A lead generation strategy is a plan to generate leads for B2B sales. The goal is to increase the number of qualified leads for your company. Lead generation is a vital component of any B2B marketing strategy. Learn about the most effective methods and how to implement them successfully.

First, let’s clarify B2B lead generation, shall we?

What is B2B lead generation?

Business-to-business lead generation identifies potential customers (other businesses) for your product or service.  It also involves attracting the ideal buyer via marketing campaigns and sales pitches for personal information like job title, name, email, etc.    

What are sales leads? The whole B2B lead generation process fills your pipeline with B2B sales leads with a high probability of purchasing your product/service. B2B leads fall into the following groups:

Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs):  These are prospects your business has certainty that they’ll buy your product/service. That’s because MQLs have shown interest in what you offer when they:

• Provide their details on your website’s online form.

• Visit your website many times or browse for info, products, etc.

• Download a handy resource from your site.

• Register to participate in an online event, e.g., a webinar.

Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs): SQLs are MQLs that you’ve warmed up and are ripe for more engagement since they’ve moved some steps down the sales funnel. Your sellers can now interact with these likely buyers because they’ve performed the following actions:

• Engaged with your sales rep in a telephonic conversation.

• Gave you positive feedback on LinkedIn or in an email.

• Asked to know more about your business or product.

• Requested a demo to see if your solution matches their pain points.

How to organize your sales team?

In business-t0-business lead generation, you can organize your sales team into two groups: 

Sales Development Representatives (SDRs): These are reps on the frontline of prospecting since their primary tasks include lead gen, engagement, and scheduling meetings with qualified prospects. They’re at the top and partly in the middle of the sales funnel.

Business Development Managers (BDMs): BDMs are salespeople responsible for product demos, closing sales, and increasing revenue. They operate at the middle and bottom of the sales funnel.

Are there benefits of this strategy? Yes. Here are some examples:

• It ensures that your pipeline is overflowing with potential customers through committed and motivated SDRs. They generate plenty of opportunities for BMDs to pursue.

• The B2B lead gen system promotes specialization, making each sales team member an expert at what they do. As a result, productivity and efficiency skyrocket.

• It creates a clear career path for your salesforce. An SDR with consistently high performance can climb the ladder of success by becoming a BMDs.

How can your business conduct B2B lead generation with these thoughts in mind? Check out the following approaches.

How to conduct B2B lead generation?

You can achieve business-to-business lead generation through outbound prospecting. And there are several ways of performing it.

Outbound email: SDRs use automated email campaigns to initiate conversations with prospects.

Social selling: It involves using social media platforms like LinkedIn to source and engage with B2B leads.

Cold calling: SDRs use manuals or nifty sales enablement tools to reach out and build relationships with potential buyers on the phone. 

Sales cadences: SDRs can develop several repeatable touchpoints involving two or more approaches to communicate with leads. E.g., an SDR can use cold calling, email, and social media as their sales cadence. 

Related: Sales Cadence: How To Create the Best Cadence That Lands Meetings

16 Best strategies to generate leads in B2B sales

1. Provide clear-cut answers on Quora

Quora offers you plenty of opportunities to generate B2B leads by responding to questions related to your industry and product. It allows you to get your content in front of the right people and know the right questions from potential buyers. Utilize this brilliant platform to find prospects and link to your assets. 

2. Promote your company on directories

Online software directories are also excellent sources of B2B sales leads. Potential customers are likely to find your business when they search for products in your sector. Some examples include:

3. Create a live chat

A chatbox on your website is a great tool to engage with your customers non-stop. You can build good relations with likely buyers by interacting with them regularly. Also, use them for B2B lead generation by collecting relevant details like email addresses, phone numbers, names, etc. 

Place your live chats on the web pages with high conversion rates to maximize their benefits. Keep your chat box updated with new features to satisfy customers’ needs.

4. Take advantage of your landing pages

A few tweaks here and there on your landing pages can fill your sales pipeline with excellent B2B sales leads. Here are some bright ideas to get you started.

• Validate your messaging with social proof – let everyone know that you can deliver the right results.

• Create a robust and relevant CTA in your copy. Get some inspiration from Copyblogger.

• Make your headlines more appealing to buyers. You can use headline generation tools to help you create attention-grabbing meta titles.

• Ensure your landing pages have a live chat to handle objections.

5. Embed a promotion in your email signature

You can generate B2B sales leads for free by embedding an advert campaign in your email signature. Leads are likely to click the link to your landing page.

6. Invest in top-class sales coaching

Salespeople need constant training to sharpen their prospecting skills and generate high-value leads. Provide them with the necessary tools to make them successful. For example, your training program should include:

• Sales scripts to enable reps in their messaging

• Techniques for handling objections and closing

• How to qualify leads

Related: Turn your sales coaching into a high performing machine          

7. Enhance the user experience on the web

By personalizing your web content, you can generate B2B leads. Web personalization takes the form of creating unique experiences for every visitor. Customize your web pages based on the customer’s name, company, industry, and location.

8. Maximize press release coverage in your B2B lead generation

You can generate plenty of leads and drive traffic to your website by issuing press releases. Try the following online press release platforms.

9. Advertise on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the go-to platform for B2B lead generation, so it makes sense to invest in targeted ads. Offer a high-premium product to get the most LinkedIn ads. Also, the site has millions of professionals who value-helpful and actionable content. Blend ads and relevant content to generate leads.

10. Cash in on customer referrals

Satisfied and happy customers can offer you qualified B2B sales leads as they recommend your product/service to peers, partners, or friends. Use the tools below to encourage customer referrals.

11. Align sales with marketing

Marketing and sales departments need to have a seamless working relationship to achieve their sales goals. Here are some things you can do.

• Ensure everyone on the sales team understands what characterizes a high-quality lead-the MQL and SQL.  E.g., you’ve three types of leads: hot leads have the money and are ready to purchase; warm leads are likely to buy because they’ve been on a free trial, and cold leads have no idea about what you offer and are still looking for info.

• Decide on the specific period marketing turns over leads to SDRs.

• Use lead scoring to qualify leads.

• Encourage collaboration between the two departments in content creation and advertising campaigns.

12. Create a free lead generation tool

Several SaaS companies offer free marketing, sales enablement, team collaboration, etc., tools. This way, they can generate leads quickly as users subscribe to try the software.  

Mailchimp is a brilliant example of a business providing a freemium for its email marketing tool. You can create software to generate leads and offer free tools with limited features to companies.

13. Combine content creation and webinars

To educate your potential customers, you can develop and publish top-class content, such as reviews, in-depth reports, case studies, etc. Thought leadership can be handy in attracting leads. Also, you can complement your SEO tactics with webinars where you host experts in your industry.

Use the following tools to create webinars.

14. Make guest posts a priority

Spread the message about your company through guest posting. Publishing helpful and educational content on reputable blogs can help your business in front of new audiences. Hire freelancers to create content based on your guidelines and connect with influencers on social media.

15. Keep your B2B sales leads database updated

Ensure your B2B sales list is fresh and up-to-date to implement an effective outbound marketing strategy. An accurate sales list leads to high-quality leads that can save you time. You can update the sales leads database by:

• Classifying the sales data list by audiences: Identify the ideal prospects matching your customer profile. 

• Using a customer data platform (CPA):  A CPA is a marketing software that gathers customer information from many sources. It creates a centralized customer database you can monitor and analyze.  A CPA provides real-time data to conduct marketing efforts.

Use Gowlabs database

You can use Growlabs to generate B2B leads due to its “32o milli0n searchable leads and 12 million searchable companies.” You can filter leads based on job title, company, technology, industry, revenue, location, etc. The B2B lead gen software offers you the following pros:

• Multi-channel outreach
• Email marketing
• Smart-inbox filtering

16. Concentrate on a specific group of prospects

Content marketing can drive organic traffic to your website if you do it properly. First, understand your likely buyer’s pain points-what they need to solve. Secondly, create content for that specific group of people to address their challenges. Your goal is to initiate conversations with the ideal customer to get the right leads. See the following video.

Read on to discover essential materials you need to generate B2B sales leads.

6 types of B2B lead generation materials you need

1. Product videos

Use product videos to provide your potential buyers with clear and quick answers about your product/service, leading to more leads. Educational videos show customers how to use your solution before contacting your sales department.

It’s vital to be creative when producing videos. Ever thought of singing about your offer? It may sound strange, but people look for extraordinary presentations. 

2. Company culture videos

They’re also handy in telling your brand story, beginnings, milestones, and what you stand for. Sharing this info with your customers humanizes your company and makes you stand out from a sea of competition. 

Also, likely buyers can share your videos if they’re creative, fun, and resonate with your audience. Because of this, social media algorithms can push the videos to the top for more engagement.

3. Case studies and testimonials

Take advantage of your customer success stories by showcasing them on your website to validate your offer. Buying is about trust, so case studies and testimonials can build that relationship. They’re more necessary if you’re selling premium products that may take longer to reach closing.

4. Templates for structured emails

Email marketing still works in generating B2B sales leads. But you need to use tried and proven emails with a structure to initiate conversations. For example, an email should be personal, have a killer headline, address the pain points, be specific, brief, etc. 

• Subject lines with the recipient’s name can increase open rates by around 22%.

• Exciting subject lines may increase open rates.

        (Source: dailyblogging.org)

Check out the following email templates to spark your creativity.

7 Best cold email templates to increase your response rate

5. Product sheets

Product sheets summarize the benefits of what you offer colorfully and visually. You can use them in a sales presentation where the audience is busy. Or you can give them to customers who can’t have face-to-face meetings. 

6. Digital catalogs

Offline and online digital product catalogs are excellent ways to educate potential customers. You can explain the product features, show the prices and different packages. Catalogs are budget-friendly, easily updated, drive traffic to your website, and enable prospects to find you. 

Wrapping Up

B2B sales lead generation is the process of selling to other businesses. The goal of B2B sales is to generate leads for the company. Maximize the use of digital channels to create B2B sales leads for your business by using email campaigns, landing pages, and webinars. Develop an inbound marketing strategy that drives B2B sales leads using content marketing, blogging, and SEO. 

Also, implement social media channels for your B2B lead generation by using ads from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. Identify potential customers with specific profiles and then reach out to them via email or phone call to convert them into sales leads for your business.