Typical business-to-business industries have limited prospects to reach. Therefore, you cannot afford to waste time and resources going after the wrong prospects. The challenge is identifying and connecting with the ideal targets for your company.
The following is a look at several top strategies for improving B2B lead quality for your organization!
Align Marketing and Sales Teams
You probably realize that marketing and sales teams need to collaborate to achieve B2B lead generation success. However, leaders often overlook the importance of alignment in the definition of an ideal prospect.
In general, prospects that you can convert in a way that optimizes long-term profits are ideal. Marketing needs to develop a clear persona to define the qualities of these people, and sellers need to know how these factors influence the buying journey. Sales staff often look at reaching shorter-term sales goals than do marketing people.
Ask Key Qualifying Questions Early
Don’t wait for the first sales call to begin the qualification process. Include some pointed, impactful questions in your B2B lead generation forms.
“How soon do you plan to make a decision on this solution?” is a vital question for improving B2B lead quality. If a prospect is in the initial phase of the process, it is better to maintain conversations on the marketing side. If a prospect is prepared to make a decision, the prospect’s immediate quality is much greater. A sales conversation is the likely next step.
The sense of urgency a buyer feels to find a solution, the financial impact of the business problem and potential budget are among other items to address in your B2B lead generation forms. Even general answers to these questions add depth to a prospect’s profile.
Use Quantitative Assessments
Even with a definition of your ideal prospects, it is still necessary to evaluate opportunities. A qualitative lead scoring system helps you avoid requiring your reps to conduct a subjective evaluation.
Lead scoring is an involved process where you identify the criteria that contribute to top prospects. Then, assign a weight to each criterion. As you review prospect opportunities, input their data into your scoring model and let the results help dictate your targeting priorities.
Build Analytics Models
Let your history with established customers guide your ongoing assessment in the B2B lead generation arena. The top customers who buy particular solutions often share certain characteristics. In B2B, job title, industry, company size, clientele, and location are among key factors that affect buyer behavior.
Analytics programs allow you to develop reports that visually illustrate the common traits of your customers. As you create and fine-tune your ideal customer profiles, let these profitable models do much of the work.
Conclusions
Improving B2B lead quality is a mixture of careful planning, thoughtful strategy and artful use of technology. Combine your collective organizational talents with the logical data provided by lead scoring and analytics.
When you know the factors that your top prospects have in B2B lead generation, the next step is to target them. This step is where a partner like Salesgenie is a huge value. Start your free trial now!
