You don’t need more leads. You need more strategic conversion.

Most B2B organizations and their leaders always seem to think that growth starts with generating oceans of leads. “We need more leads!”, “Fill the top of the funnel”, and “Generate more pipeline” are all familiar cries heard from CEOs and commercial leaders.

But often, that’s not the real problem. Why? Because the problem likely isn’t lack of lead volume, but a system that can’t convert what’s already there.

In addition to lead generation, focus on lead conversion

Firstly, it’s well documented that a very small number of leads are ready to buy when they first engage with you. In fact, studies show that only about 5-10% of target customers are in-market at any moment. Which means that a lot of effort is expended in lead volume chasing that drains time and distracts your marketing and sales teams – without generating a lot of sales.

And secondly, early-stage and SMB companies don’t honestly need to close hundreds and hundreds of deals to drive success. So, focusing on and tracking lead volume is incentivizing the wrong behaviors and rewarding the wrong outcome. Instead of relying on an all-out lead-gen spring, focus on building a system that converts leads more predictably.

Think about leads as a long game

Stop thinking about leads as the end goal—and start thinking about them as a long game of fit, timing, and relevance. That means spending more effort qualifying existing leads, nurturing them through the right content over time, and coordinating the right cadence and collaboration across marketing and sales to facilitate converting them.

This requires intentionality and strategic focus, including identifying who your best customer is and what they’re really like; understanding their journey and what their questions and needs are across it; and developing the activities and assets that build trust and move them through the funnel over time.

So rather than simply demanding more new leads, here’s a foundation for a better converting engine:

1. Define your buyers and map their buying journey
   Be as precise as you can around framing who is the buyer, who are other influencers, and what contexts or business triggers put them in motion? Understand what questions they ask at awareness, evaluation, and decision stages, and what are their objections and decision-making criteria.
2. Map content and nurture assets to journey stages
   Create specific assets—blogs, email sequences, webinars, FAQ’s, and beyond—to meet prospects where they are. Since an overwhelming majority of conversions happen months after first contact, you need to recognize that you won’t win with a single interaction, but instead need to stay relevant over many via a sustained nurture plan.
3. Agree on the definition of a qualified lead
   You don’t need thousands of leads—you need the right ones, clearly defined. Work across the team to agree on what signals real potential: business context, engagement behavior, decision-making power, and urgency indicators. This shared clarity helps your team prioritize who to focus time and effort on—and prevents wasted energy chasing every name that fills out a form.
4. Measure motion, not just volume
   Your key metrics should include engagement and conversion rates across phases, not just raw lead counts. Obsess over finding low performing assets, seeking any leaks in the funnel, identifying content impact, and improving conversion rates.

Why this matters—especially in early‑stage and lower mid‑market B2B

Lead gen isn’t dead—but lead gen without strategy is just waste. If you’re not mapping the journey or aligning messaging to buyer needs, you’re feeding a broken pipeline with weak, early‑stage leads that drain time and distract your team. Focus on quality over quantity: fewer leads, better fit, stronger nurture structure, and an engine that converts reliably. That’s how marketing becomes strategic, not transactional—and growth becomes more systematic rather than reactive.