What to Look for in Your B2B Lead Generation Software

Choosing your B2B lead generation software isn’t just about picking the most popular name or the tool with the longest feature list. For B2B companies, it’s about selecting software that aligns with your business goals, supports your sales and marketing strategy, and drives results across the entire funnel. But, we all know that with all of the options out there, it’s difficult to know what to look for. In the article, we’re going to go through everything your team needs to consider before selecting the right B2B lead generation software. First, let’s go through why B2B companies need to lean on lead generation software.

Why B2B Companies Need Lead Generation Software

Competition is too high for B2B companies to rely on manual, labour intensive lead generation strategies. B2B companies face longer sales cycles and more complex buyer journeys, making it harder to know when a lead is ready to engage. Lead generation software helps fill that gap by tracking key behaviors, identifying anonymous website visitors, and surfacing high-intent prospects. Instead of waiting for someone to fill out a form, companies can proactively reach out based on real-time data.

Start with Clear Goals

Before comparing features or watching demos, it’s important to define what you want the software to accomplish. If your goal is to generate more inbound leads, marketing automation might be a priority. If your sales reps are spending too much time on cold outreach, tools that provide contact enrichment or lead scoring could help them focus on high-quality opportunities. Sales teams might benefit from platforms that identify high-intent accounts, while marketing teams may need software that integrates seamlessly with their CRM and email tools. The clearer your goals are, the easier it is to narrow down your options. And, you’ll avoid paying for features you don’t need.

Data Quality

Bad data leads to bad results. If your contact database is full of outdated emails or incomplete company profiles, your outreach efforts won’t stick. Platforms like Apollo.io are popular for outbound teams because they prioritize fresh, verified data. If you’re doing account-based marketing, data accuracy ensures your messaging lands with the right people. Before you choose a tool, find out how often its data is updated, and whether it uses AI, human verification, or both.

User Experience

If the lead generation software is too complex, your team won’t use it. There is nothing more frustrating than onboarding a new software, to then find out that it’s impossible to use. This slows down your process, reduces ROI, and can create friction between departments. Try to use software that offers free trials, comprehensive demos, and good support to ensure your team gets the most out of it. The faster your team can adopt a software, the faster you’ll see results.

Metrics that Matter

Lead volume is only part of the picture. To truly measure the success of your lead generation software, you need to track the right metrics. Important KPIs to monitor include conversion rate, cost per lead, lead-to-opportunity ratio, and sales velocity. Marketing teams might track email engagement, content downloads, or landing page performance. Sales teams often care more about opportunity quality and close rates. Software that allows for detailed reporting helps you understand which tactics are working, and which need to be adjusted. Some tools come with built-in dashboards, while others integrate with analytics platforms like Google Data Studio or Tableau for more advanced insights.

Options to Scale

Lead generation software should grow with you. What works for a small team with one product might not work for a growing company with multiple verticals and dozens of campaigns. Choose platforms that offer scalable pricing, modular features, and the ability to handle more leads, more users, and more integrations as your needs evolve. If you’re investing in a long-term solution, look for flexibility and scalability from the start.

Compliance and Security

B2B companies often handle large amounts of customer data, which makes compliance and security a top concern. Whether you’re marketing to customers in the U.S., Europe, or beyond, make sure your software complies with privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA. This means features like consent tracking, data anonymization, and easy opt-out mechanisms should be built into the platform. Security features like data encryption, multi-factor authentication, and role-based access controls are also essential. This is especially true for companies in regulated industries like healthcare, finance, or government. Before purchasing, ask vendors about their data policies, how they store and transmit lead information, and what measures they take to ensure compliance.

Support and Training

Even the most intuitive software has a learning curve. That’s why onboarding, documentation, and customer support matter. Look for platforms that offer live support, onboarding calls, webinars, or resource libraries to help your team get up to speed. Some companies also provide dedicated account managers or success teams, which can be incredibly helpful for troubleshooting and optimization. Training also shouldn’t stop after setup. Great vendors help you stay updated with feature releases, new use cases, and best practices that keep your lead generation strategy sharp. Whether you have a small or large team, responsive support can be the difference between a smooth rollout and a frustrating experience.

Core Features to Look Out For

The best lead generation platforms combine multiple capabilities to help you identify, attract, and convert leads efficiently. Here are a few core B2B lead generation software features that you should consider.

Website Visitor Identification

Website visitor identification software, like Visitor Queue, helps to uncover which companies are visiting your site, even if they don’t fill out a form. Understand how visitors are acquired, the pages they visit, and how long they spend on each page. Additionally, we provide employee contact information to help you reach out to potential leads. This is especially useful for account-based marketing. For example, if your sales team is targeting mid-market SaaS companies, they can filter visitors by industry and company size, and follow up when those accounts hit your website. Try Visitor Queue for free today.

Lead Scoring

Lead scoring will help your team rank leads based on the prospects who are the least to most likely to convert. By assigning points based on factors like job title, company size, email engagement, or content downloads, you can automatically flag leads who are close to converting. Platforms like Adobe’s Marketo and HubSpot offer flexible lead scoring models that adapt to your criteria. This is especially useful for large marketing teams that need to filter thousands of leads into a manageable pipeline.

CRM and Sales Tool Integrations

Your lead generation software should integrate with the software that your team already uses. Before selecting your software, ensure that they integrate with your CRM or Zapier, to ensure that the data flows between the two. This reduces manual work, prevents data silos, and ensures your sales reps have the context they need when following up.

Automation

Automation allows you to scale your outreach without sacrificing personalization. With the right software, you can create workflows that send tailored emails, assign leads to the right rep, and trigger alerts based on specific behaviors, without manual input. For example, if a lead visits your pricing page twice in one week, you can automatically add them to a nurture sequence or notify your sales team for follow-up.

Notifications

Alerts and notifications can help your team act faster. Especially when a high-intent prospect is actively researching. Many lead gen platforms allow you to set up notifications for specific behaviors. For instance, if a target account downloads your case study or revisits your site multiple times, the software can send an alert via email, Slack, or even directly in your CRM. This can give your team the chance to follow up while interest is still fresh.

What’s Next?

It can take some trial and error to find the right B2B lead generation software for your company. Try to talk to your team to see what areas they need help with, and necessary features that they’ll need in order to make their lead generation easier. Oftentimes companies will need a mix of a few different lead generation software in their tech stack to ensure leads don’t fall through the cracks. As always, if you have any questions about using Visitor Queue to identify your anonymous website visitors, do not hesitate to reach out.