Are Your Leads Killing Your Business?
Hosted by Joaquin Dominguez, five senior marketers came together to tackle a big question: are your leads actually slowing down your business? The conversation was sparked by insights from Mark Osborne, author of Are Your Leads Killing Your Business?, and brought in voices from Tenable, Veeam, Augury and UserTesting.
The group unpacked what’s going wrong with traditional lead generation and how modern teams are moving towards smarter, more revenue-focused strategies.
Host
Joaquin Dominguez, Head of Marketing at Adzact
Mark Osborne, author of “Are Your Leads KILLING Your Business?”
Guests
Adrian Morgan, Sr Manager of Marketing Operations at Tenable
Shana Brewer, Director of Global Campaigns at Veeam Software
Taylor Whetstone, Marketing Operations Manager at Augury
Tyler Rittmaster, Marketing Analytics Lead at UserTesting
What’s Broken in Traditional Lead Generation?
The panel agreed that chasing lead volume is no longer working.
Mark Osborne explained how the "growth at all costs" approach pushed many companies to bring in as many leads as possible, without caring if they were a good fit. This led to poor conversions, low margins and unhappy customers who often churned. These short-term gains ended up causing long-term damage.
Instead of spreading efforts thin across every lead, companies now need to focus on identifying the best-fit accounts and giving them the attention they deserve.
“As soon as you prioritise quantity over fit, you start pulling your business away from its real customers and into a cycle of waste and churn. The leads may look good on paper, but if they’re not aligned with your product, values or long-term vision, they end up costing more than they deliver — in revenue, resources and focus.” — Mark Osborne
From Individual Leads to Buying Groups
One key theme was the shift from targeting individuals to targeting buying groups.
Shana Brewer from Veeam pointed out that most B2B decisions involve multiple people, not just one lead. Marketing has to consider the whole committee, including champions, users and decision-makers. Adrian Morgan from Tenable added that the influence of each persona can vary depending on company size, so marketers need to adapt their strategy accordingly.
Taylor Whetstone from Augury reminded everyone that while B2B is about businesses, it’s still people who are making the decisions. Building trust, using empathy and tailoring content to how different people consume information is essential.
“In B2B, you’re never just marketing to one person — you’re speaking to a whole team with different roles, needs and influence. Success comes from understanding the dynamics of that buying committee and shaping your strategy around the entire account, not just a single lead.” — Shana Brewer
Personalisation Without Overcomplication
The group agreed that personalisation is crucial but warned against making it too complex.Highly tailored content can improve engagement, but only if the team has the tools and structure to support it. Overdoing it can create confusion and inefficiency. Marketers need to find the right balance between relevance and scalability, especially when working with technical or detail-oriented audiences.
Rethinking Metrics and Measurement
Many companies are moving away from MQLs as their main success metric.
At Augury, Taylor explained how their team stopped using MQLs and started focusing on meetings, opportunities and actual revenue. They also track cost per channel to make sure every marketing dollar is delivering a return. Other panellists agreed that it’s important to look at both early and late-stage metrics, and to tailor reporting based on the audience. Executives want to see revenue, while marketers still need to monitor early indicators like lead engagement.
There was strong support for shared metrics across marketing, sales and customer success, but also a recognition that different teams still need their own views for daily work.
“Moving away from MQLs felt risky at first, but it forced us to focus on what really matters — meetings, pipeline and revenue. When every channel has a cost, you need to prove that what you're doing is actually delivering value, not just activity.” — Taylor Whetstone
Smarter Lead Scoring
Lead scoring came up as another area where old methods are falling short.
Behavioural scoring alone isn’t enough. The panel shared how they are now combining behavioural and demographic data to qualify leads more accurately. At Tenable, for example, only leads that show strong intent and come from target accounts are flagged for sales. The rest are nurtured until they are ready.
They also discussed the importance of refining scoring models regularly based on real conversion data. At UserTesting, the team reviews their scoring each quarter to improve accuracy and stay focused on the accounts that are most likely to convert and grow.
“Marketing, sales and customer success may each have their own goals, but revenue is the shared outcome. When you let data guide your story, you move beyond gut feel and start making decisions that actually drive the business forward.” — Adrian Morgan
Aligning Systems and Attribution for Real Impact
Tyler Rittmaster from UserTesting brought attention to the complexity of aligning different teams and tools across the revenue engine. He noted that even the best metrics mean little if attribution models are misaligned or data lives in disconnected systems. Tyler highlighted the need for shared agreement on how performance is tracked, especially when multiple personas are involved in buying decisions. He also pointed out that campaign value can be misread if attribution only accounts for job titles rather than actual influence, creating gaps in how success is measured.
“There’s a very real human element in how go-to-market teams operate. If marketing, sales and customer success are working from different systems and different truths, the result is noise — not insight. Alignment isn’t just about dashboards, it’s about making sure everyone trusts the data behind them.” — Tyler Rittmaster
Thinking Beyond the First Sale
Long-term value matters just as much as initial conversion.
Adrian shared how Tenable is starting to forecast which accounts are likely to grow over time, rather than just looking at short-term pipeline. Tyler Rittmaster from UserTesting described how they identify the “sweet spot” in customer product usage and run campaigns to deepen that engagement, creating new expansion opportunities later on.
Shana added that when working with channel partners, the focus shifts to the lifetime value of the partner, not just the end user. This mindset helps identify which partners are worth investing in for the long term.
ABX and Tight Targeting
Account-Based Experience (ABX) was another area where many teams are focusing their efforts.
Augury has fully embraced ABX, building a list of top accounts and creating campaigns just for them. This allows them to craft highly tailored content and align efforts across teams. The same thinking applies to customer marketing, where known good-fit accounts are treated as high-value targets for cross-sell and upsell.
Better Content, Smarter Channels
Content strategy also needs to evolve.
The group discussed using a mix of formats (white papers, videos, interactive tools), along with both gated and ungated options. Matching the right content to the right persona at the right stage is key. They also highlighted the need for consistent messaging across paid, SEO and outbound efforts.
Filtering out low-fit leads, such as students or job seekers, was another tactical improvement mentioned. Using simple signals like email domain or job title can help clean the funnel early on.
Final Takeaways
In closing, the group offered advice for B2B marketers who want to shift from vanity metrics to real growth:
Focus on converting MQLs to meetings or opportunities before giving them too much weight
Treat lead generation as a team sport across marketing, sales and customer success
Use shared data and dashboards, but make sure everyone understands what they mean
Build lead scoring that reflects real buying behaviour and ICP fit
Keep reviewing your metrics and content based on actual outcomes, not assumptions
Put your best energy into the accounts most likely to grow and stay
The old playbook of chasing leads at any cost is over. Today’s best teams are building smarter, more connected systems to find the right customers and grow with them over time. The result is more sustainable growth, better alignment and a much stronger revenue engine.
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