There was a time — not that long ago — when B2B lead generation meant big teams, bigger budgets, and a monthly boardroom update to justify both.
You needed outbound reps, inbound strategists, content creators, paid media managers, analysts, and someone to order the pastries for the Tuesday funnel review.
But that model? It’s fast becoming obsolete.
Thanks to a new breed of AI-powered tools and automation platforms, lean teams are generating higher quality leads — at greater scale — than their traditional counterparts. And they’re doing it with a few smart tools, a connected stack, and a human or two in the loop to guide the machine.
This isn’t coming. This is happening now.
Just ask Tom Grainger or Lanny Heiz — two leading voices championing intelligent, automated business development. Their approach isn’t just faster — it’s smarter. It’s what happens when you stop waiting for MQLs and start building a machine that feeds itself.
The new B2B lead generation stack
Let’s break it down…
Identify high-fit accounts
- Ocean.io: Pinpoints your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) with uncanny precision.
- RB2B / Vector.co: Detects anonymous web visitors and maps them to accounts — even before they fill out a form.
Enrich & research in real time
- Clay: The brain of your system. Enriches leads, monitors buying signals, and qualifies accounts — all on autopilot. Combine with Cognism or ZoomInfo to pull in the latest GDPR-compliant contact details.
- ChatGPT + Deep Research: Gathers contextual intelligence from around the web and drafts highly personalised outreach that actually gets read.
Connect with the right people
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Deep filters, org charts, and mutual connections make it easy to find and map your buying committee.
- Teamfluence: Reveals who influences whom — across teams, networks, and digital ecosystems.
Automate multi-touch outreach
- HeyReach: Automates personalised LinkedIn connection requests and sequences. One person can manage hundreds of conversations without lifting a finger.
- Smartlead: Sends cold emails from multiple inboxes with deliverability built-in — no more hitting the spam folder.
Centralise, manage, and close
- HubSpot: User-friendly, quick to deploy, and integrates beautifully with the rest of your stack. Great for teams that need flexibility without complexity.
- Salesforce: More customisable, more enterprise-ready — but often overkill for smaller or fast-moving teams.
Both platforms manage your pipeline, trigger next steps, and centralise engagement data. Pick the one that fits your size, speed, and structure.
What this actually looks like (your new process map)
Here’s how it all comes together:
- Static and dynamic lead sources flow into your Clay dashboard via Ocean.io, Vector.co, RB2B, Sales Navigator and bulk lists sources such as Cognism.
- Clay enriches each contact with real-time company, behavioural, and technographic data.
- ChatGPT (custom-prompted) drafts tailored outreach using contextual signals — funding news, new hires, tech stack changes, etc.
- Leads are automatically routed into personalised Smartlead and HeyReach sequences.
- As prospects engage, they’re synced to HubSpot or Salesforce for structured pipeline management.
- Teamfluence scores influence, keeps your team focused on accounts that matter, and helps build warm routes in.
This is by no means the ‘definitive’ stack – every business has slightly different needs and preferences. But you get the idea.
This whole loop is monitored, tweaked, and improved weekly by a human operator — someone who’s part strategist, part automation engineer, part message crafter. One person, where a team of 10 might have been needed before.
From large teams to lean machines
This is the marketing team of the future — but it’s already here.
You no longer need a floor of SDRs or an agency on a retainer just to generate pipeline. You need:
- A modest investment in the right tools
- A clear understanding of how they fit together
- And one or two curious, capable humans to manage the system
With platforms like Make.com or Zapier, even the glue work between tools — syncing, filtering, updating — is mostly automated. The human in the loop can now focus on what actually drives growth: testing, refining, and getting the message right.
Don’t let the old playbook hold you back
We’ve spoken to CMOs and commercial leads still holding out for budget approval to rebuild their website before “really doing lead gen properly.”
Others still think AI tools are a future investment — or something their creative agency might explore next quarter.
The reality? Your competitors are likely already using this approach, or at least planning to. Right now. Today.
And like the early days of business websites, those who move first will compound faster.
This is the early internet moment for AI-powered lead gen. Blink, and you’ll miss it.
Glastonbury Marketing can help you make the leap
We don’t just understand this new stack — we operate in it, every day.
We help businesses:
- Design and connect their lead-gen systems
- Craft smart, AI-informed outreach
- Train teams to work with (not against) automation
- And optimise the loop — week in, week out
Lead generation has changed. The question is: has your approach? Because doing more with less isn’t just an aspiration. It’s the future.