63% of hosts say their podcast generates sales leads

Hi, Reader.

New business opportunities come from conversations with the right people. Podcasting is a platform to have these conversations.

And for guests? It's hard to say 'no'

Business Podcasting Goes Way Beyond Streams and Downloads

I was talking with a client the other day about measuring the success of their podcast. We had been running the show for 12+ months. We knew the marketing benefits; downloads, video views, social impressions...

But what was the impact on the pipeline?

We started by identifying our top success metric: number of conversations with people that fit key profiles.

Then, we tagged past guests that met this criteria, and plotted the recording dates by quarter to mark when the conversations were held.

Lo and behold; when we started the podcast we leveraged friendly connections that didn't quite fit the ideal personas we were after, but as the show grew, we were able to have more conversations with the right kind of people.

Podcasting Takes LinkedIn Connections To The Next Level

The strategy behind business podcasting is simple: maximize the relationship touch points to build familiarity and trust.

In the context of LinkedIn, the #1 social network for B2B, becoming connected with a prospective client is is just the beginning. It takes time to nurture relationships before they develop into business development opportunities.

Just like how my client was able to take their LinkedIn connections to the next level, a podcast gives you an 'offer' that's hard to refuse.

"Want to be a guest on my podcast?" is 10x better than "Want to hop on a Zoom call?"

And our original research backs this up.

In our 2026 State of Podcasting in Professional Services report, we asked 71 business podcast hosts what they believe are the biggest benefits of hosting a business podcast.

More than 70% said that podcasting builds familiarity and trust, more than 60% said that podcasting helps develop new relationships with ideal prospects, and another 60% said their podcast is directly attributable to new sales opportunities.

Podcast Spotlight: Marketing Spark

Recently, I sat down with Mark Evans, founder of Marketing Spark and host of the Marketing Spark podcast. Mark shares his journey from initially shelving his podcast idea, to fully embracing it as technology lowered the barriers to entry.

Together, they explore the true value of podcasting for B2B businesses and why treating a podcast simply as a "Trojan horse" for sales misses the bigger picture of relationship building and education. In this episode, you’ll hear:

• How technology has made recording and editing easier
• Why conversations and connections are the real gold
•Ways to leverage existing relationships and book high-profile guests
• How to "squeeze as much juice" out of every episode
• Why podcast conversations are the ultimate trust-building asset