Lead Generating Companies: What They Do & Why You Should Outsource

Introduction

If you’re responsible for pipeline, you’re probably feeling the squeeze.

Quotas keep going up, buying committees keep getting bigger, and your reps are already complaining that they spend more time in Salesforce and spreadsheets than actually selling. Studies show sellers only spend about a third of their time on revenue-generating conversations, with the rest chewed up by admin and prospecting. Forbes

Meanwhile, the cost of an in-house SDR has exploded. Once you factor in salary, benefits, tools, management, and ramp, you’re easily staring at $9.8k–$14.2k per rep per month-often $800–$1,150 per qualified meeting. Outbound Sales Pro

That’s why more B2B teams are turning to lead generating companies-specialized agencies that handle prospecting, outbound outreach, and appointment setting for you. In fact, about 59% of companies now outsource at least some part of their lead generation. Marketing LTB

In this guide, we’ll break down:

• What lead generating companies actually do (beyond buzzwords)
• The true cost of in-house vs. outsourced lead gen
• Why outsourcing has become a core GTM strategy, not a last resort
• How to choose the right partner without getting burned
• How to design an outsourced program that your sales team actually loves

We’ll keep it practical and straight-this is the playbook seasoned sales leaders wish they had before they hired their first SDR pod.

What Lead Generating Companies Actually Do

Let’s demystify this. “Lead generation company” gets used to describe everything from list vendors selling spreadsheets of emails to full-funnel SDR agencies that feel like a remote extension of your sales org.

The Core Job: Create Qualified Sales Conversations

At its best, a lead generating company does one thing really well:

> Turn your ideal prospects into qualified, scheduled meetings on your reps’ calendars.

To get there, they typically handle:

• ICP definition & targeting, Translating your ideal customer profile into clear filters: industries, geos, company size, tech stack, triggers.
• List building & data enrichment, Pulling contacts from premium data sources, enriching with direct dials, emails, and firmographics, and validating them.
• Outbound outreach, Running cold email sequences, cold calling, and often LinkedIn touches using tested cadences.
• Lead nurturing, Keeping mildly interested prospects warm with follow-ups and touchpoints until they’re ready to talk.
• Qualification & appointment setting, Having discovery-level conversations, qualifying against agreed criteria, and scheduling meetings for your AEs.
• Reporting & optimization, Tracking connect rates, reply rates, meeting rates, and pipeline, then iterating messaging and targeting.

Think of it as bolting on a fully functional SDR team-plus ops, training, and tech stack-without actually building it yourself.

Types of Lead Generating Companies

Not all providers are created equal. Broadly, you’ll run into four flavors:

1. List vendors / data providers
• Sell you contact data, sometimes with basic enrichment.
• Pros: Cheap data, fast access, good as a raw input.
• Cons: No outreach, no qualification, often stale; your team still has to do all the work.

1. Pay-per-lead / pay-per-appointment shops
• You pay for each “lead” or “meeting,” usually at a fixed rate.
• Pros: Clear unit economics; seems low risk.
• Cons: Incentive to maximize volume, not quality. You may get lots of unqualified meetings and burned lists.

1. Niche lead gen agencies (channel-specific)
• Specialists in one channel: cold email, LinkedIn, or paid social.
• Pros: Deep expertise in that lane, good for augmenting existing channels.
• Cons: Can create silos; you still need overall SDR process and multi-channel strategy.

1. Full-stack sales development agencies
• Provide SDRs, research, multi-channel campaigns, tooling, and management.
• Pros: Feels like an external SDR team; easier to plug into your GTM and scale.
• Cons: Requires deeper collaboration; you must invest time in onboarding and ongoing alignment.

SalesHive, for example, sits in this full-stack category: they deliver cold calling, email outreach, appointment setting, SDR outsourcing, and list building on a flat-rate, month-to-month basis, with AI-powered personalization layered in.

Channels & Tech They Use

Modern lead generating companies aren’t just hammering the phone or spamming inboxes. They typically work across:

• Cold email, Sequenced campaigns with personalization, deliverability management, and A/B testing.
• Cold calling, Trained SDRs using power dialers, direct dials, and tight scripts to convert conversations to meetings.
• LinkedIn outreach, Connection requests, InMails, and content touchpoints.
• Retargeting & light paid media, Sometimes used to warm up accounts that are getting outbound touches.

Under the hood, you’ll usually see:

• A sales engagement platform (Outreach, Salesloft, custom) for sequences
• A dialer for call volume and recording
• Data providers (ZoomInfo, Apollo, Cognism, etc.)
• CRM integration (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.)
• Increasingly, AI tools for lead scoring, personalization, and intent analysis

Businesses using AI-powered lead generation tools are reporting conversion lifts of around 35%, and 67% of B2B companies now use AI to analyze customer behavior and predict buying intent. Reach Marketing

A good partner brings this stack with them so you’re not signing a dozen new software contracts just to spin up outbound.

In-House vs. Outsourced: The Real Cost of Lead Generation

Let’s talk money. The biggest mistake leadership teams make is comparing base salary for an SDR to the monthly retainer of an outsourced team.

That’s a fantasy comparison.

The True Cost of an In-House SDR Pod

Once you get past the job posting, the fully loaded cost of an in-house SDR includes:

• Base + variable comp
• Employer taxes and benefits
• Sales engagement tools and data
• Dialer, recording, and coaching tools
• Management and enablement time
• Recruiting, onboarding, and ramp

Recent analysis pegs the realistic fully loaded monthly cost for a productive SDR at $9,800–$14,200 after ramp. Outbound Sales Pro

If that SDR delivers 10-14 qualified meetings per month, you’re looking at roughly $821–$1,150 per meeting. Same data set, same math.

And that ignores a few nasty details:

• Ramp time, SDRs average about 3.2 months to reach full productivity. Salesso
• Attrition, SDR tenure is short, and every departure restarts the ramp clock.
• Time-to-strategy, While you’re hiring, onboarding, and teaching basic outbound, your pipeline is stalled.

Outsourced Economics

Most serious lead generating companies price in one of three ways:

• Flat monthly retainer with a dedicated SDR-equivalent
• Pay-per-meeting, sometimes with strict qualification definitions
• Hybrid (retainer + performance component)

Using the same benchmark as above, outsourced retainer programs often come in around $5,000/month for an SDR-equivalent delivering roughly the same 10-14 meetings. That lands your cost per meeting in the $357–$500 range. Outbound Sales Pro

Do all providers hit those numbers? Of course not. But when you pick a competent partner, you typically get:

• Lower cost per meeting than your fully loaded internal SDRs
• Faster time-to-pipeline (campaigns live in weeks, not quarters)
• Zero HR, recruiting, or enablement overhead

This is why the global lead generation outsourcing market, valued at about $6.57B in 2024, is expected to hit $12B by 2035. WiseGuyReports

Beyond Cost: Focus and Opportunity Cost

The other, often bigger, cost is what your expensive AEs are doing with their time.

If reps only spend ~35% of their time selling, the rest is going into prospecting, logging activities, and chasing no-shows. Forbes

Offloading outbound prospecting and follow-up to a lead generation partner:

• Gives AEs more time in high-value conversations
• Stabilizes your pipeline with predictable, external capacity
• Lets your sales leaders focus on coaching and strategy, not monitoring dials

That focus often outweighs the raw cost difference all by itself.

Why More B2B Teams Are Outsourcing Lead Gen

Outsourcing used to be the move you made when you were desperate: “Let’s just hire a call center and see what happens.”

That era’s over.

Today, 59% of companies outsource at least some part of their lead generation, and the B2B lead generation services market as a whole is on track to nearly triple from $2.4B in 2023 to $6.5B by 2032. Marketing LTB, Passive Secrets

The Top Drivers

1. Lack of internal bandwidth

In one recent summary of outsourcing trends, 56% of B2B companies cited lack of internal resources as the top reason for outsourcing lead gen. Kevin Chern
Sales and marketing teams are already stretched. Hiring and managing SDRs is a full-time job; most orgs don’t have a leader dedicated purely to that.

1. Rising SDR costs and volatility

We’ve already covered the cost side, but volatility is just as painful. SDR churn, ramp time, and inconsistent performance make it hard to hit pipeline targets reliably.

1. Channel and tool complexity

Modern outbound isn’t “send 100 emails and pray.” It’s multi-channel sequences, domain warmup, deliverability, intent data, AI copy, and constant testing. Many internal teams simply don’t have the reps or expertise to manage all of that.

1. Faster time-to-market

Instead of taking 3-6 months to stand up a pod, companies can plug into a lead gen agency’s existing engine and see meetings in weeks. Some data suggests companies that outsource lead generation see around 43% better pipeline velocity on average. Kevin Chern

1. Desire for predictable unit economics

When you can contractually lock in a cost per month and a target range of meetings, planning gets a lot easier. It’s much simpler to answer, “What will it cost to add 20 more meetings per month?”

The Hybrid Model Wins

Interestingly, the highest ROI doesn’t come from fully outsourcing everything. Research compiled in 2024 showed that businesses using a hybrid model-internal strategy plus outsourced execution-saw about 34% higher ROI than those going all-in on just one side. Kevin Chern

That lines up with what we see in the field:

• Your team owns strategy, ICP, and pipeline targets.
• The lead gen company owns list building, outreach, and appointment setting.
• Both sides share dashboards and iterate weekly.

That’s not “outsourcing your pipeline”; that’s amplifying it.

How to Evaluate Lead Generating Companies (So You Don’t Get Burned)

There are great agencies out there-and there are absolute lead mills that will torch your domain reputation and send your AEs junk.

Here’s how to separate the two.

1. Strategy: Can They Think, Or Just Spam?

Ask how they’ll approach:

• ICP definition, Do they challenge your assumptions? Can they segment by industry, persona, and deal size?
• Messaging, Will they build a custom playbook, or are they dropping you into a stock cadence?
• Channel mix, Are they multi-channel by default, or email-only?

Red flags:

• “We’ll just use what’s worked for other clients.”
• No mention of discovery calls, playbooks, or ICP workshops.

Green flags:

• A clear onboarding process that includes an ICP workshop and 20-30 page playbook (like SalesHive’s 30-page custom playbooks).

2. Data: Where Do the Leads Come From?

Good output requires good input.

Ask:

• What data providers do you use?
• How do you verify emails and direct dials?
• How often do you refresh lists?

Remember: data decay averages 2-3% per month in many B2B datasets. If your partner isn’t updating data regularly, your bounce rates and bad connects will skyrocket. Outbound Sales Pro

3. Execution: Who’s Actually Doing the Work?

You want to know:

• Are SDRs full-time employees or freelancers?
• Where are they based? Time zones matter for live conversations.
• What training do they receive, specifically for B2B sales development?

For instance, SalesHive trains SDRs on modern cold calling and email techniques, uses US-based SDRs for high-touch programs, and supports them with a Philippines-based team where appropriate to balance cost and quality.

4. Reporting and Transparency

If you can’t see what’s happening, assume the worst.

Demand:

• CRM integration, Meetings and activities should sync into your Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.
• Dashboards, Real-time visibility into emails sent, calls made, meetings booked, and pipeline generated.
• Weekly reviews, Regular calls to review results and plan experiments.

Some agencies offer full platforms where you can listen to call recordings, review sequences, and see pipeline value. That level of transparency is a big plus.

5. Pricing and Incentives

No one pricing model is perfect, but misaligned incentives will kill results.

• Pure pay-per-lead tends to over-incentivize volume over quality.
• Flat retainer with zero performance expectations invites complacency.

Look for:

• Reasonable retainers that include SDRs, data, tools, and management
• Clear expectations on meetings per month and what counts as qualified
• Optional performance components tied to held meetings or opportunities

If they refuse to talk about meeting quality, walk away.

Designing an Outsourced Lead Gen Program That Actually Works

Once you’ve picked a partner, the real work starts. Outsourcing isn’t a silver bullet; it’s a force multiplier for teams that know what they’re doing.

Step 1: Get Your ICP and Offer Locked

Before you ask a stranger to pitch your product, you need three things dialed in:

1. ICP, Industries, geos, company size, tech stack, use cases.
2. Personas, Decision-makers and influencers, their pains and triggers.
3. Core offers, What are the 1-2 offers you’re pushing? Demo, assessment, trial, consultation?

Bring real win/loss data and deal stories to your partner. “Here’s who we sold to, why they bought, and who said no.” That shortens the learning curve dramatically.

Step 2: Codify Qualification Criteria

Remember one of the biggest mistakes: no shared definition of a qualified meeting.

Work with your lead gen company to define:

• Firmographic filters, Company size, revenue, funding, tech stack.
• Persona requirements, Must be VP+? Director+? Can they meet with a champion first?
• Pain or initiative, What problems or projects must be present?
• Timing and budget, Do you need a formal project timeline or budget to call it qualified?

Write it down as a checklist. Use that same checklist in your CRM so AEs and SDRs judge leads the same way.

Step 3: Agree on Channel Mix and Cadence

In 2025, multi-channel outreach reduces cost per lead by about 31% on average. Sci-Tech Today

A healthy outbound program usually includes:

• Email sequences, 6-10 touches over 2-4 weeks
• Cold calls, 3-5 attempts per contact, with voicemails
• LinkedIn touches, 2-4 interactions (connection, message, comment)

Work with your partner to design cadences that feel human, not robotic. SalesHive, for example, often combines 150-500 multi-channel touches per SDR per day, backed by their AI personalization engine, to keep volume high without sacrificing relevance.

Step 4: Instrument the Funnel

If you can’t measure it, you can’t fix it.

At minimum, track:

• Contacts added
• Emails sent, opens, replies
• Calls made, connects, conversations
• Meetings booked
• Meeting hold rate
• SQL / opportunity conversion
• Pipeline value from those opportunities

Layer on cost per held meeting and cost per $1 of pipeline. That’s how you compare in-house vs outsourced and decide when to scale.

Step 5: Run a 90-Day Pilot With Tight Feedback Loops

Resist the urge to call the whole thing a failure after 3 weeks.

Instead:

1. Run a 90-day pilot with a clear target (e.g., 30 held meetings, $500k in pipeline).
2. Meet weekly to review results and qualitative feedback from calls.
3. Adjust ICP, messaging, objections, and offers based on what you’re seeing.

Remember: teams that focus on lead nurturing generate roughly 50% more sales while spending 33% less, and companies that automate lead nurturing see about 33% lower cost per lead. Digital Silk, Marketing LTB

Your outsourcing partner should be a big part of that nurture engine, not just a meeting factory.

How This Applies to Your Sales Team

This isn’t just a finance or strategy conversation; it changes the day-to-day reality for everyone in sales.

For VPs of Sales / CROs

• You get more predictable pipeline anchored in cost-per-meeting and cost-per-pipeline targets.
• You can scale up or down faster, without multiquarter hiring cycles.
• You free your sales managers from babysitting dials and sequences so they can coach.

Your job becomes orchestrating a hybrid engine: AEs and maybe a few strategic SDRs in-house, plus an external team feeding them opportunities.

For Marketing Leaders

Lead generating companies can:

• Turn your ICP and content into outbound sequences that generate higher-intent conversations.
• Help close the loop on MQL → SQL by controlling follow-up and nurture cadences.
• Provide real-world messaging feedback (what’s landing in cold outreach) to refine campaigns.

Given that 69% of B2B companies plan to increase lead gen investment, but 40% cite lead quality as a top challenge, partnering with a solid agency is often the fastest way to lift both quantity and quality. Digital Silk

For SDR / BDR Managers

Outsourcing doesn’t put you out of a job; it changes your job.

Instead of:

• Spending all day hiring, onboarding, and coaching junior reps

You shift to:

• Owning strategy, enablement, and integration with external SDRs
• Focusing your internal team on the highest-value segments and accounts
• Building playbooks that both internal and external reps can execute

Many orgs keep a small internal SDR team focused on strategic accounts or expansion and use outsourced SDRs for net-new logo hunting.

For AEs and Closers

This is the audience that usually becomes the loudest champion when outsourcing works.

They care about three things:

1. Are the meetings real?
2. Are there enough of them?
3. Do I have to do less grunt work?

With a good lead generating company and clear qualification criteria, AEs:

• Spend fewer hours prospecting and more time in demos and proposals.
• Get a steadier stream of meetings, reducing feast-or-famine cycles.
• Have better conversation starters because SDRs are feeding back objections and buying signals.

Where SalesHive Fits In

To ground this in a real example, let’s look at how a specialist like SalesHive approaches outsourced lead generation.

SalesHive is a US-based B2B sales development agency founded in 2016 that focuses exclusively on outbound: cold calling, email outreach, appointment setting, SDR outsourcing, and list building. They’ve booked over 117,000 meetings for more than 1,500 B2B clients, generating over $2.1B in pipeline.

Their model checks the boxes we’ve talked about:

• Full-stack delivery, You get SDRs, strategists, researchers, data, and tech bundled together.
• Multi-channel outbound, Phone, email, and sometimes LinkedIn, driven by AI-powered personalization (their eMod engine).
• Clear process, A 4-week launch: kickoff and channel selection, custom playbook and TAM research, list building, then campaigns live-with first meetings often landing in 1-2 weeks after launch.
• Flexible contracts, No annual commitments; flat-rate, month-to-month packages.

For a VP of Sales, that means you can:

• Plug in a “ready-made” SDR function without building the machine yourself
• Keep control of messaging and ICP (nothing launches without your approval)
• See everything in your CRM and in SalesHive’s own platform, down to call recordings and per-rep metrics

Are they the only option? No. But they’re a good illustration of what a modern lead generating company should look like if you’re serious about outbound.

Conclusion + Next Steps

Lead generating companies aren’t a magic wand-but they are one of the most powerful levers you have for fixing a lumpy pipeline without lighting money on fire.

We’ve covered a lot, so here’s the quick recap:

• In-house SDRs are expensive and slow to ramp. Fully loaded monthly costs often exceed $10k per rep, with 3+ months before full productivity.
• Outsourcing is now mainstream. ~59% of companies outsource some part of lead gen, and the lead gen outsourcing market is growing steadily.
• Hybrid beats extremes. The best results come when you keep strategy and key accounts in-house and outsource the heavy lifting of prospecting and appointment setting.
• Quality beats volume. Judge partners on cost per held, qualified meeting and downstream pipeline, not just lead counts.
• Process is everything. ICP clarity, clear qualification criteria, multi-channel outreach, and tight feedback loops are the difference between “outsourcing doesn’t work” and “outsourcing is our secret weapon.”

If you’re considering outsourcing, the smartest next steps are:

1. Calculate your current cost per held meeting in-house.
2. Document your ICP and ideal qualification criteria.
3. Shortlist 2-3 lead generating companies that align with your ACV, industry, and regions.
4. Run a tightly scoped 90-day pilot with one of them and measure the results objectively.

If you want a partner that lives and breathes B2B outbound, agencies like SalesHive can plug directly into your CRM, bring AI-powered personalization and seasoned SDRs, and start putting qualified meetings on your team’s calendars in a matter of weeks.

Whether you choose them or another provider, the playbook in this guide will help you make that decision with eyes wide open-and finally get your reps back to doing what you hired them to do: sell.