Lead Research Strategy Playbook to Boost Your B2B Sales Pipeline

Major Takeaways: Lead Research

Why is lead research critical in 2025?

• B2B buyers now complete 70% of their journey before contacting sales, making proactive lead research essential for early engagement.

How do you define high-value prospects?

• Building Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) and buyer personas ensures research focuses on companies and decision-makers most likely to convert.

What business lead research methods deliver results?

• A 7-step playbook including ICP definition, target account lists, enriched data, and omnichannel outreach maximizes conversion potential.

How should you prioritize researched leads?

• Lead scoring and segmentation help identify quick wins; companies using scoring models see higher ROI and faster deal cycles.

Why is omnichannel outreach tied to lead research success?

• Personalization across email, LinkedIn, and calls drives higher engagement; 80% of sales require 5+ follow-ups to close.

What role does data quality and compliance play?

• With 30% of CRM data decaying annually, regular cleansing and GDPR-compliant outreach are critical to maintain credibility and reach.

Should lead research be in-house or outsourced?

• In-house provides control, but outsourced lead research delivers faster ramp-up, advanced tools, and scalability at 30–70% lower cost.

How can sales and marketing alignment boost lead research?

• Teams aligned on ICPs and insights are 58% more likely to exceed revenue targets, making coordination vital in 2025.
  

Introduction

In 2025, B2B sales teams face a stark reality: buyers are more empowered and informed than ever. 

Up to 70% of the buyer’s journey is completed before a prospect ever contacts sales (1), and 80% of B2B sales interactions now happen through digital channels (2). 

In other words, if you’re not proactively researching and targeting the right leads, you’re virtually invisible to today’s decision-makers.

We wrote this playbook for CMOs, CROs, Marketing and Sales leaders who know that “random acts of prospecting” won’t cut it anymore. In the sections below, we share a comprehensive strategy for lead research that will fill your 2025 pipeline with high-quality prospects. Our tone is professional yet approachable – think of it as an experienced sales ally guiding you to smarter tactics. 

We’ll cover why research-driven leads outperform generic lists, business lead research methods you can deploy right now, how to integrate research into lead generation campaigns, and key decisions like whether to keep efforts in-house or outsource lead research. Along the way, we’ll cite fresh data and best practices to back up each strategy.

Ready to transform how you generate B2B leads? Let’s dive in.

Why B2B Lead Research is Critical in 2025

📊 B2B sales reps spend only ~33% of their time actively selling, with the rest lost to admin and prospecting tasks (9). In fact, reps can waste up to 40% of their work hours just searching for someone to call (9). This inefficiency is the enemy of revenue growth.

Modern buyers have flipped the script on traditional sales. They’re better informed, more independent, and less patient than in years past. Consider that 75% of B2B buyers (and sellers) now prefer remote or self-serve interactions over face-to-face meetings (10). By the time a potential client appears on your radar, they may already have a shortlist of vendors (or even a preferred solution) based on their own research. If your team hasn’t identified and engaged that lead early – with the right insights in hand – you’re unlikely to catch up.

That’s where B2B lead research becomes a game-changer. Instead of blindly cold-calling or blasting emails to purchased lists, top-performing teams invest in researching leads upfront. The goal is to understand each prospect’s fit and needs before outreach, so every call or email delivers value. Research-driven prospecting means you know a lead’s industry, pain points, decision power, and even recent news or social media activity. Armed with that context, your outreach strategies can be timely and relevant, not generic spam.

Why is this so critical in 2025? Because quality trumps quantity. Gone are the days when filling the appointment funnel with thousands of unvetted contacts worked. Today, decision-makers are inundated with sales pitches and will ignore anything that doesn’t speak to them specifically. On the flip side, a well-researched approach – for example, mentioning a prospect’s company initiative or a problem you know they have – can dramatically increase response rates. It shows you’ve done your homework.

From our perspective at Martal, we’ve seen that clients who embrace deep lead research see higher conversion rates and faster sales cycles. It’s intuitive: when you target prospects that truly match your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and personalize your messaging, you waste less time on dead-end leads. In fact, one study found that 42% of salespeople say prospecting (finding and researching leads) is the hardest part of their job (9) – but those who master it lay the foundation for outsized sales success.

Bottom line: B2B lead research is no longer an optional “nice to have.” It’s the lifeblood of a healthy sales pipeline in 2025. Before we get into the how-to’s, let’s break down exactly what we mean by lead research and how it differs from just lead generation.

What Does “Lead Research” Really Mean?

Lead research is the process of systematically identifying, gathering, and analyzing information on potential buyers (leads) before engaging them. It’s a targeted sub-function of lead generation focused on quality and relevance. If outbound lead generation is the overall engine that attracts and converts prospects, lead research is the intelligence fuel that makes that engine run smoothly.

• Lead Generation vs. Lead Research: Lead generation encompasses all activities to attract and acquire leads (marketing campaigns, inbound content, outbound outreach, etc.). Lead research, on the other hand, zeroes in on finding the right leads and understanding them. Think of lead research as the scouting and planning phase of an outbound sales campaign – you haven’t “generated” the lead yet in your pipeline, but you’ve identified them and pre-qualified them as a good fit through research. For example, generating leads might involve running a LinkedIn ad to get sign-ups, whereas researching leads might involve using LinkedIn Sales Navigator to find specific decision-makers at companies that fit your ICP.
  
• Research Leads vs. Random Leads: A researched lead is one you’ve vetted – you know their company’s basic profile, their likely needs, perhaps what solution they use now, and you have verified contact info. A random lead might just be a name on a list. The difference is huge. Our experience has shown that when you research leads and personalize outreach, you can achieve response rates many times higher than spray-and-pray emails. It’s the difference between sending an email that says “Dear CEO, I’d like to talk to you about saving money” versus “Hi Jane, I noticed your SaaS company recently expanded to Europe – we helped another software firm in a similar position boost their EU pipeline by 30%, here’s how…”. The latter comes from researching the lead’s context.
  

In short, B2B lead research sets the stage for effective selling. Now, let’s move from the “why” to the “how.” The next section lays out a step-by-step playbook for researching and developing leads with strategic precision.

Business Lead Research Methods: A 7-Step Playbook

Effective lead research is a blend of art and science. We recommend a structured, step-by-step approach that ensures no crucial detail falls through the cracks. Below, we outline seven key steps – our business lead research methods – that form a repeatable playbook for your team. Follow these steps, and you’ll systematically turn cold prospects into warm, well-understood leads ready for personalized outreach.

📊 Nearly 90% of companies now use two or more data sources/tools to research prospects before outreach (9). In other words, sophisticated lead research (often using multiple tools and platforms) is becoming standard practice. To keep up, you need a solid process.

Step 1: Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and Buyer Personas

Any good research project starts with knowing what you’re looking for. Define exactly who your “ideal” lead is. In B2B sales, this means pinpointing your Ideal Customer Profile – the type of company that is a sweet spot for your product or service – and the buyer personas (roles) within those companies who make decisions.

• Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): Look at your best customers and identify common traits. Industry? Company size (employees or revenue)? Location? Tech stack? Pain points? For example, your ICP might be “VC-funded SaaS companies in North America with 50–500 employees that need sales outsourcing.” This becomes your target universe. Companies outside this profile can still be leads, but the ICP is where you’ll get the most bang for your buck.
  
• Buyer Personas: Within target companies, who are the decision-makers or influencers you should reach? Outline their typical job titles, responsibilities, and challenges. A VP Sales might care about hitting pipeline targets and might struggle with an understaffed team – insight you’ll use later.
  

Documenting ICPs and personas is critical because it focuses your research. It helps your team and tools filter the vast universe of businesses down to the ones most likely to convert. According to industry data, companies that prioritize ICPs and persona-based targeting achieve higher ROI on campaigns (one report noted ABM programs – which rely on tight ICP focus – outperform other marketing initiatives for 87% of marketers (12)). In sum, start with a clear picture of who you’re researching.

Step 2: Build a Target Account List (TAL)

With your ICP in mind, compile a list of specific companies (accounts) that fit the bill. This Target Account List is essentially the “research universe” your team will dive into.

• Leverage Data Sources: Use tools and databases to find companies matching your criteria. Platforms like LinkedIn, Crunchbase, ZoomInfo, or industry directories are invaluable here. For example, LinkedIn’s filters can pull up all “Information Technology” companies in the USA with 100–500 employees – a quick way to surface prospects. Third-party data providers (D&B Hoovers, Clearbit, etc.) can also generate lists based on firmographics. Pro Tip: Many companies use multiple sources – one survey found 89.9% use at least two tools for prospect research (9). Combining sources (say LinkedIn + a purchased list + event attendee lists) can enrich your TAL.
  
• Quality Over Quantity: Aim for a focused list of high-potential accounts rather than a huge list of long shots. In 2025, Account-Based Marketing (ABM) tactics are mainstream for B2B – meaning sales and marketing jointly focus on a defined set of target accounts with personalized outreach. ABM has proven its worth; it’s reported that “ABM programs often yield higher ROI than broader marketing”. 

So if your list has 50 companies that perfectly match your ICP, that could be more valuable than 5,000 random leads. We often help our clients identify a “Top 100 Dream Accounts” list to concentrate efforts where they’re most likely to win.

At this stage, don’t worry about individual contacts – focus on selecting the right companies first. A well-crafted TAL is like the battlefield map for your sales campaign. Next, we’ll drill down to the level of individual leads.

Step 3: Identify and Research Key Contacts at Each Account

Now it’s time to find the right people within those target companies and gather intelligence on them. This is the heart of researching leads on an individual level.

• Find Decision-Makers: For each company on your TAL, identify contacts who fit your buyer personas (from Step 1). Typically, you want 2–3 contacts per account to start – for example, the Head of Sales and the Marketing Director. LinkedIn is your best friend here. Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to search for job titles at each company (e.g., “VP of Sales at [Company]”). Company websites, press releases, or tools like Hunter.io (for email formats) also help. Don’t forget referrals: see if you or your colleagues are connected to someone at the account who could introduce you.
  
• Gather Key Insights: Once you have names, dive into research on each lead. This is where you read their LinkedIn profile (career history, shared connections, posts they’ve made), look for any interviews or articles quoting them, and note their professional interests. Also research the company’s recent news (have they raised funding? launched a new product? hired a bunch of people?). These details are gold for personalization. Even a quick 5-minute scan can reveal, say, that your target VP of Sales just posted about struggling with lead quality – insight you can reference in outreach. Remember: 95% of B2B buyers say the content they receive from sellers influences their purchasing decisions (6). If you mention something specific to their context (like a relevant case study or solution to a problem they voiced), you become infinitely more credible.
  
• Use Technology to Enrich Data: You don’t have to do all research manually. There are tools that can automate parts of this step. For instance, data enrichment services can append info to a contact (like confirming their phone, email, company size, etc.). Some AI tools can even scan news or social media for “trigger events” – signals like a leadership change or a company expanding – and alert you when a target account has a notable development. We’ve embraced AI tools at Martal that, for example, monitor intent data (like when a company increases web searches for keywords related to our services) so we know which leads are “heating up.” By letting technology handle data mining (to an extent), you can focus on synthesizing insights and crafting strategy.
  

At the end of Step 3, you should have a list of target contacts with rich context around each. For every lead, you might have notes like: “Jane Doe – VP Sales at TechCorp – mentions struggling with pipeline in Q4 on LinkedIn; TechCorp expanding to Europe; likely needs help with lead gen in new market.” This preparation sets you up to truly resonate with the lead when you reach out.

Step 4: Verify and Enrich Contact Data

Nothing kills a great sales campaign like bad data. Even if you’ve found the perfect leads, it means little if the email bounces or you call a number that’s no longer valid. In Step 4, focus on data quality – verify that you can actually reach these leads, and gather any missing info needed to contact them.

• Verify Emails and Phone Numbers: Use email verification tools (e.g., NeverBounce, ZeroBounce) to check that the emails you have are active and correctly formatted. For phone numbers, a quick cross-check with a company switchboard or a tool like Lusha can confirm if a direct dial is current. It’s worth the extra effort: bad data causes roughly 30% of CRM contacts to decay each year (3), meaning if you skip cleaning, a chunk of your outreach could target dead ends. We’ve all seen how often people change jobs – especially in tech, contacts can churn rapidly. Make it routine to validate data at the point of research.
  
• Enrich Profiles: If possible, append additional useful data to each lead’s profile. For example, add their location, the technology their company uses (there are databases for tech stack info), or even personality hints (like disc profiles or CrystalKnows which infers communication style from public data – for advanced personalization). While enrichment isn’t mandatory, any extra insight can help tailor your approach. Even knowing something simple like “Contact X manages a team of 5 SDRs” vs “solo practitioner” might change your sales pitch angle.
  
• Organize in Your CRM or Database: Import or update these researched contacts in your CRM system, marketing automation platform, or a spreadsheet – wherever your team will work from. Include all the notes and fields you’ve gathered: industry, company size, key insight notes, verification status, etc. A structured lead sheet ensures that when sales reps start outreach, they have everything at their fingertips. It also allows you to segment later (e.g., filter leads by industry to tailor an email campaign).
  

Taking the time to verify and enrich saves you from the pain of bounced emails, spam traps, and wasted first impressions. There’s nothing worse than finally getting a prospect on the phone and realizing you’re calling the wrong person or referencing outdated info. Step 4 guards against that.

Step 5: Prioritize Leads with Scoring and Segmentation

At this stage, you might have dozens or even hundreds of researched leads. Not all are equal in value or readiness. Step 5 is about separating the signal from the noise – using lead scoring and segmentation to prioritize where to spend your team’s energy first.

• Lead Scoring: Establish a simple scoring model to rank your leads. This can be points-based (e.g., +5 if they match a key industry, +3 if their company is over $50M revenue, +2 if they showed a recent buying signal like hiring a new CTO). Many CRM systems like HubSpot or Salesforce allow you to set up automated lead scoring based on field values or behaviors. If you don’t have software doing it, you can manually assign A/B/C ratings or High/Medium/Low priority. The idea is to quantify which leads are “hotter” or more likely to convert. For instance, a lead at a company that just raised a big funding round might score high (likely budget and growth), whereas a small legacy business might score lower for your purposes. We often prioritize leads who have clear intent signals (like actively searching for solutions, as indicated by intent data tools) – those might go straight to the top of the list.
  
• Segment Your Leads: Group your leads into segments that will get similar outreach approaches. Common B2B segments include by industry, company size, persona, or stage. For example, you might segment “Tech Industry, Mid-Market, VP-level” leads separately from “Manufacturing, Enterprise, Director-level” leads, if they require different messaging. Segmentation ensures that when you execute campaigns, the content resonates with each group. It’s part of personalization at scale. According to research, 51% of cold email senders rely on segment-based sales email templates (as opposed to purely one-size-fits-all) (6) – a sign that tailoring messages by segment is key to better results.
  
• Focus on Quick Wins: If you’ve scored your leads, zero in on the highest-scoring ones first. Perhaps you identified 15 target accounts that perfectly match your ICP and have shown recent interest (like visiting your website or talking to a partner). Don’t dilute your efforts – concentrate outreach on those “low hanging fruit” leads right away. The rest can enter nurture sequences or be worked through systematically, but you want to strike while the iron is hot for the best prospects.
  

By prioritizing with scoring and segmentation, you make your upcoming outreach far more efficient. Sales reps are human and have limited bandwidth – give them a roadmap of who to call or email first. 

📊 Remember, speed matters: data showed 35–50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first to a buyer’s inquiry (9). While we’re talking outbound research here, the principle still applies – reach out to your best targets promptly and thoughtfully. Now, with your targets researched, cleaned, and prioritized, it’s time for action.

Step 6: Craft Personalized, Multichannel Outreach Campaigns

This is where lead research meets lead generation head-on. You’ve done your homework – now you leverage it to contact the lead through effective campaigns. Personalization and multichannel touchpoints are the name of the game in 2025.

• Personalize Your Messaging: Use the insights from your research to tailor each outreach. This can be as simple as mentioning the prospect’s specific challenge or goal. For instance: “Hi Jane, I saw on LinkedIn that you’re expanding TechCorp’s sales team in Europe – congrats on the growth! Expanding internationally is exciting, but it can stretch your outbound SDR team thin. We helped a similar company handle lead generation in new markets…,” etc. A little personalization goes a long way. Data backs this up: emails that reference relevant info about the recipient see much higher open and reply rates – one internal analysis we conducted found that personalized emails had over 50% open rates compared to ~2% for generic blasts . 

📊 And remember 95% of B2B buyers are influenced by content they find relevant (4). Personalization is that relevance.

• Choose the Right Channels: Don’t rely on just one channel. Omnichannel outreach is far more effective at engaging busy prospects. This means using a mix of email, phone calls, LinkedIn (or other social media), and maybe even SMS or direct mail in some cases. Why? Different people respond on different channels. Perhaps your target never answers cold calls but religiously checks LinkedIn messages, or vice versa.

📊 A recent survey found 37% of sales professionals say cold calling is their most effective outreach method, 30% cited social selling, and 23% cited email (6) – in other words, each channel has its merits. We advocate a combined approach: for example, send a tailored cold email, then follow up with a LinkedIn connection and message, and also make a call attempt. By spreading touches, you increase the chances of a response. In fact, connecting with a prospect across 3+ channels can boost engagement dramatically. 

Data shows sales teams using at least three channels in tandem consistently outperform those sticking to one. And don’t be afraid: 37% of buyers – especially C-suite – actually prefer phone calls for initial outreach (9), while many others prefer email, so doing both covers your bases.

• Timing and Cadence: Use your research on triggers to time your outreach if possible. For instance, if you see a news trigger (like the company just got funding this week), reach out immediately with a congrats and value pitch. If no specific trigger, you’ll set a cadence – say, a sequence over 2-3 weeks: Email Day 1, LinkedIn Day 3, Call Day 5, Email Follow-up Day 7, etc. Persistency is key: it often takes 8 to 12 touches to get a response in B2B outreach, according to industry lore, and indeed many reps give up too soon. Statistically, 80% of sales require 5 or more follow-ups, yet a shocking 92% of reps give up after 4 attempts (9). Don’t be that 92%. Plan a thoughtful sequence mixing mediums and stick with it.
  

When executing campaigns, ensure sales and marketing are aligned. This is where your sales enablement content comes into play – have case studies, whitepapers, or blog posts ready that address the specific pain points you researched. Perhaps marketing can provide a custom piece of content for a vertical you’re targeting. Aligned teams perform better: companies with strong sales-marketing alignment achieve higher lead conversion, and sales reps who use marketing content are 58% more likely to exceed their targets (6). So if you have internal marketing support, loop them in to arm your SDRs with relevant content. (As an aside, if you don’t have that internal support, this is something an outsourced partner can provide – more on that soon.)

By the end of Step 6, you’re actively engaging your researched leads with personalized messaging across multiple channels. This is where research pays off in real pipeline opportunities – expect to see more callbacks, email replies, and LinkedIn conversations than you would from any generic outreach. Every touch is informed by data, making you come across as helpful and credible rather than just another salesperson.

Step 7: Track Results and Continuously Refine Your Approach

The final step in our playbook is an ongoing one: measurement and optimization. Even the best strategy can be improved, and in 2025 the competitive edge goes to teams that iterate based on data.

• Measure Key Metrics: Keep a close eye on metrics like response rates (email open rate/click/reply, call pick-ups), conversion rates (lead to meeting booked, meeting to opportunity), and ultimately deal outcomes from these leads. Which tactics are working best? For example, perhaps you notice that leads in the FinTech industry are replying at twice the rate of others – maybe your messaging is resonating more there, or that segment is currently in need. Or you might find your LinkedIn outreach is outperforming email. These insights should inform adjustments. Modern sales engagement platforms and CRMs will track a lot of this automatically. If you’re using spreadsheets, you might track manually at least the basics (e.g., out of 50 leads contacted, how many responded or set a meeting).
  
• Learn and Iterate: Use the data to refine your lead research criteria and outreach tactics. If certain industries or company sizes are consistently converting better, consider revising your ICP or focusing your TAL more there. If a particular email subject line or cold call script is winning, double down on that approach for similar leads. On the flip side, if something’s not working – say your response rate is abysmal for a segment – analyze why. Maybe the value proposition isn’t hitting the mark, or maybe those leads aren’t as qualified as you thought. It’s absolutely fine (even expected) to remove or reprioritize leads from your list as you learn more. We regularly perform “pipeline hygiene” where we drop leads that go cold after many touches or that we discover aren’t a fit, and then we channel that energy into new, more promising prospects.
  
• Keep Data Fresh: Since data decay is constant (remember that ~30% annual decay stat), make data upkeep part of your ongoing process. Schedule periodic data cleansing – e.g., every quarter, re-verify emails or check if any big role changes happened at your target accounts. Nothing is worse than finally getting a reply email, only for it to say “I left the company 2 months ago.” Proactive maintenance will prevent awkward moments and lost opportunities.
  
• Team Debriefs and Training: Incorporate feedback loops with your team. Have the SDRs or sales reps share qualitative feedback: What objections are they hearing? Which research insights proved useful, and which were irrelevant? Use this to update your research checklist. Perhaps reps found that knowing a prospect’s tech stack wasn’t as useful as knowing their hiring trends – adjust what you focus on when researching leads next time. Continuous training is also key: when you onboard new team members or if your strategy shifts, make sure everyone is up to date on the playbook. As a leader, you might host monthly reviews of lead gen performance, celebrating wins (say, “We booked 10 meetings from that personalized campaign in healthcare”) and dissecting losses (“Our outreach to retail industry leads fell flat – maybe the value prop needs tweaking for that vertical”).
  

By continuously refining, you ensure your lead research strategy doesn’t go stale. The market will evolve, competitors will react, and buyer behaviors will shift – but if you’re measuring and learning, you’ll stay ahead. In 2025, agility is a huge competitive advantage. The companies that treat their sales process as a living, improving system are the ones that outpace the others.

Before we wrap up with some strategic considerations and next steps, let’s address a major decision you may face: should you execute all this in-house or consider outsourcing inside sales or part of your lead research and generation process? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but a comparison can help determine the best fit for your organization.

In-House vs. Outsourced B2B Lead Research: Pros & Cons

Building an internal team to research and generate sales leads versus partnering with an external specialist is a pivotal choice. Many established organizations keep it in-house, whereas others (including startups or companies looking to scale fast) opt for outsourcing to experts. 

We operate as an outsourced lead generation provider, but the right choice depends on your circumstances. Let’s objectively compare business lead research methods in-house vs. outsourced in key areas:

As you can see, outsourced lead research and generation can accelerate your results and cut costs, especially if you don’t have an existing team in place. For instance, we’ve had clients come to us after trying it internally and say, “We spent 6 months and $$ on tools with little to show; Martal got us in front of more qualified leads in 6 weeks.” That speed and expertise benefit is real – one study noted companies leveraging outsourced sales development saw a 30% increase in lead conversion rates and 43% higher conversion vs. in-house teams (11). Outsourcing can also be a smart move when entering new markets (different region or vertical) where an external team might already have playbooks and data.

On the other hand, if you have a well-oiled internal team and value direct control over every interaction, investing in your own staff might make sense. Some organizations also prefer to keep all prospect communications in-house for brand reasons. It’s not an either/or forever decision – a hybrid model can work too (e.g., keep a small in-house team and augment with an outsourced team to boost volume or handle specific segments).

Martal’s Perspective: We obviously believe in the value of outsourcing (it’s what we offer), but we also operate as partners, not just vendors. The best scenario is when we effectively become an extension of your team – aligning with your goals and sharing insights both ways. In fact, many clients start outsourcing to us to test or scale an approach, then later build in-house muscle (with our training help), or vice versa. Our goal is to make sure you’re successful either way.

Ensuring Data Quality and Compliance in Lead Research

Before we conclude, it’s important to address two behind-the-scenes pillars of lead research strategy: data quality and compliance. Ignoring these can derail even the best campaign – either by tanking your response rates or, worse, landing you in legal hot water.

On average, 94% of B2B companies suspect their databases have inaccurate or outdated data, and an estimated 30% of CRM data goes bad each year (3). 

Additionally, regulations like GDPR have led over 80% of consumers to care about data privacy (5), a sentiment shared by B2B buyers.

Data Quality – The Hygiene Factor

As we emphasized in Step 4, clean data is essential. Bad data doesn’t just reduce efficiency; it can harm your sender reputation (bounces and spam traps) and morale (reps frustrated with wrong info). Make data quality a continuous priority:

• Regular Cleansing: Schedule periodic audits of your lead lists. Remove or update contacts that hard bounce, and refresh information for leads that haven’t been touched in a while. If a contact hasn’t responded after many touches, verify if they’re still in the role. There are services that can automatically cleanse and update data for you – consider them if your database is large. It might sound tedious, but as the saying goes, “garbage in, garbage out.”
  
• Data Enrichment: Keep augmenting your data to fill gaps. If you got a lead’s email but not their LinkedIn URL or phone, go back and enrich that when possible. It’ll help the next rep who works that lead. One clever tactic: if a lead goes dark, research if maybe someone else took their position (for example, maybe Jane Doe left the company; now John Smith is the new VP Sales – you can then pivot to the new contact).
  
• Tracking Decay Metrics: Keep an eye on how many of your contacts decay over time. If you know ~3% of emails go bad each month (which aligns with that ~30% annual decay stat), you can anticipate and proactively top up the funnel with new leads to replace churned ones. High decay in a certain segment might tell you something too (e.g., some industries have higher turnover).
  

Compliance – Playing by the Rules

B2B outreach is subject to various laws and regulations, from GDPR in Europe to CAN-SPAM in the US, CASL in Canada, and others. Plus, even aside from laws, respecting prospects’ data and preferences is just good business (it builds trust).

• Consent and Opt-Outs: If you’re emailing leads cold, ensure you follow applicable laws. For example, GDPR requires a lawful basis to contact EU individuals (legitimate interest can apply for B2B in many cases, but you must provide an opt-out and honor it). Always include an easy way to unsubscribe in your emails, and if someone says “remove me” or indicates they’re not interested, mark them and don’t continue spamming. Our policy is to swiftly remove any contact who asks – it’s not just legal, it’s respectful.
  
• Data Sources: Be careful how you obtain and use data. Buying lists can be risky (quality and compliance-wise). It’s usually better to build your own researched lists or use reputable providers that comply with laws. For instance, if you use a database, ensure it’s updated for things like “do not call” lists if you’re calling. Under GDPR, if someone asks how you got their info, you should be able to tell them. Have a clear answer (e.g., “We found your contact via LinkedIn and company website in the course of researching companies in your industry”) – transparency helps defuse concerns.
  
• Privacy Training: Make sure your team is trained on basic compliance. Even simple things like not misleading in emails, including your company address in email footers (a CAN-SPAM requirement), and respecting time-of-day/number-of-call attempts can keep you on the right side of regulations and etiquette. If you’re reaching out globally, be mindful of differences (what’s okay in the U.S. might not be in Germany, for example).
  
• Leverage Partners for Compliance: One benefit of outsourcing is that a good partner will handle a lot of this for you. We at Martal, for example, maintain GDPR-compliant processes and stay updated on laws, taking that burden off clients. If you’re in-house, it might be worth consulting legal counsel or resources to ensure your lead gen methods comply in your target regions.
  

By treating data quality and compliance as non-negotiable, you not only avoid negatives (bounce rates, fines, blacklists) but also create a positive impression. Prospects notice when outreach is professional and respectful of their info. It lays a foundation of trust – and trust is essential if you want a lead to become a customer.

Lead Generation Research: Aligning Strategy with Sales & Marketing

One final strategic layer to discuss is alignment – making sure your lead research efforts tie seamlessly into your broader sales and marketing strategy. We’ve touched on this, but it’s worth a dedicated look because misalignment can undermine all your good work.

📊 Sales-Marketing alignment pays off. Organizations with tightly aligned sales and marketing teams are 58% more likely to exceed revenue targets (13), yet only about 30% of sales professionals feel their teams are closely aligned in practice (6). This gap represents a huge opportunity.

Here’s how to connect the dots:

• Shared Ideal Profiles: Marketing and sales should agree on the definition of a qualified lead (often documented as a “SQL” – sales qualified lead). The ICP we defined in Step 1 shouldn’t live in a vacuum. Marketing should tailor campaigns (ads, content, events) to attract those ICP profiles, creating a consistent targeting strategy. Meanwhile, your sales outreach (research + contact) goes after the same profiles. When both teams aim at the same target, you reinforce each other’s efforts. For example, if marketing runs a webinar for FinTech companies (ICP-aligned), your sales team can research and reach out to attendees or similar companies, referencing that webinar. We often facilitate weekly syncs between our SDRs and clients’ marketing teams to share who we’re targeting and what messages are resonating, so outbound campaigns and emails speak with one voice.
  
• Content and Insights Flow: Ensure that insights uncovered during lead research flow to marketing, and vice versa. If through research you discover many CMOs in your target sector keep bringing up “lack of pipeline visibility” as a pain, pass that to marketing – it might inspire a blog post or eBook that addresses it, which in turn can be used in campaigns or sent to leads. Conversely, if marketing’s content (like case studies or whitepapers) is performing well, make sure your outbound sequences incorporate it. For instance, if a certain case study download is popular, your sales development representative can email leads saying, “Thought you might be interested in this case study relevant to your industry…”. This kind of one-two punch, where marketing softens the ground and sales personalizes the follow-up, is extremely powerful.
  
• Unified Metrics and Feedback: Use common metrics to judge success. Both teams ultimately want more revenue, but in the short term, marketing might look at MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) and sales at SQLs/opportunities. Define how a lead research target becomes an MQL or SQL. Perhaps a researched lead becomes an MQL when they engage (reply or click), and an SQL when a meeting is set. Having that agreed definition avoids the classic finger-pointing (sales saying “these leads suck” and marketing saying “you’re not working our leads”). It’s all our leads in the end. Regularly review the lead generation funnel together – e.g., what percentage of researched leads are turning into real pipeline? If it’s low, diagnose together: Are we targeting wrong? Is the messaging off? Collaboration is key. It’s telling that aligned teams achieve better conversion partly because they iterate in unison, not in silos.
  
• Training and Playbooks: Develop joint playbooks that incorporate research and outreach best practices. This very guide you’re reading could form the basis of an internal playbook. Make it part of onboarding for both new sales reps and new marketing hires (so they understand the sales development process). When we train teams via our Martal Academy (our B2B lead gen training program), we invite both sales and marketing participants. The idea is to foster a shared language and understanding – marketing learns how sales reps research and approach leads, and sales learns what goes into marketing campaigns and messaging. This cross-pollination builds empathy and efficiency. Everyone is working towards the same strategy, not separate agendas.
  

In essence, lead generation research shouldn’t happen in a silo. It’s most effective when it’s woven into the fabric of your overall go-to-market strategy. When sales and marketing operate like a well-oiled machine – sharing data, coordinating messages, and rallying around the same target customer – the result is a consistent journey for the buyer. They get relevant touches at every stage, which builds trust and moves them closer to a deal. This is especially vital in complex B2B sales, where a prospect might consume a piece of content (marketing touch), then get a call from an SDR (sales touch), then attend a webinar (marketing again), etc. If all those touches feel cohesive and relevant, you stand out from competitors who might have disjointed approaches.

We’ve now covered a lot of ground: from laying the strategic foundation, through tactical steps, to organizational considerations. To close, let’s recap the key takeaways and talk about how you can put this playbook into action – including how we can support you in that journey.

Conclusion: Putting Your Lead Research Strategy into Action

B2B lead research in 2025 isn’t easy – but as we’ve shown, it can be systematized and mastered. Let’s quickly recap the strategic plays:

• Do your homework (ICP and persona definition) before anything else – this focuses your efforts on leads that truly matter.
  
• Use a structured process (the 7 steps) to identify, research, and engage leads – leaving no gaps from data collection to first outreach.
  
• Leverage tools and automation to augment human effort – let AI handle grunt work like data mining, so your team spends time selling, not just researching. (81% of sales leaders agree on AI’s time-saving power! (6))
  
• Personalize and go omnichannel – generic one-and-done outreach is dead. Multi-touch sequences across email, LinkedIn, phone (and more) will dramatically boost your contact rates and conversions.
  
• Maintain data quality and compliance as a non-negotiable – an up-to-date, legally compliant database is an asset that underpins all your campaigns.
  
• Continuously learn and align – treat your lead research strategy as living, iterate with data, and align your sales and marketing teams around it for maximum impact.
  

By following this playbook, you position your team to consistently generate high-quality B2B leads and fill your pipeline with real opportunities. It transforms outbound prospecting from a hit-or-miss activity into a disciplined, data-driven function of your business.

Of course, reading a guide and implementing it are two different things. You might be thinking, “This all sounds great on paper, but executing it is a lot of work – do we have the resources or expertise?” That’s a fair question. Even with the best roadmap, many companies struggle with bandwidth or know-how in one area or another (be it building lists, crafting messaging, or managing multi-channel outreach).

That’s where we can help. At Martal Group, we specialize in the very strategies outlined here – it’s what we do every day for B2B clients around the world. We can step in as your partner to execute some or all of this playbook:

• Fractional Sales Teams & SDR Outsourcing: If you need extra hands (or an entire team) to research leads, send cold emails, make calls, and book meetings, our award-winning sales outsourcing service has you covered. We act as a seamless extension of your team, ramping up quickly to get campaigns rolling. Remember those stats about outsourcing boosting conversions and cutting costs? We’ve proven them out, delivering pipeline growth for startups and Fortune 500s alike.
  
• Omnichannel Marketing and Outreach Campaigns: We’ll design and run outreach sequences that mix cold email, LinkedIn lead generation, cold calling, and more – ensuring you hit prospects on the right channel at the right time. Our approach avoids “one-size-fits-all” spam; instead, we use the research insights (ICP, triggers, etc.) to personalize at scale. Our multichannel playbooks are tested and optimized continuously, so you benefit from up-to-date tactics.
  
• Data Research & Enrichment: Don’t have a clean list? We’ll build and enrich your lead database for you. Martal’s team leverages a combination of proprietary AI (our platform Landbase GTM-1) and human intelligence to source verified contacts that match your ICP. You get a steady flow of sales-ready leads without having to subscribe to a dozen tools or worry about data decay – we handle the heavy lifting. (And yes, we stay compliant with GDPR/CCPA, etc., during the process.)
  
• Appointment Setting & Follow-Up: The goal of all this lead research is ultimately to start conversations. Our SDRs will not only engage leads but also handle the appointment setting – scheduling calls or demos directly onto your calendar with interested prospects. We nurture sales leads through multiple follow-ups (leveraging that persistence principle) so that warm opportunities don’t slip away. Essentially, we keep your pipeline fed and your sales team focused on closing deals, not chasing replies.
  
• Sales Training and Martal Academy: Perhaps you want to implement this playbook internally and just need guidance. We’re happy to train your team via our Martal Academy’s B2B Lead Gen Training programs. We share the latest outbound techniques, toolkits, and compliance know-how to upskill your in-house SDRs/BDRs. It’s like having our expertise bottled and delivered to your reps. Many clients use our Academy to turn their sales team into lead generation ninjas who can execute campaigns with Martal-level proficiency.
  

At the end of the day, our mission is to help you fill your sales funnel with dream clients and hit your revenue targets. Whether you choose to do it all in-house, outsource to a partner like us, or a hybrid approach – the strategies in this playbook will set you on the right path.

So ask yourself: Are we confident in our 2025 lead generation plan? Do we have the pipeline to meet our growth goals? If the answer is “not yet” or you see room for improvement, let’s talk. We’d love to learn about your sales objectives and show how we can accelerate your results with our data-driven approach.

👉 Get a Free Consultation: As a next step, we invite you to a free consultation with Martal Group’s experts. We’ll discuss your current lead research process (if one exists), identify gaps or new opportunities, and offer actionable recommendations – no strings attached. 

Many sales and marketing leaders find this conversation alone sparks new ideas and clarity. And if it makes sense, we can explore how Martal’s services (from cold email campaigns to LinkedIn outreach, cold calling, appointment setting, sales outsourcing, and complete omnichannel programs) can plug in to boost your pipeline.

In 2025’s competitive B2B landscape, a robust lead research strategy isn’t just nice to have – it’s your competitive edge. We’re here to ensure you capitalize on it. Let’s turn those researched leads into your next big customers. Contact us today for a free consultation, and let’s build a stronger pipeline together!

References

1. DemandGenReport
2. Gartner
3. Marketing Insider Group
4. Martal Group – Targeted Lead Generation
5. Cisco
6. HubSpot
7. MarTech Alliance
8. Martal Group – Sales Process Optimization
9. Soptio
10. Harte Hanks
11. Only B2B
12. Momentum
13. Entrepreneur