B2B companies entirely rely on qualified leads to increase their conversions and revenue generation. We all know that generating authentic B2B sales leads is very hard to achieve today. But if done correctly, through it the business can significantly grow and become more competitive. It is not ideal to just increase the volume of leads and ignore its quality. You need to synchronize both volume and quality to achieve your desired results.
Eighty-five percent of the B2B marketers consider lead generation one of their toughest job responsibilities. So in this article, we will guide you on how to improve the quality of sales leads through effective and proven techniques. Research has shown that businesses that increase their lead volumes by 20% without compromising on the quality make 20% more revenue than their less meticulous counterparts.
But before diving further into the details, let us first understand well the concept of B2B sales leads.
What Is a Lead?
In the truest business sense, a lead is an organization or individual who has a keen interest in buying what you are selling. This interest is identified through engaging with the lead and exchanging contact information. Through multiple future interactions, the leads finally buy the business offering and get converted into customers.
How Do Leads Drive Your Business Forward?
If the business is static in terms of lead generation, it will not reach newer heights. Hence, if growth is targeted, you must understand ways on how to improve inbound leads. Besides highlighting the sustainability of the business, here are some other benefits of having robust B2B sales leads lists.
1) Market Expansion:
Lead generation helps you venture into different target markets and increases your engagement with various companies and individuals. More people get to know the business and are open to let you in.
2) Follower Growth:
The major part of generating leads is dependent on content creation and communication. As a result, you gradually develop quality followers who might eventually turn into leads. This helps improve the brand-image quality, and starting engagement on social media also becomes easier.
3) Revenue Boost:
When lead generation is done tactfully, the business’s ability to reach the target prospects maximizes. In just a short time, you will find yourself amidst tons of qualified leads that are easier to convert, which will also boost your revenues.
How Do B2B Sales Lead Generation Work?
If you are wondering how to generate leads in sales, here is a simple breakdown of the steps typically involved in the process.
1) Finding the leads:
This is the very first step in the entire process. Here you acquire the contact information of the potential leads. This can either be done by the in-house marketing departments, or you can also hire third-party B2B lead generation vendors.
2) Contacting them for the first time:
When you already have access to the necessary information, it is time to contact them. You can connect with them through multiple methods like sending emails, posting on social media, or giving them a call. This is the time when they get to know your business.
3) Qualifying the leads:
This stage involves extensive research. The business gets to know about its popularity among the audience, its brand value, and if the prospects want to purchase its product or service.
4) Closing the B2B sales leads:
This is the final step when the lead has finally considered your brand and has chosen you over your competitors. This is when they decide to do business with you over others offering the same service or product.
Why Does Quality Matter in Sales Leads?
In the beginning, it will appear that any lead is a good lead for you. But this is not essentially the case. From a large lead database, you will need to filter the ones that show the following traits:
1) Conversion:
The leads must not just show interest in buying your offerings but must also be genuinely converting into sales. The leads that do not end up converting are leads that are wasted. You can track the leads online when you are engaging with them.
2) Business growth:
You need high-quality leads to grow both your business and your revenue. Hence, you must venture into the target audiences where you have the possibility of getting converted and not waste time on the ineligible ones. With more qualified and quality leads in hand, your business is going to scale up.
3) Bottom line improvement:
With qualified and eligible leads under your belt, you become a business that can sustain the competition. It brings confidence in you as a business owner or marketer and motivates you to improve your business ideas and strategies.
Eight Ways to Improve B2B Leads Quality
Now that you’ve learned more about the essence of B2B leads, we have arrived. Here are the most popular eight ways to improve the quality of your business leads:
1) Differentiate between inquiries and leads:
This is important because you need to segregate the leads according to their intention. Raw inquiries bear all the contact information that the marketing departments generate. On the other hand, the accepted leads are derived from raw inquiries but have a higher desire for purchase. Both the leads must be uploaded in the lead systems and should be followed up.
2) Create a lead grading system:
Once you have segregated them, opt for a lead grading system. Rank them in the A, B, C, and D systems. This has to be worked out jointly with the sales and marketing teams. The A leads can be segregated as the ones that possess the highest sales potential. The B-graded leads are still your target but are a bit smaller customers. The C category of leads might not directly fall into your target market but have the potential for buying. And the D leads are the low-potential ones that might not require frequent follow-ups.
3) Focus on quality training:
The salespeople might not be able to generate a vast number of qualified leads at once. But with the right training, they definitely can, eventually. You can incorporate certain tools for them to carry out their tasks more effectively. You can include backup sales scripts for them and provide spiels on how to handle reluctant clients. As a part of the training, you can also form strategies that will help qualify the leads and improve the quality of the existing ones.
4) Work on lead nurturing:
With lead nurturing, sales reps build better relationships with the prospects. A good lead nurturing tactic will generate 50% more sales-ready leads and will only incur a 33% lower cost-per-lead. Hence, good engagement can eventually turn a cold lead into a hot and sale-ready lead.
5) Using marketing automation:
If you are trying to generate quality leads without marketing automation, your efforts will be wasted. Sales automation can scale up every sales process, not just lead generation. Automation will help you stay attentive to every lead detail: you can analytically track them, measure, and respond to their interactions promptly. This also helps improve the qualities of your leads and scale up revenues.
6) Making a marketing sales feedback loop:
If the sales department is getting leads from the marketing department, the latter must get feedback on the status of the leads. If there is little or no communication between the two departments, the entire sales cycle can get interrupted and become complex. The departments must follow a real-time lead generation program to check the quality of the leads before beginning the sales activities. This will optimize the processes, and the resources will be used more ideally.
7) Practice social selling:
Social media is opening doors to opportunities for increasing leads and boosting sales. And LinkedIn has emerged as the best platform for B2B lead generation. There you can connect to qualified prospects and provide information about your business offerings. This can lead to the sales reps meeting 51% of their sales goals.
8) Learning from past mistakes:
Not everyone is a born salesman, and everybody requires time to master the selling skill set. There might be multiple mistakes committed in this course of learning, and one must not shy away from acknowledging them. Understanding and analyzing these mistakes will help you prevent them from occurring again. Further, you can optimize your techniques along the way to deliver more significant results.
Conclusion
This blog is a comprehensive guide on how to improve the quality of your sales leads. Honestly, though hard B2B lead generation may be, it is not rocket science. One only needs to have a deep understanding of their goals and to know specifically how to meet them. Adopting lead generation strategies and carefully implementing them will help you improve the quality of your leads, increase your sales, and scale up your revenues. The automation techniques and lead generation tools serve as brownie points as they help further in generating more leads.