B2B lead generation is a process of identifying and attracting target consumers towards your brand. It is a component of marketing strategy and fundamental for business success.
Reasons Business To Business leads are crucial
From marketing viewpoint
- Learn about your ideal consumer and their hangouts.
- Identifying your consumers allow you to create relevant and valuable content suitable for them.
- Targeted content distributed correctly across different online channels helps to create brand exposure and awareness.
- Create a marketing campaign that can be monitored and modified to prevent the wastage of resources.
From sales perspective
- Discover how much the market will respond to your sales pitch.
- Offers accurate contact leads via updated data governance.
- Ensures that you connect with quality leads that are ready to convert.
- Build an expectable sales lead pipeline, which means a high percentage of closures.
In short, the process aims to draw new consumers towards your brand for generating sales and increasing revenue. Luminate Marketing Solutions help marketers discover more qualified email addresses and relevant data that help to generate leads faster and efficiently. B2B leads are people who are identified as potential buyers and can be categorized into two.
- Marketing Qualified leads [MQLs] – These leads are believed to transform into paying customers. This belief is based on the amount of engagement that MQL has with the marketing efforts of your business.
For example,
- Downloading content piece your business has produced.
- Visiting your company website repeatedly.
- Sales-Qualified Leads [SQLs] – SQLs are MQLs progressed forward the sales funnel and are assumed to be ready to engage with the sales team. The SQLs are those who revealed their intent in buying your product or services.
For example,
- Showed their intent via Linkedln message or telephone conversation or email.
- Asked to show a demo.
Who Is Responsible For The Management Of Generating Leads?
The process management is handled by the sales and marketing department. They can work individually or in a team. To work efficiently, it is wise for both groups to work closely and stay in sync.
Sales
The sales team performing the process is split into two groups.
- SDRs or Sales Development Representatives are responsible for finding, engaging, and scheduling meetings with the leads.
- BDMs or Business Development Managers are responsible for presentations or demos, deal closure, and generating revenue.
The benefits of sales group approach –
- A strong channel is created by the SDRs facilitating BDMs to take action.
- Each employee concentrates on a single responsibility and rapidly becomes an expert in that specific role.
- A roadmap is built for SDRs careers if targets are hit consistently and they get promoted to the BMDs group.
Marketing
The marketing team performing the process is split into two marketer groups. The work of both groups can overlap because their marketing approach is different.
- Demand generation marketers concentrate on the revenue cycle of the process. They aim to nurture and guide the leads from creating awareness to converting them into aid customers and brand advocates.
- Growth Hackers are responsible for generating revenue growth rapidly in a cost-effective manner. They work in the early phase and are inclined on an experimental approach. Generally, the activities undertaken are less scalable.
Even with certain dissimilarities both have one common aspect. They depend on data analysis to make business decisions as well as aim towards the success of their B2B lead generation program.
How Is The B2B Lead Generation Process Piloted?
The sales and marketing team pilot the process using different strategies.
Sales
The sales team carries out the B2B outbound process. It includes –
- Outbound mail
- Cold calling
- Sales cadences
- Social selling
The above strategies aim to influence the leads to attend the product demo piloted by BDMs.
Marketing
The sales team carries out B2B demand generation. It includes –
- Growth hacking
- Content marketing
- Account-based marketing
The goals of marketing strategies depend on lead positioning in the B2B marketing pipeline. The aim could be to bring in new leads or navigate existing leads further down the sales funnel.
B2B lead generation success depends on data quality. If the SDRs have incomplete and inaccurate data then it is hard for sending outbound emails or making cold calls. If BDMs have inaccurate data associated with the leads then it is hard to create target content that converts.
Data is the basis for analytics and prediction. It is the foundation of benchmarks and KPIs. It helps businesses measure their output and consequences. B2B data analysis offers invaluable insights. The decision-makers can quickly identify their vulnerabilities in the sales pipeline and make adjustments. B2B companies that have a solid data management strategy can make effective decision making.
