If your business depends on people selling, then you already know: your pipeline is the only thing standing between you and chaos. And margin.
Too much pipeline? No problem. Too little? No choice. When your pipeline is bigger than your delivery team’s capacity, you get to choose your deals. You can raise prices. You can say no. You can be picky. But when your pipeline's empty, you become a hostage to every RFP that hits your desk.
“We have to win this deal.” That sentence is where profit goes to die. 😊
Lately, a lot of enterprise B2B execs have been asking me the same thing: Should we put our budget into advertising or prospecting? In other words: should we pay for attention or go chase it?
My first question back is always: How unique is your offer? Because that’s the biggest factor when it comes to the cost per lead.
But it’s far from the only one.
According to HubSpot, Clearbit, and LinkedIn, the average enterprise B2B inbound lead (from content, SEO, or ads) costs €120–150. An outbound lead (via network or sales rep) lands between €50–90. Also: industry benchmarks say the cold-call-to-meeting conversion rate is around 1%. If the sales rep has a network or relevant context, that jumps to 20–30%. Personally, I think that 1% is a bit too low—and the 30% too optimistic. But let’s roll with it. At least we get a ballpark on the cost of qualifying (and acquiring) a lead through either path.
Still, a good lead isn’t the same as a good pipeline. So when can you say your pipeline gives you room to maneuver? Well, if we go by industry standards (again, from those same sources), enterprise B2B sales with 6–24 month cycles require 3–4x quota coverage in pipeline. Less than that? You’re in panic mode. And margin doesn’t survive in panic mode.
Let’s take a step back. Pipeline isn’t just a numbers game. What actually matters is quality. Only 1 in 5 inbound leads is actually sales-qualified. The rest? Just noise. Even if someone fits your ICP perfectly, they might just be writing a master’s thesis. Or prepping for a job interview. Or just bored and curious.
That’s why a sales rep who can generate actual opportunities quickly (outbound, prospecting) is a massive asset. Network and relationships aren’t a nice-to-have—they’re everything. And that’s where the first answer lies: Outbound has limits (your team’s network), but it’s more effective. So the right approach? Combine both. The real question is: what’s the right mix? And that depends on where your company is—not just in terms of product and sales cycle, but maturity.
This isn’t just about “what works.” It’s about when it works.
If you’re selling to large enterprises, with long, complex, custom sales cycles, the right inbound/outbound ratio shifts depending on maturity:
And when that’s not the case? You get tension. Misalignment. Salespeople blame bad leads. Marketers blame lazy reps. And here’s the kicker: unless you’re good at qualification, your pipeline is just a list of people who said “interesting.” But “interesting” is not a sales signal. “Interesting” is not BANT. Without proper qualification (Budget, Authority, Need, Timing), you’re just living in a pipeline illusion.
That means:
If you can’t tell which is which, you’ve got two big problems:
That’s why smart companies don’t just look at how many leads come in. They look at where the pipeline is leaking. And they start fixing that first.
How do we do it at FrodX? Pretty much like our principals do—the tech companies whose platforms we integrate into our CX solutions. Here’s our logic: A lead doesn’t enter the pipeline until a sales rep qualifies it (BANT). Then it enters with a status of qualified pipeline. Only once the customer is ready to buy (we have a committed inquiry), it becomes committed pipeline. Only at that point can we reliably assess our sales potential. Everything before that? Too speculative for any serious forecast.
This isn’t just process hygiene. It’s business economics. If your team is spending time on buyers who aren’t even in the decision phase yet—you’re burning time. And energy. And sometimes even your brand.
What about the leads that are almost qualified—missing only the T in BANT, or 1 of the 4? Don’t just wait for them to ripen. Nurturing has to be part of your pipeline strategy. Periodic reconnects (as a structured sales step) mean reps check in at intervals. That’s the bare minimum. But if you can also warm them up with personalized content and use a signal system (like lead scoring) to detect movement—you’re in the driver’s seat.
At least in enterprise B2B sales, this is almost always true. And when they’re properly connected, you get what’s called Account-Based Marketing (ABM). ABM isn’t just high-res advertising. It’s a mix of focus, alignment, and relevance. When marketing and sales pick the accounts together. When content isn’t generic—it’s tailored. When inbound supports outbound. And outbound feeds inbound.
In enterprise sales, ABM isn’t a buzzword. It’s the most effective way to get your whole go-to-market team playing from the same sheet of music.
Pipeline is your lifeline. But only if there’s flow. Just filling it up isn’t enough. Eventually, you’ll stop believing in it.