If you’ve ever spent hours slogging through LinkedIn, company websites, or Google just to find decent leads, you know how painful B2B lead generation can be. Copy-paste, rinse, repeat—it’s tedious, error-prone, and honestly, a waste of your time. This guide is for anyone who’s tired of doing things the slow way and wants to see if a tool like Scrapestorm can actually help, or if it’s just more SaaS hype. Let’s get practical: what does Scrapestorm do for B2B lead gen, and how does it really stack up against doing it all by hand?
Why B2B Lead Generation Feels Like a Chore
B2B lead gen isn’t rocket science, but it is a grind. The process usually looks something like this:
- Find a list of target companies or industries
- Visit individual websites or directories
- Copy and paste contact info (names, emails, phone numbers)
- Organize it all into a spreadsheet
- Repeat—over and over and over
If you’re lucky, you’ll avoid typos and maybe not miss any leads. But let’s be honest, manual collection is slow. It’s boring. It’s easy to make mistakes when your eyes glaze over, and you can only scale up by throwing more people at the problem.
Still, a lot of people stick with manual work because: - It’s straightforward—no software to learn - You have full control over what you get - You don’t have to worry about “bots” breaking when a website changes
But the drawbacks add up fast: - Takes forever, especially for big lists - Data is often out of date by the time you finish - Expensive if you’re paying for labor - Not exactly motivating work for your team
So, what’s Scrapestorm actually doing that’s different?
What Scrapestorm Is (and Isn’t)
Scrapestorm is a web scraping tool. In plain English, it’s software that grabs data from websites and dumps it into a format you can use—like Excel or CSV. It’s built for people who need data from the web but don’t want to code their own scrapers.
Worth noting: Scrapestorm isn’t a magic “lead generator” in the sense of just spitting out verified, ready-to-buy contacts. It doesn’t guess intent or automate your entire sales funnel. It’s a tool to collect raw data, fast and (mostly) reliably, from public websites—think company directories, LinkedIn, or even Google Maps.
In short: It speeds up the grunt work, but you still need to know what data you want and what you’ll do with it.
Scrapestorm vs. Manual Data Collection: A Side-by-Side Look
Let’s break down the key differences you actually care about.
1. Speed
- Manual: Even if you’re fast, you’ll grab 40-60 leads an hour—if you don’t get distracted. Multiply that by thousands, and you’ll be here a while.
- Scrapestorm: Once set up, Scrapestorm can pull hundreds or thousands of records in minutes. The catch? You have to set up the scraping project first, which can take 10-30 minutes depending on the complexity.
Pro tip: For one-off, tiny lists, manual might be fine. For anything over 100 records, automation pays off fast.
2. Accuracy and Consistency
- Manual: Human error creeps in—typos, missed fields, accidental skips.
- Scrapestorm: Scrapestorm pulls exactly what you tell it to—no more, no less. If your setup is good, your data’s consistent. But if you misconfigure a field, you’ll get junk data (so double-check your mappings).
3. Scalability
- Manual: Your only “scaling” option is hiring more people, which gets expensive and messy.
- Scrapestorm: One person with Scrapestorm can do the work of a small team, as long as you’re scraping websites that don’t aggressively block bots.
4. Learning Curve
- Manual: No learning curve; just patience.
- Scrapestorm: There’s a setup phase. Scrapestorm is point-and-click and has templates for common sites, but you’ll still need to tinker. If websites are complex or use tricky layouts, expect a little trial and error.
Honest take: If you’re allergic to figuring out new software, there’s a hump to get over. But it’s not coding—think more like setting up a Zapier automation.
5. Dealing with Website Changes
- Manual: If a website changes, you adjust on the fly.
- Scrapestorm: If a page’s layout shifts, your scraper might break. Scrapestorm has some smarts to deal with minor changes, but don’t expect miracles—be ready to tweak your setup if things stop working.
6. Cost
- Manual: Cheap if it’s your own time. Gets expensive fast if you’re paying people.
- Scrapestorm: Paid plans, but if you’re pulling thousands of leads a month, it’s usually way cheaper than hiring or outsourcing.
How to Use Scrapestorm to Pull B2B Leads (Step-by-Step)
If you’re curious about switching gears, here’s how a typical workflow looks. You don’t need to be technical—but attention to detail helps.
1. Define Your Target List
Don’t just scrape everything. Know who you want—industry, company size, location, etc. The more focused your list, the less cleanup later.
- Example: “IT companies in London with more than 50 employees”
2. Find Your Source Websites
Pick reliable, data-rich sources. Common ones for B2B: - LinkedIn company directories - Company websites (“About Us” or “Team” pages) - Industry association member lists - Business directories (Yelp, Yellow Pages, Crunchbase)
Ignore: Any site that hides data behind logins or uses heavy anti-bot tech—you’ll hit roadblocks.
3. Set Up Scrapestorm
- Open Scrapestorm and start a new project.
- Enter the URL of your target page.
- Use the “Smart Mode” to let Scrapestorm auto-detect data tables and lists. For trickier sites, use “Flowchart Mode” to walk it through what you want.
- Map fields: tell Scrapestorm what counts as “company name,” “email,” etc.
- Set pagination rules (so it moves through lists, not just the first page).
Pro tip: Test with a small batch first to make sure it grabs the right stuff.
4. Run the Scraper
- Hit run and let Scrapestorm do its thing.
- You’ll see the data fill up in real time. If it hits a snag (like CAPTCHAs), you may need to step in or slow the scraping speed.
5. Export and Clean Your Data
- Export to CSV, Excel, or whatever your CRM supports.
- Check for weird formatting, duplicates, or missing values. Even the best scrapers need a little data hygiene.
6. Plug Leads Into Your Workflow
- Import into your email tool, CRM, or sales software.
- (Optional, but smart): Run emails through a validation tool—scraped emails sometimes bounce.
What Scrapestorm Nails
- Mass data extraction: Great for pulling large lists in minutes, not days.
- No coding required: Point-and-click is good enough for most jobs.
- Templates: Speeds things up for popular sites.
- Affordable vs. manual labor: If you do this regularly, the cost per lead drops fast.
Where Scrapestorm Falls Short
- Anti-bot measures: Sites like LinkedIn and some industry directories actively fight scrapers. You might get blocked or fed fake data. No tool is immune.
- Learning curve: Not hard, but not instant. You need patience to get clean results.
- Not “done for you” leads: You’ll still need to verify, clean, and qualify leads.
- Maintenance: Scrapers need tweaks as websites change. Set-and-forget rarely works forever.
When Manual Collection Still Makes Sense
- Tiny lists (under 50 leads)
- Messy, unstructured websites where automation is more work than it’s worth
- Super-targeted or nuanced data that requires judgment (e.g., “only CEOs who posted in the last week”)
- Sites with aggressive anti-scraping tech
Sometimes, the old-fashioned way is best—just don’t make it your default for big jobs.
Real-World Tips (from Someone Who’s Been in the Trenches)
- Always review a sample before going all-in. If your test run is a mess, your full list will be worse.
- Don’t scrape what you can buy. Sometimes, a reputable data vendor is faster and more reliable (but check quality).
- Check legalities. Scraping public data generally flies, but don’t mess with login-protected or copyrighted info.
- Automate the boring, not the critical. Use Scrapestorm for grunt work, but handle outreach and qualification like a human.
Keep It Simple, Iterate, and Don’t Overthink It
B2B lead generation shouldn’t eat your work week. If you’re dealing with big lists or repetitive research, a tool like Scrapestorm can save you a lot of time and sanity—just don’t expect miracles or “set and forget” magic. Start small, validate your process, and tweak as you go. Automate what you can, skip what you can’t, and keep the main thing the main thing: talking to leads, not collecting them.
That’s really all there is to it.