What is a lead and how to generate leads? A B2B lead generation guide
Filip Duszczak
CEO i założyciel InStream Group
- Reading time: 34 minutes
- January 18 2018
Updated: · data from InStream Group campaigns in 2026
A lead is a company or person that fits your ideal customer profile and has shown interest in your offer: they replied to a message, left their details in a form or asked to be contacted. Lead generation is the ongoing process of acquiring such contacts and handing them over to sales. In this guide we show how we do it at InStream Group: from the definition and value of a lead, through sources and costs, to lead handling and follow-up.
Lead generation demo. See in a few minutes what lead generation looks like from the inside: a database built for your target group, the message sequence, hot leads in the client panel and the team that handles them.
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Discover our B2B lead generation service
- Lead Generation 3.0: brand, social selling and cold mailing
- 5 videos about our services
- What is a lead? Lead, MQL, SQL and hot lead
- How to calculate the value of a lead?
- Inbound and outbound leads
- The best B2B lead sources
- CPL and CAC calculator
- In-house team or outsourcing?
- Presentation: how we generate leads
- How to handle leads
- A sample sales process
- Follow-up: how many days and touches
- How much does a lead cost? CPL pricing
- Clients and their stories
- Client testimonials
- Lead generation pricing
- Frequently asked questions
Strategy
Lead Generation 3.0: personal branding, social selling and cold mailing
The best results come from combining three channels. A decision-maker who knows your company from LinkedIn is more likely to reply to an email and accept an invitation. That is how you get a steady flow of conversations with your clients instead of one-off shots.
Personal branding
We build the visibility of your company’s leaders on LinkedIn: posts, videos and regular publications. The decision-maker knows you before they get our message.
LinkedIn MarketingSocial selling
A full-time salesperson runs your profile, invites decision-makers and talks to them from the first message to the meeting. A wishlist of 5–10 dream companies per month.
Social SellingCold mailing
A team of 5 specialists builds a database for your target group and runs personalised sequences. More about the method in our cold mailing guide.
Cold MailingCold mailing gives you scale, LinkedIn gives you precision and your brand makes the decision-maker reply. They are not competitors, they are a set.
See the Lead generation packageSee how we generate leads: 5 videos about our services
Five short videos about how we reach your clients and what happens to a lead after it replies.
Cold Email — lead generation
How a team of 5 specialists runs a campaign: from a database built for your target group to hot leads handed over to your sales team.
LinkedIn Social Selling
Salespeople build relationships with decision-makers on LinkedIn and turn them into sales conversations.
LinkedIn Marketing
A recognisable company brand on LinkedIn and experts who attract clients. Salespeople start from warmer conversations.
Lead Astra: Mini CRM
All campaign leads in one place, with contact history and status.
Sales Booster — sales department transformation programme
A programme that organises the sales process, bases decisions on CRM data and develops salespeople's skills.
Definition
What is a lead? Lead, MQL, SQL and hot lead
A lead is a potential client who fits your ideal customer profile (ICP) and has signalled interest in the topic. In B2B, a lead is a company or a decision-maker in a company. A lead is not yet a client: before buying, it goes through qualification, a conversation and an offer.
Who qualifies a lead?
A lead passes through two filters: marketing assesses engagement and sales assesses buying potential. At InStream Group there is a third one, written into the contract: the hot lead.
Marketing qualified lead (MQL)
They have engaged: downloaded a resource, attended a webinar, keep coming back to the website. Marketing nurtures them with content and passes them on to sales.
Hot lead at InStream Group
This is a person from the approved database who explicitly asked for a meeting, an offer or contact and left a phone number and email. Weaker replies count as warm leads at a ratio of 3 to 1.
Hot, warm and cold leads
| Type | Readiness to buy | What to do with it? |
|---|---|---|
| Cold lead | none or low | Fits your ICP but has not heard of you yet. This is where every outbound campaign starts. |
| Warm lead | medium | Knows your company and replied, but not now. Follow-ups and content bring them back. |
| Hot lead | very high | Asks for a call or an offer themselves. Contact within hours, not days. |
B2B lead vs B2C lead
| Criterion | B2B lead | B2C lead |
|---|---|---|
| Who decides | a buying group, usually 6–10 people | one person |
| Sales cycle | weeks or months | minutes or days |
| Buying motive | return on investment, costs, processes | emotions, convenience, price |
| Touchpoints | several channels, several people in the company | usually one channel |
67% of B2B buyers prefer to buy without a salesperson, and a purchase usually involves 6–10 people (Gartner, 2026). That is why brand and visibility decide whether a lead appears at all.
Lead value
How to calculate the value of a lead?
Lead value is the amount one lead brings you on average. You calculate it from two numbers: how much you earn per client and what percentage of leads become clients. Lead value = average client value × lead-to-client conversion.
- Average client value: the first contract or LTV over the whole relationship
- Conversion: what percentage of leads become clients, data from your CRM
- Margin: how much of the contract value you keep as profit
- Lead scoring: points for ICP fit and behaviour show which lead to handle first
Example
How much is one lead worth?
The average contract is €10,000 and 1 in 10 leads buys. One lead is worth €1,000. With a 30% margin, a lead is worth €300 in profit: that is the upper limit of a sensible cost per lead (CPL).
Instead of the first contract, you can use LTV, the revenue from a client over the whole relationship. In B2B this often changes the decision: a lead that looks expensive at the first contract turns out cheap by the third order. Sample figures.
Inbound and outbound
Inbound vs outbound leads: what is the difference?
An inbound lead comes to you: from a form, a search engine, a webinar or a post. An outbound lead is a company you reach out to first because it fits your ICP. Inbound gives higher intent, outbound gives you control over who you talk to.
Inbound lead
Comes from SEO and GEO, content, webinars, ads and personal branding. Higher buying intent, less control over who ends up in the pipeline.
Outbound lead
Comes from cold mailing, social selling and company databases built for your ICP. Full control over the target group and fast scaling.
| Criterion | Inbound | Outbound |
|---|---|---|
| Who starts | the client | you: you write to companies from your ICP |
| Time to leads | months | weeks from campaign launch |
| Control over the target group | low | full: a database built for your ICP |
| Scaling | slow, depends on traffic | fast: a bigger database means more conversations |
It is not an either-or choice. Inbound builds visibility, outbound reaches companies that do not know you yet. Lead Generation 3.0 combines both: personal branding works like inbound, social selling and cold mailing like outbound.
Lead sources
The best B2B lead sources: inbound and outbound
The best source is the one where your decision-makers are and that you can sustain every month. Pick a tab to see outbound or inbound sources.
Outbound
- Cold mailingScale: thousands of decision-makers from a database built for your ICP. First leads within weeks of the campaign launch.
- Social sellingPrecision: a conversation with a chosen decision-maker on LinkedIn, a wishlist of 5–10 companies per month.
- B2B company databasesCampaign data from registers, maps and thousands of sources, built for your target group. B2B company databases
- Old leads and lost opportunitiesLeads you have already paid for once. The SDR team gets back to them by phone and email.
- Cold callingFast contact, but in Poland phone marketing requires prior consent (Art. 398 of the Polish Electronic Communications Law). More in our cold calling guide.
Inbound
- Personal branding on LinkedInYour company's leaders publish regularly and decision-makers start the conversation themselves. The effect grows with every month of publishing.
- SEO and GEOYour website in Google and in AI answers to buyers' questions. Large scale, but results take months.
- Webinars and eventsSmall scale, high intent: participants choose to spend time on your topic.
- Referrals and existing clientsThe highest quality and the shortest path to a contract. Ask for a referral after every successful project.
- Ads (Google, LinkedIn Ads)A fast start, but in B2B the cost per click is high and leads need careful qualification.
You will find a full ranking of 10 methods with cost, quality and time scores in our guide Cost per lead: how to calculate it.
Calculator
Lead generation calculator: work out CPL, CAC and lead value
Enter your numbers from recent months. The calculator shows the cost per lead, the cost per client and whether a lead pays off. The values in the fields are examples.
Your numbers
data from your CRM and invoices · sample values
The median CPL in 426 InStream Group cold mailing campaigns is PLN 664, and 72% of campaigns have a CPL of up to PLN 1,000.
Result
recalculated live after every change
Formulas: CPL = cost ÷ number of leads · CAC = cost ÷ number of new clients · lead value = client value × conversion. More in our guide Cost per lead: how to calculate it.
Do the maths for yourself
In-house team or outsourced lead generation?
An in-house team gives you control, but before it brings its first leads it costs months of recruitment, tools and onboarding. Enter your amounts and see the difference over the selected period.
Building it yourself
Everything on your side. Untick what you don't need and change the amounts to your own.
- EUR / month
- EUR / month
- EUR one-off
- EUR / month
- EUR / month
- EUR / month
- EUR / month
Note: one salesperson won't give you a lead guarantee, won't support marketing and won't run lead generation campaigns in three channels at once.
With Sales House
One partner, three channels. Tick the services you want to launch.
- €1,700 / month
- €1,000 / month
- €1,000 / month
Included: teams of specialists, technology and databases built for your target group. Net prices with no hidden fees. We write the guarantee of min. 5 hot leads per month in Cold Mailing and LinkedIn Sales into the contract.
Enter the costs from your own market. Sales House prices are net, as in the price list.
Presentation
Presentation: how we generate leads at InStream Group
Swipe through the slides like a presentation and listen to the narrator. In a few minutes you will see how Sales House takes over lead generation: from your brand, through campaigns, to lead handling in your CRM.
Arrows, swipe or click a thumbnail
Voice-over script for this slide
Meet InStream Group, the first Sales House in Poland. In a few minutes we will show you how we can take responsibility for your company's sales. You will also learn why more and more companies choose this model of cooperation.
Software houses changed the way companies build technology. Today the same is happening in sales. When artificial intelligence gives everyone similar tools, the advantage goes to whoever sells better. Sales House gives you that advantage from day one.
Companies come to us with very different challenges. Some need new conversations with clients, others are entering a new market or building a team from scratch. They all have one thing in common: they want to grow faster without adding headcount.
When marketing, leads, CRM and training come from different companies, nobody looks at sales as a whole. At Sales House one team is responsible for the entire funnel. We are accountable to you for one goal: sales growth.
Building a sales department from scratch takes months of recruitment, onboarding and costs before the first results appear. With Sales House you get a team that delivers from the first month. You adjust the scale of cooperation to your company's needs.
We can step into one stage of your funnel or take over the whole of it. At every stage, experienced specialists supported by artificial intelligence do the work.
Every service we offer rests on the same foundation. You get people, proven know-how and InStream's own technology. That way you don't pay for experiments – you use solutions proven in our clients' projects.
Everything we do has one goal: the success of your sales. In a moment you will see how we build visibility and win clients. We usually discuss developing the sales process and team at a separate meeting.
Before a client talks to you, they check you out online. More and more often they also ask artificial intelligence about experts. That is why we build your leaders' brands so they are visible on LinkedIn, in Google and in AI answers.
For us, content means many formats: from posts to videos with your experts. We agree the style and formats together at a creative meeting. We prepare every creative in line with your company's brand book.
A dedicated specialist and a support team work on your brand. We plan content, run activity and build relationships on your behalf. You see everything in the Lead Astra platform. Nothing is published without your approval.
A personal brand is an investment that pays off more every month. First, visibility grows. Over time it translates into better conversion and enquiries from new clients.
We expand the network, build the position of brand leaders and achieve top results. Some of our clients are number one in their segments for LinkedIn recognition. You will find full case studies and video testimonials on our website.
LinkedIn Marketing is a subscription from €1,000 net per month. We write the minimum publishing scope into the contract, so you know exactly what you are paying for. If you want to involve the whole team, we extend the service with Employee Advocacy.
Cold Mailing 2.0 is a way to get a steady stream of new leads at scale. We write short, human messages to the people who really make purchasing decisions. Every campaign is run in compliance with GDPR.
You cannot build this scale on your own. We work in over 40 markets. Our campaigns bring clients 4,000 leads a month. Your campaign uses the same infrastructure and experience.
Your campaign is run by an experienced Project Manager with a support team. We take care of databases, content, infrastructure and the legal side. You receive ready replies in the Lead Astra panel, integrated with your CRM.
Every month you receive a report comparing the results with the guarantee written into the contract. In a well-set-up campaign the number of Hot Leads grows month after month. You will find case studies from such campaigns on our website.
Cold Mailing 2.0 is a subscription from €1,700 net per month, with no limit on campaigns or mailboxes. We guarantee the minimum number of Hot Leads in the contract. You can also choose a model in which you pay only for Hot Leads.
You won't reach your most important clients with a mass message. In Social Selling a person leads the conversation with the decision-maker, from first contact to the meeting. That is how we build relationships that cannot be automated.
Conversations are led by an experienced LinkedIn salesperson supported by our team. We look after your network and the history of every relationship. The Lead Astra platform prepares the work, but every message is sent by a person.
You also see Social Selling results in your monthly report, compared against the guarantee in your contract. We have worked with many clients for years. Relationships built on LinkedIn keep paying off long after the first conversation.
Social Selling is a subscription from €1,000 net per month. We write the minimum number of invitations and Hot Leads into the contract. Conversations are run from your experts' profiles.
Our cooperation has a steady rhythm. The first month is preparation, then we launch campaigns and analyse the results every month. Every 90 days we meet to plan the next stage. We also prepare your team to work with the leads.
The best results come from combining three channels. Visibility on LinkedIn makes clients more willing to reply to emails and messages. That is how Lead Generation 3.0 is born: a steady flow of conversations with your clients.
1,700 companies from more than 40 countries have already trusted us, from startups to global brands. Every month we run more than 200 sales projects.
Let's talk about how we can grow sales in your company. Call or write to us. You will find our contact details on the screen.
Hello. We can't meet in person, so I'm happy to take you through Sales House step by step. InStream Group is the first Sales House in Poland. We support your company's entire sales: from brand visibility, through winning clients, to developing your sales department. Our goal is the growth of your business.
For the last twenty years, companies have scaled technology with a partner – a Software House that gave them developers, tools and proven ways of working. Today artificial intelligence makes it possible to build technology in a very short time. The advantage now comes from sales and marketing. Just as companies once scaled technology, today they scale sales with a partner. That is why the era of the Sales House has begun.
When is it worth turning to a Sales House? When you have a good product and need more conversations with clients. When you want to build brand visibility or enter a new market. When you want to turn client interest into sales faster. When you are building or rebuilding a sales team. And when you want to scale sales without adding headcount. In each of these situations we take over the part of the funnel you need.
Until now, companies have grown sales with many suppliers at once: a marketing agency, a lead provider, a CRM implementation company and a sales trainer. Each was responsible for its own piece. Sales House brings all of this together in one partner: one strategy, people, knowledge and technology in one place, and shared goals. We are responsible for what matters most – the growth of your sales.
Your own sales department is much more than salaries. It means recruiting and onboarding people, tools, licences and databases, training, your time spent on management, team turnover and months of ramp-up. With Sales House you get all of this in one cooperation: a ready team, proven know-how and technology from day one. You change the scale of support as your needs change. You pay for a ready sales department, not for building one from scratch.
We support you at every stage of the sales funnel. We build the visibility of your brand and its leaders. We reach the companies you want to talk to. We turn interest into meetings and sales opportunities. We organise your sales process, CRM and tools. We develop your team's skills. You can start with one stage or entrust us with the whole funnel. At each stage an experienced team supported by artificial intelligence does the work.
The first area is visibility and brand. Your personal brand is one of the most important investments today. We build it systematically on LinkedIn: for the owner, salespeople and experts, or for the whole company in the Employee Advocacy model, where all employees speak with one voice. You gain recognition, trust and visibility, including in AI-powered search engines. You have the knowledge and experience. We make sure the market notices it.
We run all brand work on our own platform. We feed it with knowledge about your company, and on that basis we create posts, graphics, carousels and short videos. You see the content plan in a calendar, approve every post before publication and can check at any time what has already been published. You focus on the business while we make sure your brand is regularly present online.
The second area is winning clients. We specialise in the two methods that work best today. Cold Email 2.0 means short, business-like messages sent to carefully selected companies. LinkedIn Sales means conversations with decision-makers run manually, with text and voice messages. You set the goals and the target group, and we build a channel that regularly delivers meetings. We operate in more than forty markets: in any country, region and industry.
LinkedIn Sales is social selling done one hundred percent manually. Every conversation is led by our salesperson, on your behalf and in your tone, without bots or automation. We reach specific companies and people from your list, often at board level. When the recipient doesn't reply, we send a voice message prepared from a sample of your voice. The recipient hears you talking about their company. Your profile builds trust before the question about a meeting is asked.
Cold Email 2.0 is a personalised business message sent on behalf of your salesperson to a decision-maker. Its goal is to start a conversation. We build the database exclusively for you, based on hundreds of company and person attributes. Every recipient gets a message tailored to their role and industry, and no message goes out without your approval. We take full responsibility for the technology and GDPR compliance.
You see every sales opportunity in real time. Interested people go straight to your client panel, together with company details, phone number, email address and the content of their reply. For each contact you see the stage of the conversation: from the first reply to a win. Analytics show which industries and markets respond best, so every month we develop the strategy where results are highest. You know who we are talking to on your behalf and what comes of it.
A lead is only the beginning. We help turn it into a client. We prepare conversation scenarios, scripts and best practices. We select and implement a CRM system for your sales process. When you are short of hands, we give you trained specialists to support your team. Together we analyse leads and work to make sure as many of them as possible end in a sale.
Before the first leads arrive, we prepare your team to work with them. On the PipeChamp platform salespeople have a sales academy with video courses and sessions with a virtual trainer. They practise conversations with a virtual client before calling a real one. Together with you we build sales skills: we prepare the first conversation with the client and lead-nurturing sequences. That way the lead reaches a team that knows how to run the conversation.
If you need more hands, you can hire our pre-sales specialist, an SDR. This is a trained salesperson who calls leads, qualifies them and books meetings for your team. They work in your CRM system or in ours, so you see every activity. You don't recruit or train, and you change the scale of support as needed. Your team focuses on closing sales.
The next area is team development – the Sales Booster programme. Real change in a team requires a plan, resources and support during the transformation. That is why we take your team through four phases. We design the sales process. We implement it together with the CRM. We practise and change salespeople's habits. Finally, we develop the leaders. A consultant eventually finishes the job, but the process, knowledge and platform stay in your company for good.
The result of the programme is a healthy sales culture. It rests on four pillars. A sales process that from now on is the foundation of the team's work. Consistent communication, so salespeople know how to talk to the client at every stage. Conscious management, where leaders work with numbers and support everyone's development. And a ready working environment with CRM and tools. This is how the best sales teams in the world are built.
PipeChamp is our platform for developing sales teams. We record your sales process in it, so every salesperson knows what to do at the next stage of the conversation with the client. The team practises conversations with a virtual trainer, and the leader sees each person's progress and knows where support is needed. New salespeople get up to speed faster and the whole team works to one standard. The platform stays in your company.
How does it work? All our services are built on three layers. Technology: our own systems at every stage of the funnel, which you get access to. Resources and know-how: databases, ready processes, scripts and knowledge of what really works in sales. People: a dedicated team of specialists. That way you don't have to learn sales from scratch or build everything yourself. That is what makes a Sales House different from an ordinary agency.
Behind every project there are people. We have more than seventy specialists in twelve specialisations. They are project managers and strategists, cold mailing and social selling specialists, data analysts and copywriters, LinkedIn marketers and content creators, meeting-booking specialists, CRM consultants and sales trainers. For your project we select a dedicated team with the skills you really need.
We tailor the cooperation to your company. You can hire the full resources of Sales House: a dedicated team, know-how and technology. You can order a ready one-off solution, for example a sales process, a CRM implementation or team training. You can also buy a licence for our own platforms, Lead Astra and PipeChamp, for your team to use independently. You change the model as your company grows.
In the full-resources model you always get three layers together. People: a project manager, a data analyst, a creative department, technical and legal specialists and a sales trainer. Resources and know-how: databases, ready processes and scripts, any number of campaigns, target groups and markets, and a sales academy. Technology: CRM and a client panel, unlimited domains and mailboxes, cold mailing and LinkedIn platforms, and AI-based tools. You don't build anything yourself. You get a ready, working sales department.
How do we start working together? First we talk and get to know your business, clients and sales goals. Then we prepare a strategy for the first ninety days: we decide which area we start with and how we measure results. Then we launch with a dedicated team. We meet regularly to analyse results together and plan the next steps. We work with the mindset that every month should be better than the last.
InStream Group is the first Sales House in Poland. For ten years we have supported B2B companies in sales: from startups to international corporations. We have more than seventy specialists, operate in more than forty markets and have delivered more than three thousand projects. We build our own technology and share the knowledge gained in each of them.
The largest companies in the world, startups, local Polish businesses and industry leaders have trusted us. We have worked with many of them for years, because trust is built on results. Every month hundreds of companies and sales teams in Poland and around the world use our support.
We operate in more than forty markets worldwide: in Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Africa. We match the campaign language to your team. Poland is our base, and we look for clients wherever you want to sell.
Want to find out more? Click the Virtual Demo button in the menu at the top of the page and talk to our virtual consultant. It's like a video call: you tell them about your sales and the consultant shows you how Sales House can help. At any time, without booking a meeting. If you prefer to talk to a person, our consultants are waiting for you.
InStream Group. The first Sales House in Poland. You build the rockets. We launch them into space.
Work out what your own lead generation department would cost
See the demo nowBook a call with an expertLead handling
How to handle leads and turn them into sales?
A lead nobody answers quickly loses interest. Companies lose most leads not during the campaign but after it: the lead waits, the salesperson has no time, nobody records what was agreed.
- 1
Fast first contact
A hot lead gets a call or a reply on the same working day. The longer it waits, the colder the conversation.
- 2
Qualification in 4 questions
Need, budget, timeline and who decides (BANT). A lead without potential does not take up a salesperson's time.
- 3
One owner in the CRM
Every lead has an owner, a status and a dated next step. Leads without a CRM are like hiring people and not giving them an office.
- 4
Nurturing warm leads
“Please come back next quarter” is not a no. The lead gets a follow-up date in the CRM and content in the meantime.
Contact sequence after a reply: phone, email and LinkedIn at a set rhythm
Not one call and then silence. After the first call the lead gets a summary by email, and every key conversation in the process has up to 4 follow-ups. Details in the follow-up section.
What happens to a lead's reply
| Hot lead (wants a call, gives contact details) | A call the same day and a meeting in the salesperson's calendar |
| “Please come back next quarter” | A follow-up date in the CRM and content nurturing |
| “I am not interested” | Marked in the CRM, sequence ends |
| No reply | The next follow-up in the sequence |
No one to put on your leads?
The Sales House SDR team qualifies leads, books meetings and logs them in your CRM. We also implement CRMs: we are a gold partner of Pipedrive and Livespace.
See also Sales Booster: a programme that organises the sales process and develops salespeople's skills.
The process after acquiring a lead
A sample process: what happens to a lead from the first call to the contract
Lead generation ends where the sales process begins. Below is a ready-made B2B service sales process from PipeChamp: 5 stages, 11 main actions, 27 actions including follow-ups and an average cycle of 49 days.
🔊 Click any stage or action. The AI narrator will explain what to do in it.
Lead is the first stage. The salesperson contacts the new lead, checks the need and books a meeting. The stage lasts up to 14 days and ends with a booked meeting.
Follow-up
Follow-up: how many days, how many touches and which sequence makes sense?
No reply to the first message is normal, not a no. In our campaigns a sequence of 4 messages over about 2.5 weeks works well, and after the lead replies every key conversation in the process has up to 4 follow-ups.
- Day 1
Email 1
First contact: intro, question, call proposal
- Day 3–4
Follow-up 1
A short reminder in the same thread
- Day 8–10
Follow-up 2
A new argument: an example or result from the recipient's industry
- Day 14–18
Follow-up 3
Closing the thread: asking whether to come back to the topic later
After the lead replies
In the PipeChamp process the key conversations, first contact, offer review, negotiation and closing, have 4 follow-ups each. The whole process is 27 actions in an average cycle of 49 days. Each next email is shorter and adds a new argument, and every refusal ends the sequence.
Hello, this is relevant for us. Please call me on Thursday after 10:00, tel. +48 6** *** ***. Best regards, Kazimierz
CPL pricing
How much does a B2B lead cost? CPL pricing and industry medians
The cost per lead depends on the industry, the size of the target group and the channel. The median cost per lead in InStream Group cold mailing campaigns is PLN 664, and 72% of campaigns have a CPL of up to PLN 1,000. In the CPL model you pay a fixed price per hot lead, set by industry.
Median CPL in industry and manufacturing: PLN 666 per lead (30 campaigns).
Median for the whole portfolio: PLN 664. 72% of campaigns have a CPL of up to PLN 1,000.
Get a CPL quote for your industryComponents of your campaign
- A tailor-made databaseBuilt for your target group, usually ready for approval within 48 hours.
- A message in 4 elementsIntro, questions, sales pitch and one simple call to action.
- A sequence of 4 emailsA message and three follow-ups: day 1, 3–4, 8–10 and 14–18.
- A signature with a legal basisA business signature and GDPR information in every message.
- Sending infrastructureSubdomains, dedicated servers and 20–40 mailboxes with warm-up.
- Hot lead defined in the contractA person who clearly wants a conversation and leaves a phone number and email.
Median from InStream Group projects, as of 10 June 2026 (426 projects). The actual cost depends on the offer, market and target group.
Clients and their stories
Our clients' success and satisfaction matter most to us. Join more than 1,700 companies worldwide for which we have generated leads.
Case study
Emitel × InStream
Cold Email campaign: boosting in-building mobile network coverage.
105 hot leads350% of the guarantee deliveredClient testimonial
Mr Staff Support
Recruitment of drivers and workers from Asia. Magdalena talks about working with InStream.
Case study
Studio201 × InStream
Cold Email campaign for a software house: apps and AI implementations.
119 hot leads3 signed contractsClient testimonial
Packon
Cardboard packaging manufacturer. Konrad Wijata talks about working with InStream.
Case study
Personal System × InStream
Cold Email campaign for a permanent and temporary staffing agency.
40 hot leads in 3 months17,000+ messagesClient testimonial
Proexwork
Staffing agency. Maciej Krutul talks about working with InStream.
Case study
StethoMe × InStream
LinkedIn: the CEO's personal brand and US market outreach in 4 months.
607 invitations13.5% acceptance rateCase study
Iguana Group × InStream
Cold Email campaign to schools: sports equipment.
43 hot leads419 repliesClient testimonial
HSK Consulting
Employee hiring services. Jarosław Multan talks about working with InStream.
Client testimonial
MAAG Gear
LinkedIn campaign, 2 years of working together. Krzysztof Orłowski talks about working with InStream.
Client stories
See how we help companies like yours
Testimonials, case studies and campaign results from our clients in Poland and around the world.
See client storiesClient
testimonials
Our clients' success and satisfaction matter most to us. Join more than 1,700 companies worldwide for which we have generated leads.
InStream Group has proven to be a competent partner in building business relationships and expanding our sales activities. Their operations are precise and ensure high-quality lead generation.
Hubert Paczkowski
Sage
The InStream Group team demonstrated professionalism, innovation, and extensive expertise. Throughout our collaboration, we could count on punctuality, openness to suggestions, and constant communication. Thanks to the dedication and flexibility of Ms. Marika, Klaudia, and Ewa, we were able to build valuable relationships with potential clients and significantly increase the number of B2B leads. I wholeheartedly recommend InStream Group as a competent and effective partner in the field of B2B sales support.
Aleksandra Lech
Compensa
Our lead generation collaboration with InStream has been ongoing since the beginning of the year. It took the company only one week to prepare for the campaign, which was launched as planned on January 9, 2023. I would like to commend their smart approach to building the data base (consulting, refining) and the surprisingly accurate email addresses of decision-makers, which quickly translated into the first signed contracts. We continue to work together because it simply pays off.
Marcin Wojno
Helper
The company delivers our offer to dedicated target groups through emailing, allowing us to save time and connect with decision-makers. Additional lead guarantees enable us to continuously acquire new contacts for collaboration.
Wojciech Bogdański
AAA Auto
A very high level of cooperation and client communication. A young, ambitious, and professional team that knows their job and is always open to any suggestions.
Paweł Wojewodzic
Ogniochron
A pleasant and, most importantly, successful business collaboration. The InStream team was always helpful. The campaign turned out to be a great success and brought a significant year-over-year sales increase. Thank you.
Łukasz Dopierała
HAMA
Highly recommended! Before we started working together, we had many doubts about whether an external company would be able to deliver and generate content that would come back to us in the form of leads. They did it! For us, it was a new but important experience, and fortunately, we chose a company that met our expectations. Databases generated, content delivered, leads processed, and new clients acquired. We will definitely come back with a new idea and another market segment to explore and capture.
Marcin Suchocki
PC Print
We have been working with InStream Group since the second quarter of 2024 and are very satisfied with the work they have done. The company stands out for its high level of professionalism, quick and effective problem-solving support, and, most importantly – they deliver leads.
Fryderyk Gabryś
MB Poznań
I have carried out three projects with InStream, each time trying to find a counteroffer to compare capabilities. “Unfortunately,” each time I ended up staying with them – they outperformed the competition by far. They are professionals, both before signing the contract (conducting discussions, presenting capabilities, building credibility, etc.) and after the project starts. Full professionalism from the entire team (project manager, salespeople, content creators…), competent project management, good communication, etc. – from the beginning to the end of the cooperation.
Robert Ciesielski
Cogit
Pricing
How much does B2B lead generation cost?
The cost of acquiring sales leads depends on the industry and size of the target group, the chosen channel, and the scope and duration of the project. We don't sell individual leads: we build a process and a team for reliable lead acquisition that genuinely supports your company's sales results. Net prices; you can choose each service separately or as a package.
Lead generation package
Cold Mailing, LinkedIn Sales and LinkedIn Marketing in one package
€3,500net / month · three services in one packageThree client acquisition channels run by one team. You can also choose each service separately.
Book a callWhat you get in the package
Cold Mailing 2.0 · €1,700
- A team of 5 specialists with a project manager
- 20–40 mailboxes with warm-up
- Guarantee of min. 5 hot leads per month
LinkedIn Sales · €1,000
- A team of 3 full-time salespeople
- Min. 200 new contacts per month
- Manually recorded voice messages and min. 5 hot leads per month
LinkedIn Marketing · €1,000
- Marketing Manager and Support Team
- Up to 3 leader profiles and the company page
- Min. 6 posts per month
- Min. 5 edited videos
In the package
- One team runs three channels
- Net prices with no hidden fees
- Contract only for the modules you choose
- Lead guarantee written into the contract
Cold Mailing 2.0
Subscription: a permanent team and campaign continuity
€1,700net / month- A team of 5 specialists: project manager, data miner, creative department, IT and legal department
- A contact database built for your target group
- 20–40 mailboxes with warm-up
- Guarantee of min. 5 hot leads per month in the contract
- Campaigns on our own cold mailing platform
- CPL model also available: you pay for the leads delivered
LinkedIn Sales
Social Selling: salespeople who open conversations with decision-makers themselves
€1,000net / month- A team of 3 full-time salespeople
- Min. 200 new contacts per month
- Manually recorded voice messages
- Min. 5 hot leads per month
- Up to 3 LinkedIn profiles in the campaign
LinkedIn Marketing
Leader and company brand on LinkedIn
€1,000net / month- Marketing Manager and Support Team
- Up to 3 leader profiles and the company page
- Min. 6 posts per month
- Min. 5 edited videos
- A marketing strategy tailored to your goals
Frequently asked questions about leads and lead generation
What is a lead?
A lead is a company or person that fits your ideal customer profile and has shown interest in your offer: they replied to a message, left their details in a form or asked to be contacted. In B2B, a lead is a company or a decision-maker in a company.
What is lead generation?
Lead generation is the ongoing process of acquiring potential clients and handing them over to sales. In B2B it most often combines cold mailing, social selling on LinkedIn and building leaders' personal brands.
What is the difference between a lead and a client?
A lead is interested, a client has already bought. Between them are qualification, a conversation, an offer and negotiation, usually from a few weeks to a few months in B2B.
What is the difference between an MQL and an SQL?
An MQL is a lead qualified by marketing based on engagement, for example downloading a resource. An SQL is a lead qualified by sales: it has a need, a budget, a decision-maker and a timeline, so it is ready for a meeting with a salesperson.
What is a hot lead?
At InStream Group a hot lead is a person from the approved database who, in response to the campaign, explicitly asked for a meeting, an offer or contact and left a phone number and email. We write this definition into the contract.
How much does a B2B lead cost?
It depends on the industry and channel. The median cost per lead in 426 InStream Group cold mailing campaigns is PLN 664, and 72% of campaigns have a CPL of up to PLN 1,000. In the CPL model you pay a fixed price per hot lead, set by industry, plus a €700 setup fee.
How do you calculate CPL and CAC?
CPL is the lead acquisition cost divided by the number of leads. CAC is the same cost divided by the number of new clients. A lead pays off when the profit per lead, i.e. client value times conversion times margin, is higher than the CPL.
What are the best B2B lead sources?
In outbound, cold mailing gives scale and social selling on LinkedIn gives precision. In inbound, leaders' personal brands, SEO and GEO and referrals work best. The best results come from combining channels.
How many follow-ups should you send to a lead?
In cold mailing a sequence of 4 messages works well: day 1, 3–4, 8–10 and 14–18. After the lead replies, every key conversation in the sales process has up to 4 follow-ups. Every refusal ends the sequence.
Is it better to generate leads in-house or outsource it?
An in-house team gives you control but requires recruitment, tools and months of onboarding. Outsourcing gives you a team from the first month and a lead guarantee in the contract. An average salesperson in Poland costs around PLN 12,000 a month, while the three-channel package at InStream Group costs €3,500 net.
See what lead generation looks like from the inside: the database, the sequence, hot leads and the SDR team that books meetings.
See the demo nowTell us who you want to reach or which leads you want to hand over
Tell us who you want to reach: industries, job titles and markets, or how many leads a month you have to handle. We will get back to you with a proposal that fits your sales.
- First contact compliant with PKE and GDPR
- At least 5 hot leads guaranteed in the subscription
- Three-channel package for €3,500 net
About the author
Filip DuszczakCEO and founder of InStream Group, 17 years in B2B sales. He built a team of 70+ specialists that has supported over 1,700 companies in sales across 40+ markets.
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