Proven B2B Lead Generation Strategies

I need leads, and I need them now! Business owners understand that, no matter how great their product or service is, the meat and bones of their business ultimately depends on closing deals and generating revenue. Particularly for newer business, this model depends on utilizing B2B lead generation strategies that work.

Odds are, there’s a whole world of customers looking precisely for your product or service. Reaching these audiences, however, is another story. Decision makers receive dozens of calls a day, hundreds of emails, and on top of this, have little time to field these calls as part of their busy workdays.

What is the best method for reaching prospective customers and gaining their attention? While some smaller sales teams use their own salespeople to do the brunt of cold calling, this can be a drain on resources – skilled salespeople’s time is best spent on closing rather than setting appointments.

Thankfully, many proven b2b lead generation strategies exist that can be deployed to suit your needs. Below, we examine several options available to a company, and suggest approaches that might work for your business.

Methods of B2B Lead Generation

Unlike B2C sales, business to business sales depends on building relationships with future clients. This isn’t as simple as turning a key and hoping for the best – it requires work, attention, and time. Closing a sale in the world of b2b can take many calls, and depends on a degree of trust between both parties.

If lead generation is also about relationship generation, making an impact can rely on multiple avenues of impression-building. We examine some of those below.

Cold Calling

When most of us talk about lead generation services, we think of cold calling. This is one of the core competencies of Acquirent. While some people might think cold calling is dead, most businesses understand it is anything but – by using sales enablement technologies and proven closing techniques, lead generation through cold calling has a proven record of success.

Cold calling has a bad rap, largely in part due to its difficulty. It is a time-intensive task filled with rejection and rarely shows immediate results.

Lead generation by cold calling is typically done by purchasing lists and uploading them into a CRM. Once there, sales development representatives, or SDRs, will go through the list using a script to bypass any gatekeepers and get in touch with a decision-maker, determining whether they are a qualified lead, and ultimately convincing them to set up an appointment with an experienced sales representative.

Pre-qualified leads present experienced sales reps with an easier job, as the party is both ideally suited for the product or service being sold and have already been introduced to it. This is one of the biggest benefits of cold-calling, you know in advance that the lead has the possibility of being closed.

The drawback? Time and effort. Using outsourced B2B sales or lead generation can help ensure that this process is expedited.

Digital B2B Lead Generation

You don’t have to pick up the phone to generate leads. Digital marketing has changed the way in which companies can set appointments through a variety of methods.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a method of building content on a website to draw traffic to your website with the ultimate aim of converting traffic to your website into qualified leads. By targeting commonly searched keywords, you can bring your content to the front page of google searches and generating leads at no cost per clicking your article or blog.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Pay-per-click advertising, or PPC, draws conversions to your websites by bidding on popular search engine terms and bidding on a cost per click. Every click on a PPC link will cost your company a certain amount of money, but in exchange, interested parties will be easily drawn to your website. Because you are bidding on terms to appear at the top of a page, this process is significantly faster than SEO, but costs more over time. Digital marketing strategies often employ both as part of a short-term and long-term lead generation strategy.

Email Remarketing

Have you ever visited a website to download a file, entered your email, and received an email later that day? If so, you’ve experienced email remarketing. Email marketing is a strategy intended to build a long-term relationship with prospective customers, and like the above strategies, generate qualified leads. This strategy works best for customers who may not be interested in your product or service immediately, but may be interested later down the line.

What B2B Lead Generation Strategy is Best for my Company?

With so many variations on lead generation, which is best for you? In truth, it can be a mixture of all of these – there is no one-size-fits-all approach to lead generation. Ultimately, the decision rests on how your customers are best reached.

Looking to learn more about lead generation or full-cycle outsourced sales services? Contact Acquirent today to discover what B2B lead generation strategies are best for you!