance, meaning you’re not locked into long-term costs if things don’t work out. The cost savings can be reallocated to other sales and marketing priorities – or directly improve your bottom line ROI on lead gen. (One provider notes their clients cut outbound prospecting costs by about one-third on average through outsourcing (4).)
  
• Specialized Expertise: Outsourced agencies and SDR firms specialize in prospecting – it’s what they do all day, for multiple clients. This often means their teams are highly experienced in techniques that work. For example, an agency rep might make 100+ enterprise cold calls a day and has refined objection-handling skills that an internal junior SDR might take months to develop (5). Providers also bring industry-specific expertise if you choose one familiar with your vertical. Overall, you gain access to a depth of skill and best practices that would be hard to cultivate internally at the same speed.
  
• Omnichannel Capabilities and Tools: Most reputable lead gen firms use an omnichannel approach – combining targeted B2B cold emails, phone calls, LinkedIn outreach, content, and more touches in coordinated sequences. They also come equipped with premium tools and data sources. Crucially, these tools are included in their service fee, saving you money. (For instance, our team at Martal leverages tools for email deliverability, intent data, analytics dashboards, etc., as part of our service – as do many agencies. One source estimates this saves clients up to $10,000 annually in software licenses that they’d otherwise have to buy (10).) The result is a more sophisticated campaign (multi-channel, data-driven) without you having to assemble that tech stack yourself. It’s proven that multi-channel outreach yields better results – 31% lower CPL than single-channel efforts on average (8).
  
• Faster Ramp and Flexibility: An outsourced team can typically deploy much faster. Instead of spending months hiring, you can often get a campaign started within a few weeks with a provider. Need to scale up? Providers can often add another SDR or increase volume quickly (they have trained staff at the ready), achieving in days what might take an internal team a quarter to scale (5). Conversely, if you need to pause or reduce efforts, you can usually adjust the contract rather than having underutilized employees. This flexibility is invaluable for adapting to market conditions and seasonality.
  
• Focus and Productivity: By outsourcing the top-of-funnel work, your internal sales team (AEs, etc.) can focus on closing sales deals, not chasing cold prospects. This division of labor can boost overall productivity and morale – your costly enterprise sales executives spend time only on qualified, sales-ready meetings, while the outsourced SDRs handle the grind of prospecting. Moreover, you as a sales leader can focus on strategy and coaching rather than day-to-day list building or SDR management. Many Sales Directors find that partnering with an external lead gen firm frees them to concentrate on higher-value activities like refining sales strategy and nurturing key client relationships (4) (4).
  
• Data-Driven Optimizations: Good lead gen partners provide detailed reporting and analytics on the outreach performance – open rates, reply rates, conversion rates by channel, etc. They often have refined A/B testing frameworks to optimize messaging or targeting continually. Working with such a partner injects a level of analytical rigor that might be difficult to achieve in-house if your team is small or inexperienced with large-scale campaign data. In fact, companies that use data-driven lead generation strategies are 19 times more likely to be profitable year-over-year (4).

Drawbacks of Outsourcing:

• Initial Onboarding and Learning Curve: An external team won’t have the same intimate product knowledge on Day 1 as an internal team member. You’ll need to invest time up front to train the provider on your value proposition, target customer profile, and messaging. In the first few weeks, expect to collaborate closely to ensure they capture your brand voice correctly. (The good news: a competent agency will absorb this quickly – and some, like Martal, have structured onboarding processes to streamline the learning. Still, this is a real time investment on both sides initially.)
  
• Less Direct Control: When you outsource, you give up some direct control over how things are done. You won’t be present for every call or email sent. Transparency is key – reputable firms will provide call recordings, weekly reports, and regular strategy sessions to keep you in the loop. If you’re someone who needs to micro-manage every detail, outsourcing might feel uncomfortable unless you adapt to a more hands-off management via KPIs and periodic check-ins. However, note that with the right partner, you can often have as much insight as you would with an internal team (e.g. shared CRM access, collaborative playbooks, etc.). It requires trust and communication.
  
• Quality Variance Between Providers: Not all outsourcing vendors are equal. A poor-quality provider might generate a flood of low-quality leads, use spammy tactics that hurt your brand, or lack compliance (e.g. GDPR, CAN-SPAM considerations). It’s crucial to vet providers carefully – check their track record, client testimonials, and even ask about their SDR training and quality control processes. Essentially, you need to ensure the partner truly acts as an extension of your team and maintains your standards. Choosing the wrong partner is a risk that could cost both money and reputation. (We mitigate this at Martal through stringent hiring for our SDRs and a Martal Academy training program to ensure consistency and professionalism in outreach.)
  
• Potential Alignment Issues: An external team might not have the same internal context as someone sitting in your company. If your strategy or offerings pivot, you must relay that to the partner; they won’t overhear it in a company meeting. Regular alignment calls are important to keep goals and messaging in sync. Also, ensure that incentives align – for example, if the agency is paid per meeting, confirm those meetings are truly qualified to your standards so they prioritize quality over quantity.

Overall, the drawbacks of outsourcing can be addressed by choosing the right sales partner and establishing a strong collaboration framework (clear success metrics, open communication, etc.). Many companies find that after a brief adjustment period, their outsourced SDR team feels just as integrated as an internal team – minus the administrative headaches.

To summarize, here’s a quick pros and cons comparison:

• In-House Pros: Full control over processes and messaging; team has internal product knowledge and direct alignment with company culture; immediate oversight and ability to pivot quickly; internal team can directly share insights with other departments.
  
• In-House Cons: Very high fixed costs (salaries, tools, overhead); long hiring and training cycles; risk of high turnover (35%+ annually) disrupting consistency (6); difficult to scale quickly or handle fluctuations; may lack cutting-edge expertise or tools if team is small.
  
• Outsourcing Pros: Much lower cost structure (savings of 25-60%); fast to ramp up and scale as needed; access to specialized expertise and proven processes; utilizes advanced tools and multi-channel tactics included in service; yields high ROI and frees internal staff to focus on closing deals; vendor shoulders hiring/training burden.
  
• Outsourcing Cons: Less direct control day-to-day; requires onboarding to learn your business; quality depends on provider (must vet carefully); communication and alignment efforts are needed to ensure they represent your brand well; internal team must be comfortable working with an external partner.

With these considerations in mind, let’s explore how a modern outsourced lead generation program operates, and how leveraging an external partner can address many of the challenges we’ve discussed (while capitalizing on the benefits). In the next section, we’ll dive into the omnichannel, data-driven approach that top lead generation firms use – and how it drives better results in enterprise sales.

Building a High-Performance Lead Gen Engine: Omnichannel, Data-Driven, and Consultative

No matter in-house or outsourced, success in enterprise lead generation today requires a strategic, omnichannel marketing approach. Gone are the days when a single tactic – like blasting cold calls – could consistently yield enterprise appointments. Modern buyers respond to a synchronized mix of outreach: emails, calls, social touches, and targeted content, all working together. In our experience (and as industry research confirms), adopting an omnichannel cadence can dramatically improve results. Multi-channel campaigns not only lower cost-per-lead by ~31% (8), but they also boost engagement because prospects encounter your message in various contexts without feeling spammed by one channel.

Equally important is a data-driven targeting strategy. Effective enterprise lead gen starts with focusing on the right accounts and stakeholders – those most likely to need your solution and buy it. This means using data to define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) (e.g. company size, industry, technographic and firmographic indicators) and the buyer personas within those target accounts (titles, roles, interests). At Martal, we begin every engagement with a consultative deep-dive into our client’s ICP and past customer data. We then leverage databases and intent signals to build curated lead lists. This upfront research ensures that our outreach is laser-focused on high-potential prospects, rather than casting a wide net and wasting effort on poor-fit leads.

Once the target list is set, consultative outreach strategies yield the best conversion rates. Enterprise prospects don’t respond to generic sales pitches. They want partners who understand their business challenges. Thus, whether via email or phone, the messaging needs to be tailored, insight-driven, and oftentimes educational rather than overtly promotional. For example, instead of a typical “Can we get 15 minutes to discuss our product?”, a consultative approach might offer a relevant industry insight or case study, or pose a thought-provoking question related to the prospect’s likely pain points. The goal is to establish credibility and start a conversation, not just push for a meeting.

This is an area where outsourcing to a skilled provider truly shines: experienced SDRs with a consultative mindset can engage high-level decision-makers far more effectively. They know how to ask the right questions and handle objections in a way that builds trust. They also can navigate through gatekeepers and department silos within large organizations to reach the true decision-makers – a critical skill given the large buying committees in enterprise deals.

To support this approach, our team (and top agencies in general) uses omniscient analytics: tracking every touch and iterating based on what works. If we see, for instance, that CTOs in our target list respond 3X more to a specific email subject line or LinkedIn message, we double down on that angle. If call connect rates are low at certain times, we adjust the calling schedule. This continuous optimization loops back into the campaign strategy, ensuring we improve results over time – something an in-house team might struggle to do if they lack comparable breadth of data or benchmarking across campaigns.

The Martal Approach: Omnichannel Outreach + Human Touch

At Martal, we have honed a blended approach that combines technology and human touch to deliver enterprise sales leads. We use a mix of cold email, cold calling, LinkedIn outreach, and nurturing sequences, all orchestrated to complement each other. For example, a typical sequence for a target prospect might be: a personalized intro email, a LinkedIn connection request with a brief note, a follow-up call referencing the email, then a piece of valuable content (like an eBook or case study) sent as a nurture touch, and so on. By spreading touches across channels, we increase the chances of engagement – if they ignore email, they might respond on LinkedIn; if they don’t answer the phone, they still saw your content in their inbox. It creates a surround-sound effect for your brand.

Crucially, every touchpoint is customized. Our SDRs research accounts and contacts to add personalization – mentioning a prospect’s recent company news, or a pain point typical for their industry, etc. This level of relevance is possible at scale because we equip our team with research and personalization frameworks (and yes, some clever tools) that enable them to quickly tailor messaging without sacrificing volume. The days of templated, one-size-fits-all spam are over – and any reputable outsourced provider should embrace that. We certainly do, and it shows in higher reply rates and positive responses.

We also place heavy emphasis on quality over quantity. Internally, we track not just the number of leads or meetings booked, but the conversion of those leads into pipeline and closed revenue for our clients. This keeps us aligned with what ultimately matters to you: deals, not just appointments. In practical terms, it means our SDRs are incentivized to find truly qualified leads – prospects with a genuine need, budget, and authority – rather than setting up meetings for the sake of hitting a quota. This aligns with the finding that companies with rigorous lead nurturing and lead qualification get 50% more sales-ready leads at a 33% lower cost (8). It’s about working smarter and delivering leads that your Account Executives can actually close.

Finally, an often underappreciated aspect of a great outsourced partnership is knowledge transfer and training. We believe in empowering both our team and our clients’ teams through education. That’s why we launched Martal Academy, a training program that continuously upskills our SDRs in the latest outreach techniques, outbound sales technologies, and industry best practices. We also share insights with our clients – for instance, if we discover a particular messaging resonates greatly in the market, we feed that back to the client’s sales and marketing leaders. The relationship becomes a two-way street of improvement. In essence, our clients get not just leads, but also the benefit of our broad experience across industries and campaigns.

This consultative, feedback-rich approach is what differentiates outsourcing as a strategic partnership versus just a service. When done right, you truly gain an extension of your sales team that operates with the same care and dedication as an internal team, but with far greater efficiency. The omnichannel, data-driven tactics are the engine, but close collaboration and alignment with the client (you) is the steering wheel ensuring that engine drives in the right direction.

In summary, building a modern enterprise lead generation engine requires:

• Targeting the right prospects (via data-driven ICP definition and good data sources),
  
• Engaging them across multiple channels (email, phone, LinkedIn, etc.) with consistent, personalized messaging,
  
• Nurturing and qualifying leads carefully to hand over only high-quality opportunities,
  
• Analyzing performance data to constantly refine the approach,
  
• Aligning sales and marketing insight to iterate on messaging and targeting,
  
• And in an outsourced model, tight coordination with your partner to ensure they represent your brand well and meet your specific goals.

When all these elements click, the result is a steady flow of high-quality enterprise leads entering your sales pipeline – fueling your sales team with opportunities while keeping acquisition costs efficient. It’s the recipe we follow because it delivers results time and again.

Now, having covered the strategic playbook, let’s talk about how you can take action on these insights for your own organization.

Ready to Accelerate Your Enterprise Lead Generation? 🚀

If reading this guide has you thinking about the gaps or opportunities in your current approach, you’re not alone. Many B2B leaders recognize that their sales teams could close more deals if only they had more (and better) leads at the top of the sales funnel – but they’re unsure of the most cost-effective way to get there. This is where we can help.

At Martal, we offer a bundled, omnichannel lead generation service that covers everything we’ve discussed: targeted prospect research, multichannel outreach (cold email, calls, LinkedIn, etc.), appointment setting with qualified prospects, and even sales training support. We combine our own data-driven processes with your domain expertise to craft campaigns that produce results. Our SDRs function as your SDRs – we work under your branding and messaging, and we engage prospects as a seamless extension of your company. Meanwhile, you avoid the headaches of hiring, training, and managing an internal team and bypass the heavy fixed costs.

Our omnichannel approach means we don’t put all your pipeline eggs in one basket. For example, we might start conversations via LinkedIn for one segment of prospects while running a carefully coordinated email cadence for another, all while our callers reach out to high-value targets personally. This synchronized strategy dramatically increases touchpoints and conversions. And it’s backed by consultative communication – we brief you regularly, share insights, and adjust targeting or messaging with your feedback. We’re data nerds at heart, so you’ll see transparent reporting on what we’re doing and how it’s performing, every step of the way.

We also understand that enterprise sales is a long game. That’s why our approach isn’t just about quick wins, but sustainable lead generation. Through Martal Academy, we continuously refine our team’s skills and keep them sharp on best practices (from the latest email deliverability techniques to mastering new sales engagement tools). We invest in our people so that they can better invest in your pipeline.

The bottom line: our clients see more leads, better leads, and ultimately more revenue – all without blowing up their budgets or overburdening their internal teams. We take pride in not just booking meetings, but contributing to closed deals. Our success is tied to your success.

Would you like to see what this might look like for your business? We invite you to book a free consultation with our team. In a 30-minute call, we can discuss your current lead generation process, identify areas for improvement, and show how Martal’s omnichannel, data-driven strategy can fill your pipeline with qualified enterprise opportunities. There’s no pressure and no obligation – just a chance to strategize together and see if our approach is the right fit for your organization’s growth goals.

👉 Let’s talk! [Book your free lead generation consultation with Martal] – and let’s make 2025 your strongest year yet for enterprise growth.

References

1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
2. ZipRecruiter
3. Abstrakt Marketing Group
4. Callbox
5. SalesHive
6. Xactly Corp.
7. Forrester
8. Sopro
9. S2W Media
10. Belkins
11. Tendril