The six steps of B2B lead generation
Do these in order. Each one feeds the next, and skipping step 1 is the most common reason a campaign brings noise instead of buyers.
Step 1. Describe your ideal customer
Write one paragraph. Name the type of firm, the size, the city or region, the problem they have and the person who decides. For example: plant heads of packaging units with 50 to 200 staff in western India, who lose time to machine stops. A firm that serves everyone speaks to no one.
Look at your best customers from the last two years. What do they share? Start from them, not from a wish list.
Step 2. Build your list from lawful sources
Good sources are people who contacted you and visitors who asked for something from your website. Add people you met at events who agreed to be contacted, public business listings, and referrals. Bought lists can carry old data, and you cannot tell how each person agreed.
A name and a work email can identify a person. The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 covers digital data about an identifiable individual. So treat your list as personal data and keep a note of where each name came from.
Step 3. Offer something useful
A useful offer gives the buyer a reason to talk. Examples are a short checklist, a cost-saving guide for their plant, a site visit, a sample or a free 30-minute call. Make the offer match one problem from step 1.
Step 4. Capture the enquiry and reply fast
Make it easy to ask: a short form with name, phone and need, a call button and a WhatsApp link. Send every enquiry to one place, such as a shared sheet or a customer relationship management (CRM) tool. See our CRM and marketing automation page. Give each lead one owner, and agree a reply time inside your team.
Step 5. Qualify the lead
Not every enquiry is a buyer. Use the score sheet below. Ask open questions about their situation, their problem, what the problem causes and what solving it is worth. Neil Rackham's SPIN Selling (1988) groups questions in this way.
Step 6. Follow up and hand over
Most B2B orders need several touches. Plan them: a call, a useful message, a quote, a visit. Hand each qualified lead to a sales person with the notes. Do not let a promising lead sit in a mailbox.
A lead score sheet you can copy
Score each line 0, 1 or 2. Add up the total. Agree a cut-off with your sales team, such as 7 and above is a qualified lead.
- Fit: is this the type and size of firm we serve? (0 no, 1 partly, 2 yes)
- Need: did they describe a problem we can solve?
- Authority: are we talking to the person who decides, or can they take us to that person?
- Timing: do they plan to act in the next three months?
- Budget: is the money there, or is there a clear way to get it?
- Engagement: did they reply, attend or open the offer you sent?
Review the sheet every month. If sales say qualified leads are poor, change the sheet or the targeting. Do not argue about the leads.
Messaging and outreach rules in India
Calls, SMS and email to business contacts are not free of rules. Here is what the official texts we read say. This is information, not legal advice, and the rules change.
TRAI rules for commercial calls and messages (including DLT)
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018. We read the consolidated text on trai.gov.in. It says the gazetted text prevails over the consolidated one.
- A commercial communication is a voice call or message, sent through telecom services, whose main purpose is to advertise or ask for business.
- Senders must be registered with an access provider (a telecom company). Regulation 3(2) says an unregistered sender may have its telecom resources suspended or disconnected.
- Commercial communication must use registered headers (an alphanumeric string of at most eleven characters) or number series set aside for it.
- Message content for promotion is registered as a template on a distributed ledger. The regulations call this technology DLT, and it is why people say DLT registration.
- A promotional message must give an opt-out in the same message. It goes only to people who have not blocked that category in the Preference Register, or who have given consent.
- Explicit consent is permission verified directly from the person and recorded. Inferred consent is permission reasonably drawn from the relationship, and it does not last beyond the contract.
- A commercial communication from a sender who is not registered is treated as unsolicited.
The text covers voice calls and messages sent through telecom services. We did not read an official text on how it applies to WhatsApp or email, so we say nothing about them here. Ask a lawyer.
DPDP Act, 2023 and Rules, 2025
- The Act covers digital personal data. Personal data means data about an individual who can be identified from it (section 2(t)).
- A business can process personal data with the person's consent, or for certain legitimate uses (section 4).
- A request for consent must come with or after a notice that says what data you want and why, and how the person can withdraw consent or complain (section 5).
- Consent must be free, specific, informed, unconditional and unambiguous, with a clear action by the person. It covers only data needed for the stated purpose (section 6(1)).
- The person can withdraw consent at any time, and withdrawing must be about as easy as giving it (section 6(4)).
- One legitimate use is the stated purpose for which a person voluntarily gave you their data, if they have not said they do not consent (section 7(a)).
- The Act does not apply to data made public by the person, or by someone the law requires to publish it (section 3(c)). A name found in a directory may not fall under that, so ask a lawyer.
- The Schedule sets penalties. For breach of any other provision the penalty may go up to fifty crore rupees.
The DPDP Rules, 2025 were published in the Gazette on 13 November 2025. Rule 3 sets out what a notice must contain. Rule 1 says rules 3 and 5 to 16 come into force eighteen months after publication. The Press Information Bureau (PIB) calls this an 18-month phased timeline. We did not read the notification that says which sections of the Act are in force today. Check it before you act.
Platform rules
LinkedIn's Help Centre says third-party software that scrapes or automates activity is banned. This covers bots and browser extensions that add contacts or send messages in bulk. Members who use such tools risk having their accounts restricted or shut down. Use LinkedIn by hand or through its own advertising tools.
A made-up example
Say a firm makes industrial valves. This is a made-up firm and made-up choices. Its first list was every factory in a state. Few replied, and the calls were poor fits. In the second try it describes one buyer: maintenance heads of chemical units that use a certain valve size.
It builds a short list from past customers and from visitors who asked for its valve guide. It offers a free plant visit to check leaks. Each enquiry goes to one sales engineer with a reply target. It scores every lead on the sheet above. It reads meetings booked and quotes sent each month, not the number of contacts.
The second try is smaller and sharper. That is the aim.
Common mistakes, and the fix
- Buying a big list. Fix: start with people who asked, met you or were referred.
- Slow replies. Fix: fix a reply time and give each lead one owner.
- Judging by clicks. Fix: judge by qualified leads, meetings and orders.
- Sales and marketing disagree on what a lead is. Fix: agree the score sheet together.
- Automation tools on LinkedIn. Fix: do outreach by hand, and use the platform's own ad tools.
- No consent record. Fix: keep a note of how and when each person agreed.
How to measure B2B lead generation
Use a simple chain, from first contact to order. Count each step by channel so you can see where it leaks.
- Leads, and how many were qualified.
- Meetings or site visits booked.
- Quotes sent, and orders won.
- Cost per qualified lead: what you spent divided by the qualified leads that came.
- Reply time: how long a new lead waits for the first call.
- Time to close: days from first contact to order.
Review the chain monthly, and move money from the channels that leak to the ones that convert.
What lead generation costs, in kind
We give no figures. The usual lines are your own time and your sales team's time, and a CRM or sheet. Add content for the offer, ads or event costs, and outside help if you want it. Staff time to follow up is the cost people forget.
When to ask for help
Ask for help when leads come but sales say they are poor. Ask when you cannot get a reply from the right roles. Ask when you have no tracking, so nobody knows which channel works. Bring your ideal customer paragraph and score sheet to the first talk.
