In business, profitability is key. For this to happen, you need to make sales. This begs the question. How do you make those sales? To help you out, I am going to layout B2B lead generation Strategies in 2020 that will help you get the best leads.
So let’s dive in.
The process of getting those sales can be challenging, especially if you are running a B2B business model.
Why is this?
The type of client you are likely to sell to is one who is highly qualified and highly professional. This makes them a bit more difficult to reach, and a little bit harder to convince to purchase.
That is why.
To make the process easier, you need to have lead generation strategies in place.
A lead is a person to the company who has expressed interest in your products or services.
Once you have their interest, you can work on converting them into buying customers.
In this article, we will take a closer look into the lead generation process and the various strategiesyou can apply.
But first things first, what is B2B lead generation?
Let’s find out.
→Download Now: Free SEO Checklist For 2020
What Is B2B Lead Generation?
In simple terms, B2B lead generation is the method used to attract attention of other businesses .
A potential client needs to look forward to doing business with your company.
For a while methods like cold-calling and cold-emailing have been used without much success.
Blindly contacting companies that have not expressed interest will have you trying to get past gatekeepers instead of dealing directly with a decision-maker.
Therefore
Your efforts are better spent interacting with companies that are either interested in doing business with you immediately or those that are interested in partnering with you in the near future.
Lead Generation Process
The lead generation process is short and simple and It involves the visitor performing the following actions.
The first step involves the visitor interacting with your business through channels like your website or social media pages.
The visitor then reads through your content and identifies the message on your website that encourages action, i.e. the call-to-action (CTA).
Even before we move on, That is why you need to have good content always.
Once the visitor is impressed with your business products an services,
The visitor clicks on the CTA which leads him to a landing page. On the landing page, the visitor is encouraged to fill out their company’s information in exchange for an offer.
The offer is something that is valuable to the visitor, e.g. a free trial for business software.
Once the prospect fills the form, you have generated a new lead.
It is easy to assume that once a visitor to your online platform has filled out a form,they are ready to do business with you. This is not always the case.
Different leads have different interests and it is important to determine which stage they are in.
This is called lead qualification.
Lead Generation Strategies
Now that you are aware of the lead generation process, you can set to work on developing lead generation strategies for your B2B company.
Thanks to technology, generating leads through social media platforms and websites is a faster and more effective method.
Many people source for solutions online and knowing this, you can target your online audience easily
Here are some lead generation strategies you can work on:
Social Media Lead Generation
In order for you to do this, you must have your business on several social media platforms.
Platforms like Facebook and Instagram have a paid ad option that will have your company’s products and services seen by many interested parties.
A simple post accompanied by a good CTA will have prospects redirected to your landing page.
LinkedIn is also a good site for B2B that you should not overlook. The platform’s Lead Gen Forms automatically gives you a visitor’s profile data after they click on your CTA.
This makes the qualification and follow-up process easier.
Blog Lead Generation
Having a blog dedicated to offering free, useful information is a great way of generating leads.
Your written content should be optimized for SEO, making it easier for prospects to find your business.
While the information you provide should be tailored to what you want to promote, do not make the prospect feel like he is your only focus.
Instead,
Make the visitor to your website feel like you genuinely want them to find a solution to a problem they are facing.
This increases the chances of a visitor clicking the CTA to your landing page.
Sampling Lead Generation
What exactly is Sampling Lead generation?
In this method, you offer sample of your product or service in a bid to concvince the prospect customer to buy it.
Just the same ways shoppers prefer trying on clothes before buying.
For example, you can offer a free trial of your software so that a business can see if it fits their need.
In doing this, you should also offer continual support as they interact with your product or service.
It is easier to offer paid packages with additional resources once a client knows what they are getting.
Referral Lead Generation
As long as people communicate, referrals will always be an important way to generate leads.
Even if the initial visitor does not click on your CTA, they can pass on this information to a client or a business within the same industry.
This can be through sharing your content to their network through Facebook, Twitter and via email.
Referrals emphasize the importance of having good quality content on your blog or website.
It is a method of getting leads that requires minimal efforts from you compared to the audience that will know about your business.
A referral will click on your CTA because they actually need what you are providing.
How To Qualify A Lead
Qualifying a lead helps you to focus your sales efforts towards providing solutions for clientsthat want to buy from you.
The process involves 5 simple steps:
- Identify Their Needs
- Establish the Fit
- Determine Their Budget
- Determine Prospect’s Authority
- Timeline
Identify Their Needs
People who find their way to your platform may not exactly be looking to buy your productor the solution you are offering.
So how do you find out what their need are?
You do this by asking them to fill forms where they explain more about their company and their needs.
In the lead form, you should also remember to prompt the prospect to say whether the need is urgent and give suggestions as to how they want it solved.
Establish The Fit
Once you get the prospect to describe what kind of solution they are looking for, you need to look at your own business to determine whether or not that is something you can provide.
Can your product or service be modified in order to properly provide the solution?
Does the prospect fit your customer persona?
Do not expect the prospect to provide all these answers.
Do your own research by going to their website and other relevant sources.
Determine Their Budget
Not every lead will be able to afford your product or service. Therefore, It is best to come out and ask them how much they are willing to spend on the type of solution that you are offering.
You can also do your own research into the company.
look into what they have invested in in the past.
Finding out a client’s budget also helps your sales team prepare bids that are likely to be accepted by the company.
After all, it is possible to underbid in order to look affordable as a beginner in B2B, only to find out that the client sees higher costs as an indicator of better quality.
So always make sure you don’t go so high or too low.
Determine Prospect’s Authority
We mentioned earlier that B2B vendors can end up having to deal with a myriad of gatekeepers.
In your interaction with the prospect, find out as soon as possible whether or not the person you are interacting with is in a position to make buying decisions, or at the very least in a position to influence them.
This is important if you are dealing with a big company where there are secretaries, PAs and assistant managers to get through.
There is no need to continue putting effort in a prospect if they do not have influence over the buying decision.
Timeline
Sometimes,
The prospect you are interacting with may be looking for solutions for the near future and this may not result in an immediate sale.
On the other hand,
Their company might have a lot of bureaucracy, something that will result in a long buying process.
Or they might urgently need the product, which is something your company might not be able to fulfil.
Once you establish their timeline, you can look at your business and see if it is viable for you to offer your products or services to them.
To Summarize
Lead generation is important and it saves your business time and resources that would have been spent chasing down empty leads.
Good lead generation strategies will have you and your sales team focus on prospects that want to buy from you.
As a beginner in B2B lead generation having the right strategy in place will guarantee you great results in leads generation
How do you generate more b2b leads?
Here are some proven ways to generate B2B leads. Social media, lead data bases, referrals and using marketing automation.
What are lead generation strategies?
This refers to the process of attracting and stimulating your potential customers to purchase your products and services.
What is b2b lead?
This a lead which involves a business dealing with another business
What is a b2b business model?
This is a transaction which involves business to business