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5 Ways to Maximize Lead Quality [GUEST POST]

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No matter your industry, you know that not all leads are created equal, which means generating leads isn’t enough; you need to generate quality leads so as not to waste time and money. How big a deal is lead quality? A 10% increase in lead quality can create a 40% jump in revenue, according to Marketo.

What is Lead Quality?

Lead quality is a measurement of how likely a given lead is to convert to a paying customer or how much revenue potential that a given lead could generate for your company. Since a lead is essentially just information you’ve attained on someone who is interested in your product or service, it makes sense from a business perspective to rank all those leads.

By measuring lead quality, sales teams can focus on specific leads instead of inefficiently allocating resources attempting to convert low-quality leads who have little interest in becoming paying customers, or who present little potential for revenue. According to Salesforce, companies that have a method for scoring leads have an ROI of 138% versus companies without any lead scoring criteria.

Related: Classification of Sales Leads: Hot, Warm or Cold

Each company takes its own approach to measuring lead quality. However, a common method is to assign a score to leads based on certain criteria, such as the B.A.N.T criteria (budget, authority, need, timetable). However, B.A.N.T is mostly used within B2B marketing, and even there, debate rages about the ongoing relevance it. B.A.N.T assumes telephone contact with leads, which is not a valid assumption in a marketing world dominated by online marketing.

Other possible lead scoring criteria include:

  • People who have downloaded lead magnets from your website
  • Leads who have browsed through product pages, checkout carts, or pricing pages
  • People who have emailed or phoned your sales teams to inquire about your products/services
  • The revenue potential of a given lead

Companies can segment their leads based on a set of lead scoring criteria by integrating marketing software with customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

Related: Not Just an Address Book: 4 Hacks to Turn a CRM into a True Sales Tool

It’s important to note that not all leads with high likelihoods of conversion are high-quality leads by default—leads might be very likely to convert but present poor earning potential. This is one of the biggest issues with the idea of lead quality—different people have different definitions of what exactly constitutes quality. It can be helpful, therefore, for marketing and sales personnel to work together to develop sensible lead scoring criteria that they agree on.

A high volume of bad leads is the fastest way to clog up your sales funnel. If you’re casting too wide of a net, it’s time to re-evaluate how and where you’re getting leads, what constitutes a good lead and why some leads go cold so fast. Here are a few tools to help you maximize and improve your lead quality.

#1 Define what a qualified lead is

#1 Define what a qualified lead is

Who determines what’s a good lead in your company? If you don’t know, or if you think it’s the wrong person, it might be time for everyone involved in the sales process to sit down to define a qualified lead for your business.

Is it simply someone who falls within your target market? Is it based on behavior when visiting your website? Maybe it’s someone that agrees to hear your pitch in person.

If your sales team is expected to follow up immediately on every nibble, you’re taking time away from the qualified leads so it’s important to define what a qualified lead is.

#2 Identify where leads come from

#2 Identify where leads come from

Where do you get your best leads from? Identify your lead sources so you can fine-tune your lead generation process.

Consider using a tool like Google Analytics or Oktopost to look at your metrics and determine where your quality leads come from and what campaigns, referrers, and channels are paying for themselves.

Knowing the information, you can devote more time to channels that are most effective and may even consider eliminating channels that aren’t filling your lead pipeline.

Related: The Five BEST Sources Of B2B Leads Prospects

Check out our latest Marketing Infographic

A Visual Guide to Telemarketing Performance Metrics [INFOGRAPHIC]

#3 Deploy data enrichment tools

#3 Deploy data enrichment tools

To connect with prospective customers, you need to a way to reach them. You can search LinkedIn, run Google searches, and scour social media channels for leads, but it takes a lot of time to find the right people, and then, find their contact information.

Related: Why Customer Profiling Could be the Best Investment your Company Makes

Ease some of this workload with data enrichment tools that can help you build a list of leads along with credible contact information. Here are a few tools to consider:

Lusha

Turn domain names into full company profiles and add contact information right into your Salesforce account to convert leads faster. Lusha can even automatically enrich all your contacts and update your contacts in spreadsheets.

InsideView

Increase your volume of clean, actionable leads thanks to the missing data that InsideView automatically adds to incoming leads as they’re inputted into your CRM and marketing automation systems.

Openprise

Streamline your sales funnel by connecting your third-party apps to pull together data, then create your own set of rules to clean the database with Openprise.

Related: The Essential Checklist to Finding a Decent Leads Database Provider

#4 Use lead generation tools

#4 Use lead generation tools

Rather than find leads yourself, have them come to you. How? Use a few lead generating tools, like these:

PromoSimple

Create custom sweepstakes, sign-up forms, and contests that can be added to Facebook pages and websites to generate leads, which are then integrated into an email service provider.

SocialCompass

Find quality leads on Twitter with this all-in-one app that combs tweets to find locals with purchase intent, allowing you to reply with an offer.

Related: Best Marketing Tools to INCREASE Sales Leads Production

#5 Prioritize your leads with management applications

#5 Prioritize your leads with management applications

As you generate leads, you’ll need a way to manage them. Try these tools that can help you prioritize leads and track important metrics like cost per lead:

Velocify

Help your sales reps determine who to call and when, thanks to this sales acceleration solution that sorts, prioritizes and re-ranks sales leads in real-time.

Really Simple Systems

Track cost per lead, per opportunity and per sale to calculate your ROI with this lead tracking app.

Related: 5 New Year’s Resolutions to Refine Your Marketing Analytics Stack

Wrap up

By identifying what a qualified lead is, making a list of your best lead channels, and integrating several tools, you’ll be able to reach more prospects than you thought possible. Lead generation is a time-consuming process, but if you’re taking a strategic approach you’ll likely see an impressive return on your investment.

Using Neuroscience to Better Answer 5 Questions Leads Ask Themselves Before Buying

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Cognitive neuroscience, the study of the brain’s wirings and how these affect behavior, can help you make sense of the things your prospects do. What’s even more interesting is that many of this field’s recent findings shed some much-needed light on how and why your prospects reach a buying decision.

In this post, we’ll go over five key questions that B2B leads typically ask themselves in the decision stage of the buying cycle, and find out what neuroscience has to say about how you should be answering each of them.

To be clear, we’re focusing on the final step before leads turn into customers, so we won’t be talking about prospects’ questions in the awareness and consideration stages. That is, your prospect has already identified a need, has narrowed down her choices, and is now considering your company as a potential vendor. As such, it’s extremely important to get your message right in the decision-making phase since this is where all your marketing efforts become sales results.

#1: Will I really benefit from this, too?

 There’s ample evidence to suggest that emotions drive decisions more than reason does.Clinical studies have found that patients with impaired emotions tend to experience decision-making difficulties despite still having their reasoning abilities intact. This means that, at the point of making a decision, feelings take higher priority over hard facts and figures.

Accordingly, your messaging at this stage in the buyer’s journey has to appeal to your prospects’ emotions as well. You need to go beyond telling leads what to think; you help them find out for themselves that your solution feels right and that there’s something in it for them personally, too.

Related: How to Reach C-Level Decision Makers and Boost B2B Sales

#2: Can I trust this solution?

 Your prospects look to others they can relate to in order to help them determine what actions they should take. That’s why word-of-mouth recommendations from peers influence as much as 90% of B2B buying decisions.

Here, social proof comes in very handy. Social proof is the idea that people will do what others are doing if they believe those actions are the right things to do. Some examples of social proof in action are client recommendations, influencer testimonials, and user reviews. Here’s how to build tremendous credibility and make clients refer you.

It’s not enough to convince leads that your solution works; you have to tell a story that it has worked for someone else in a similar situation. Social proof is most effective when seamlessly weaved into a compelling story, which brings us to our next point.

#3: Can I work with this vendor?

 Convincing prospects your solution works is one thing; earning enough of their trust to turn into your business partner is another story. In fact, it’s going to take a pretty captivating story to convert your lead into your customer.

Telling your company’s or brand’s story helps build and cultivate your relationship with a prospect. Stories are an indirect way for your prospects to go through what your other customers have experienced. This is why brain scans show that a well-crafted narrative is more persuasive than a slide deck packed with stats and charts.

Related: Why work with a lead gen company when I have an in-house marketing person & my own CRM?

#4: Do I have enough information?

 Making decisions based on limited or partial information is the rule, not the exception, in most business situations. But there are ways to turn this potential obstacle into opportunities for helping leads reach a buying decision.

According to the information gap theory, curiosity arises when there’s a gap between what we know and what we want to know. That is, curiosity increases with uncertainty. At the buying stage, you have to frame your prospect’s belief that she probably doesn’t have sufficient information as motivation to find out more and engage with you further.

#5: Will I be able to justify this?

 In our first point above, we focused on the need to highlight what your prospects can potentially get out of making a buying decision. But when it comes to motivation, the need to avoid pain or loss is a more powerful force at driving our actions than the desire to gain. That is, people care more about losing a dollar than gaining a dollar.

To help your prospects justify choosing your solution, you also have to emphasize what they stand to lose by sticking with the status quo or selecting another option.

The Takeaway

The key idea to remember here is that, at the final step before leads convert into customers, you need to appeal both to the rational and emotional sides of your prospects’ brain. Of course, we’ve only outlined some pretty broad brush strokes here, and you still have to rely on how well you really know your prospects to come up with answers they’re really looking for. Just because an area in the brain lights up in FMRI scans doesn’t mean that’s exactly how your leads are going to behave.

Believe it or not! You can get More Leads without Generating Web Traffic

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In B2B marketing, perhaps no two words are as important as Traffic and Conversion. These two spell the difference between being in the black and being in the red. But you probably already know this by now: More web traffic does not always mean more leads. Traffic that does not convert is useless. That’s really unfortunate. Luckily, you can still increase your leads production without necessarily increasing your web traffic. Convenient, right?

Here are surefire ways to increase your conversion – meaning, turning traffic into leads – without actually increasing your web traffic.

Amplify your Unique Selling Point

I said amplify. Not just state or declare or put it there for all to see. Maximize and optimize it by making sure it grabs the viewers’ or readers’ attention the moment they see it, or at least, creates a strong connection with them. A convincing declaration of your unique selling point can build trust and keep prospects on the page longer than they originally intended.

Pro tip: Use “action” words, not just passive words. And yes, sell the solution to their problem, not your product. Don’t be too salesy like a snake oil salesman.

Related: Threesome Tactics To Generate Sales-Ready Leads Through Inbound Marketing

Simplify your Home Page

Really, just KISS it, or “Keep It Short and Simple”. Or “Keep it Simple, St****.” The simpler your homepage is, the easier for the viewers to navigate through it and find what they need and want. Just make sure it answers these questions:

#1: What does your product or service offer? 

Callbox - Best Sales Lead Generation Services

#2: How will your product or service solve my problem? Explain the benefits you provide, not the features.

HOW WE HELP BUSINESSES SUCCEED - Callbox

Don’t make the common mistake of talking about yourself at length. Harping about your accomplishments will bore, if not totally turn off your viewer.

Pro tip: Remember, the homepage is yours, but it’s about the customer or client or guest. If it’s about them, they’ll stay longer.

Related: Inbound and Outbound Strategies is a Match Made in Marketing Heaven

Make your Headlines & Contact Information Visible

It’s the goal of the webpage to at least generate inquiries. If your headlines can’t be seen, what do you think would make any visitor want to learn more from it? Make sure your headlines attract the visitors’ attention as soon as their eyes land on the page. And that “Contact Us” page? It’s not just for display. You really have to make an effort to make it as user-friendly as possible – make it visible and easy to read. No fancy fonts, please. If can make your contact number(s) so conspicuous the visitor doesn’t have to look for it, so much the better.

Pro tip: You have to make the visitors feel confident in you, in your product or service or whatever you’re selling.

Related: What to Tell Clients Who Say “You’re too expensive.”

Offer Incentives

What sounds better than freebies? Rewards! Incentives! Bonuses! Use the psychology of free stuff. I don’t know, but there’s something about those words that give them a really nice ring when spoken. Positive reinforcement almost always works, and it’s true especially in marketing. When you add something extra – like a reward or bonus – to your unique selling point, it’s easier to close the deal with the visitor. Offer a “money-back guarantee” or “free replacement” or “lifetime warranty” and chances are, you’ll clinch the sale.

While you have already effectively differentiated your product or service from the competition through your unique selling point, the incentive to bonus or reward adds value to the whole thing, and even builds a deeper client-business relationship.

Pro tip: Your message should be “You can’t get from others what I’m offering you.”

Related: How to Defend a Higher Price: 3 Steps

Grab a copy of our FREE EBOOK, The Ultimate Lead Generation Kit Ebook! Updated with links to the best and latest techniques that will help generate quality sales leads for your business.

Focus on Outbound

The previous four tips focus on optimizing the webpage. This last one is a no-brainer in terms of increasing leads without increasing web traffic volume. Why not try some of the most effective outbound marketing strategies?

Event marketing is a simple and easy way to interact with prospects and turn them into leads. Experiential event marketing is even better, as it goes beyond the mere physical presence of people at an event. Here are some unconventional event marketing campaigns, find out why they totally worked.

You can also try email marketing if you’re on a shoestring budget.

Watch our Email marketing video series now.

Email Marketing Series: How to Make Emails your Impossible to Ignore [Video]

And of course, there’s good old targeted telemarketing if you want fast results. Whatever medium you choose, the most important thing is choosing an efficient and effective third-party service provider.

Pro tip: Do not settle. When you’re outsourcing, you simply do not settle for mediocre results. 

Related: Is there such thing as a good B2B lead Generation Company?

Conclusion

One key takeaway here is, when you implement something new, make sure it’s measurable so you’ll know what works for you and what doesn’t. More importantly, don’t stop trying testing new things. Observe what your competitors are doing successfully that you may apply to your own. If you don’t think imitation is the highest form of flattery, then just make it your inspiration.

Case Study: Giant Software Solutions Provider Improves Lead Capture and Conversion with Callbox

Learn more lead generation lessons and tips at The Savvy Marketer’s Blog!

Love to know how we generate qualified leads?

Get in touch with our Marketing Consultant or Dial +1 888.810.7464  or 310.439.5814

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How to Efficiently Capture B2B Leads through your Website

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Your website is obviously an important facet in your B2B lead generation campaign. Aside from providing exposure, it acts as a bridge through which you and your prospects can easily engage each other in professional dialogue. More importantly, it can also help locate the right kind of people for your sales pipeline with the use of lead capture devices.

One can never really doubt the importance of lead capture devices. Information after all is important in determining high profile B2B leads that are sure to convert. With this in mind, it is imperative for marketers to optimize their lead capturing for better lead production, which is something seldom practiced by many B2B business nowadays. This in part involves planning a landing page that produces contact information. Further, there is a need to create lead capture devices that attract one’s target audience.

These considerations constitute the main challenges in B2B lead generation and lead nurturing. However, these can be countered by reading the tips below.

Focus on content rather than increased web traffic. The volume of site visitors might be an object of satisfaction. In reality, however, not all of these visitors would stick around for long. In fact, a good majority would not go so far as clicking a link or going through the site’s menu. What is needed is content and a site design that keeps users interested. For the sake of generating high quality B2B leads, go for simple site designs that are professional-looking without coming across as hyper-minimalist.

Fertilize your fill forms. Now, the worst thing you could do with your landing page is to supply it with impotent fill forms; impotent in the sense that they lack a sense of urgency, or suffer from an overdose of it. Clearly, it is important to remember the fundamentals of efficient web fill forms for B2B lead generation: answer fields that require specific information, a call to action or submission button, and a catchy design.

Offer free informational materials. Always keep in mind your B2B prospects want to learn new things about their industry. And they are also determined to learn about the issues they are confronting as well as the corresponding solutions. Supplying them with free informational materials such as newsletters and eBooks can stimulate their interest to learn more about your company. Other than that, every subscription corresponds to B2B leads.

Optimizing your website for B2B lead generation entails a lot of hard work. But the brunt of the task can be mitigated by partnering with a firm that specializes in lead management and appointment setting.

Bad Leads are Bad for Business: The Wrong Attitude in B2B Prospecting

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Let’s face it. Your business thrives on B2B leads. Sales goals become realistic when you focus on your lead generation. The art of selling owes much of its gains to this aspect, but the real success lies in B2B prospecting.

An art in and of itself, prospecting is as complicated process as lead management. But marketers too often would assume otherwise. Apparently, you only have to contact a set number of individuals and ask them if they have issues in need of resolving. There is nothing more to it, only that it requires a certain level of competency. B2B companies take on a cynical attitude, putting lead qualification always above teleprospecting.

Unfortunately, poor prospecting that produces weak B2B leads triggers a chain reaction that correspondingly affects the sales pipeline, from appointment setting down to conversion. Many businesses owe their poor sales performance to this.

Prospecting and lead generation after all are disciplines that should be taken seriously. It would be best to NOT consider these prospecting practices and take on a better outlook in lead management.

Not doing your homework. You don’t participate in a NASCAR event without fuel. And sometimes, you will need to figure out the most efficient fuel for your tank. Likewise, B2B prospecting helps you get ready to initiate customer dialogue. Find out more about your target demographics and set an efficient profiling system. Referencing your company objectives could also help in identifying the people perfect for teleprospecting.

Not engaging your targets. And this means calling the wrong person. The main task behind teleprospecting is to tap leaders. They are people who uphold a high stature within their companies and whose influence is crucial in determining the path of their enterprises. As such, every decision for a purchase relies on them. It would be a dire mistake if you contacted someone in one of the lower managerial tiers.

Being uncertain. For businesses, especially when it comes to lead generation and teleprospecting, perseverance bears success. You cannot get it anywhere else. But even more important is having a clear direction as referenced in your company objectives. What are your plans once a prospect turns “hot”? What makes your solutions better than the others’? Do you have anything else in store? These are typical prospect questions. Nonetheless, they seek to iron out your current inadequacies. If you are unable to answer these, consider revamping your strategies.

If companies opt to increase their sales, then they should opt for quality B2B leads that could easily convert. This could only be possible once proper approaches to B2B prospecting are applied.

Simplicity Is Beauty For Lead Generation

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It is said that a true test for a chef is to make a simple dish taste exquisite. That is also the same principle in marketing as well. How can you simplify the lead generation process without sacrificing quality and productivity, indeed, actually end up improving, of generating sales leads? Turning a complicated concept into a simple, impactful, and meaningful message is nothing less than a complex exercise. How you do that would be the true test of your ability as a marketing and appointment setting specialist.

So, how do you make that happen?

First of all, you need all the data that you can get. Be it figures, graphs, reports, etc. all of these can serve as information source. Once you have everything you need, now is the time for you to take them apart, piece by piece, looking for that common detail that they all share, that one detail that pretty much summarizes what your company’s product, purpose, and market is all about. Sure, this can be real work, and you might not be able to manage it, so you might want to leave the analysis to a business database agency.

Next is the crafting of the message. Remember, your message must tell a story, one that appeals to the emotions. Emotions are what influence a customer to buy from you or not. Next is the communication medium to use. It must be one that can have the maximum impact on your audience at the shortest time. Direct marketing tools like email and telemarketing might be good places to start. No matter what you use, if it can help bring you a lot of B2B leads, then stick to it.

Lastly, always be human. Marketing lead generation is a social activity. You are dealing with real people with their own idiosyncrasies and preferences. You have to adjust your marketing efforts to meet the unique needs of your audience.

First Call Resolution In A Telemarketing Campaign

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First Call Resolution In A Telemarketing Campaign

First-call resolution (FCR) is the immortal mantra of inbound marketing campaigns. If you cannot satisfy a customer’s questions on the first call, then your marketing campaign is not doing enough. While this is clearly applicable in the inbound marketing business, will it also apply to outbound lead generation processes? The answer is actually a ‘yes’. You can employ FCR strategies when looking for qualified sales leads.

The premise is actually simple: we want to resolve everything in just one call. This will save everyone the time, money, and effort involved in entertaining each call. The less repeat calls you make on a single person, the more people that can be contacted in a single day. In terms of marketing and appointment setting, qualifying leads with a single call can mean a big thing. But for this set-up to work in a lead generation campaign, you need to have initiative.

It is not bad to follow your sales script, especially if it comes from your client. In fact, you should follow it to the letter. But if you want to do better, then you have to take some initiatives and decide on your own if you should add more qualifying questions during the call. This will require some experience for you to do it right (not to mention a few experimentation), but in the end, this might be just what you need to generate more B2B leads. Such a judgment call may not be that bad to make, you just have to try

The Five BEST Sources Of B2B Leads Prospects

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There is no one method that will serve as panacea for your lead-prospecting troubles. In marketing, as in life in general, everything is case-to-case basis. What we have, however, are ideas that are worth trying as suggested by experts and backed by empirical data.

According to a survey by the Chief Marketing Officer Council, most valued source of leads is from customer referrals. Amazing, right? While the criteria ‘most valued source of lead’ is somehow vague, one can logically infer that the reason marketers value a certain source more than they do others is because it produces concrete better positive results.

Here’s the top five sources of B2B leads:

  1. 54% Customer Referrals

  2. 14% E-Mail or Direct Marketing

  3. 8% Internet

  4. 7% Events

  5. 8% Other

Interesting, right? Read on.

Customer Referrals/Existing Customers

It’s overwhelming how big a portion of the pie goes to Customer Referrals/Existing Customers. But who are we to argue with numbers? So stop what you are doing right now and imagine how referrals from satisfied customers could generate valuable leads and grow your business. No, don’t just imaging it. Internalize it. See, customer referrals are a means of providing immediate credibility. With the increasing ability for consumers to share personal expression on the Internet, Blogs, E-mail, and word of mouth, the ability to communicate has enhanced the voice of the customer. In business-to-business transactions, a customer referral is more likely to lead to an appropriate contact with a relevant message, which is far more powerful and likely to result in success than a cold call from a third party.

So tap into that seemingly infinite wealth of existing customers and convert them into living testimonies. Never waste an opportunity to treat your customers as partners. Make them feel like they are a part of the company and your goals and chances are, they won’t hesitate to mouth a praise or two about you to friend.

Related: Building Tremendous Credibility and Make Clients Refer You

Email or Direct Marketing

Though a fraction only as effective as customer referrals according to the research by CMOC, emailing or direct marketing packs a punch, too. Admittedly, email can sometimes feel like an old tool – obsolete, even — in the marketing mix, but put yourself back into a customer’s shoes. It’s still every marketer’s bread-and-butter for prospect questions, service and support, and loyalty checks.

Here are 7 Stats That Proves Email Marketing Is Still The MOST Reliable Channel [INFOGRAPHIC]

Advanced email solutions can make email marketing specific, personalized and efficient. Remember, it’s easy for people to forget about your company or lose track of what you’re offering if they haven’t visited your website in a while. Previous customers can be brought back as “fresh” leads, so use this to your advantage by creating solid email marketing campaigns specifically for those you know. Create a list of all your past customers, and then categorize that list down further if possible to create a few very personalized email marketing messages.

Related:The Hidden Gems of the Web: Where Can You Get a Good B2B Lead List? 

Get accurate and reliable information of your prospects with database profiling services.

Internet

As more consumers go to social media for customer service or to poll friends and family for advice on upcoming purchases, it’s no surprise the channel becomes an increasingly important source for marketers to track. What’s a little surprising is that it placed just number three on the list, but that’s beside the point.

Related: Why B2B Social Media Marketing Still Deserves Attention

First, make sure you have a website that’s user-friendly, catchy, and comprehensive. Your website houses valuable persona-focused content, contact information, product and solution information, and more. It’s also likely the hub that social, advertising, event, email and other tactics drive traffic to. Condition leads to go to your website for solutions and relevant information, and make sure your website is set up to collect valuable lead insights.

Related: Essential Components of a Lead-generating Website

Second, take full advantage of your blogs. Blogging efforts optimize your website for new visitors and is an effective way in nurturing existing leads. Ask your social community a question or poll them to see what they think about a particular subject. Find common problems people may have related to your industry and show that you have the solution on your blog. This will help you improve your credibility and hopefully get people interested enough to take the next step and talk with you about what you can do for them.

You can use social media as a way to promote as well, and create lead generation forms to include on your social accounts.

Introducing: The Ultimate Lead Generation Kit To Jump start your Business!

Introducing: The Ultimate Lead Generation Kit To Jump start your Business!

Events

It’s one thing to be present on the internet and active in social media. It’s another thing to be physically present during big events and present your brand or product as something tangible and relatable to prospects. Events are an investment for brands at all stages of the marketing funnel—from awareness with new prospects, through the loyalty and retention of existing customers and clients. Events are perfect opportunities to merge the online and offline experience. Generate meetings and hype event excitement with an online campaign to start measuring lead activity. Hey, if you can get your loyal customers to testify during the event, so much the better.

Event marketing tips to ponder:

Others

This has always been an enigma and a cause of speculation in any kind of survey result because no one can pinpoint it’s exact components. For some, it’s an excuse to be subjective – you can include your personal favorites there. Like these two I included below.

  • Strategic Partnerships

I have a bias on companies that take advantage of strategic alliances with parallel companies. Think about a wedding dress couturier partnering with a flower shop; or a sports equipment shop teaming-up with a chain of fitness clubs. It’s always a win-win situation whichever way you look. So look for a company that you can benefit from (make sure it can get something from you, too, or else it wouldn’t work) and start talking about the possibilities of expanding your prospects base. If you’re lucky, you can even share some industry secrets.

  • Cold Calling

I hate to admit it, but even in this era where social media is threatening to takeover, good old cold calling still carries some weight. It is no secret that the basics of cold calling are very sound. You get to know the actual potential of the customer when you visit his office, and sometimes, depending upon your company’s product and brand, the customer might even convert immediately. This is when you literally grab the bull by the horns. Sounds tough, but if you are out of ideas for sources of prospects, then you better review your script and start with cold calling. Trust me, you will find prospective customers which cannot be found by way of other methods.

Check out: 5 Seconds to 5 Minutes Rule in Calling Generated  over 40% of Increase in Sales

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5 Ways to Maximize Lead Quality [GUEST POST]

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No matter your industry, you know that not all leads are created equal, which means generating leads isn’t enough; you need to generate quality leads so as not to waste time and money. How big a deal is lead quality? A 10% increase in lead quality can create a 40% jump in revenue, according to Marketo.

What is Lead Quality?

Lead quality is a measurement of how likely a given lead is to convert to a paying customer or how much revenue potential that a given lead could generate for your company. Since a lead is essentially just information you’ve attained on someone who is interested in your product or service, it makes sense from a business perspective to rank all those leads.

By measuring lead quality, sales teams can focus on specific leads instead of inefficiently allocating resources attempting to convert low-quality leads who have little interest in becoming paying customers, or who present little potential for revenue. According to Salesforce, companies that have a method for scoring leads have an ROI of 138% versus companies without any lead scoring criteria.

Related: Classification of Sales Leads: Hot, Warm or Cold

Each company takes its own approach to measuring lead quality. However, a common method is to assign a score to leads based on certain criteria, such as the B.A.N.T criteria (budget, authority, need, timetable). However, B.A.N.T is mostly used within B2B marketing, and even there, debate rages about the ongoing relevance it. B.A.N.T assumes telephone contact with leads, which is not a valid assumption in a marketing world dominated by online marketing.

Other possible lead scoring criteria include:

  • People who have downloaded lead magnets from your website
  • Leads who have browsed through product pages, checkout carts, or pricing pages
  • People who have emailed or phoned your sales teams to inquire about your products/services
  • The revenue potential of a given lead

Companies can segment their leads based on a set of lead scoring criteria by integrating marketing software with customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

Related: Not Just an Address Book: 4 Hacks to Turn a CRM into a True Sales Tool

It’s important to note that not all leads with high likelihoods of conversion are high-quality leads by default—leads might be very likely to convert but present poor earning potential. This is one of the biggest issues with the idea of lead quality—different people have different definitions of what exactly constitutes quality. It can be helpful, therefore, for marketing and sales personnel to work together to develop sensible lead scoring criteria that they agree on.

A high volume of bad leads is the fastest way to clog up your sales funnel. If you’re casting too wide of a net, it’s time to re-evaluate how and where you’re getting leads, what constitutes a good lead and why some leads go cold so fast. Here are a few tools to help you maximize and improve your lead quality.

#1 Define what a qualified lead is

#1 Define what a qualified lead is

Who determines what’s a good lead in your company? If you don’t know, or if you think it’s the wrong person, it might be time for everyone involved in the sales process to sit down to define a qualified lead for your business.

Is it simply someone who falls within your target market? Is it based on behavior when visiting your website? Maybe it’s someone that agrees to hear your pitch in person.

If your sales team is expected to follow up immediately on every nibble, you’re taking time away from the qualified leads so it’s important to define what a qualified lead is.

#2 Identify where leads come from

#2 Identify where leads come from

Where do you get your best leads from? Identify your lead sources so you can fine-tune your lead generation process.

Consider using a tool like Google Analytics or Oktopost to look at your metrics and determine where your quality leads come from and what campaigns, referrers, and channels are paying for themselves.

Knowing the information, you can devote more time to channels that are most effective and may even consider eliminating channels that aren’t filling your lead pipeline.

Related: The Five BEST Sources Of B2B Leads Prospects

Check out our latest Marketing Infographic

A Visual Guide to Telemarketing Performance Metrics [INFOGRAPHIC]

#3 Deploy data enrichment tools

#3 Deploy data enrichment tools

To connect with prospective customers, you need to a way to reach them. You can search LinkedIn, run Google searches, and scour social media channels for leads, but it takes a lot of time to find the right people, and then, find their contact information.

Related: Why Customer Profiling Could be the Best Investment your Company Makes

Ease some of this workload with data enrichment tools that can help you build a list of leads along with credible contact information. Here are a few tools to consider:

Lusha

Turn domain names into full company profiles and add contact information right into your Salesforce account to convert leads faster. Lusha can even automatically enrich all your contacts and update your contacts in spreadsheets.

InsideView

Increase your volume of clean, actionable leads thanks to the missing data that InsideView automatically adds to incoming leads as they’re inputted into your CRM and marketing automation systems.

Openprise

Streamline your sales funnel by connecting your third-party apps to pull together data, then create your own set of rules to clean the database with Openprise.

Related: The Essential Checklist to Finding a Decent Leads Database Provider

#4 Use lead generation tools

#4 Use lead generation tools

Rather than find leads yourself, have them come to you. How? Use a few lead generating tools, like these:

PromoSimple

Create custom sweepstakes, sign-up forms, and contests that can be added to Facebook pages and websites to generate leads, which are then integrated into an email service provider.

SocialCompass

Find quality leads on Twitter with this all-in-one app that combs tweets to find locals with purchase intent, allowing you to reply with an offer.

Related: Best Marketing Tools to INCREASE Sales Leads Production

#5 Prioritize your leads with management applications

#5 Prioritize your leads with management applications

As you generate leads, you’ll need a way to manage them. Try these tools that can help you prioritize leads and track important metrics like cost per lead:

Velocify

Help your sales reps determine who to call and when, thanks to this sales acceleration solution that sorts, prioritizes and re-ranks sales leads in real-time.

Really Simple Systems

Track cost per lead, per opportunity and per sale to calculate your ROI with this lead tracking app.

Related: 5 New Year’s Resolutions to Refine Your Marketing Analytics Stack

Wrap up

By identifying what a qualified lead is, making a list of your best lead channels, and integrating several tools, you’ll be able to reach more prospects than you thought possible. Lead generation is a time-consuming process, but if you’re taking a strategic approach you’ll likely see an impressive return on your investment.

Using Neuroscience to Better Answer 5 Questions Leads Ask Themselves Before Buying

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Cognitive neuroscience, the study of the brain’s wirings and how these affect behavior, can help you make sense of the things your prospects do. What’s even more interesting is that many of this field’s recent findings shed some much-needed light on how and why your prospects reach a buying decision.

In this post, we’ll go over five key questions that B2B leads typically ask themselves in the decision stage of the buying cycle, and find out what neuroscience has to say about how you should be answering each of them.

To be clear, we’re focusing on the final step before leads turn into customers, so we won’t be talking about prospects’ questions in the awareness and consideration stages. That is, your prospect has already identified a need, has narrowed down her choices, and is now considering your company as a potential vendor. As such, it’s extremely important to get your message right in the decision-making phase since this is where all your marketing efforts become sales results.

#1: Will I really benefit from this, too?

 There’s ample evidence to suggest that emotions drive decisions more than reason does.Clinical studies have found that patients with impaired emotions tend to experience decision-making difficulties despite still having their reasoning abilities intact. This means that, at the point of making a decision, feelings take higher priority over hard facts and figures.

Accordingly, your messaging at this stage in the buyer’s journey has to appeal to your prospects’ emotions as well. You need to go beyond telling leads what to think; you help them find out for themselves that your solution feels right and that there’s something in it for them personally, too.

Related: How to Reach C-Level Decision Makers and Boost B2B Sales

#2: Can I trust this solution?

 Your prospects look to others they can relate to in order to help them determine what actions they should take. That’s why word-of-mouth recommendations from peers influence as much as 90% of B2B buying decisions.

Here, social proof comes in very handy. Social proof is the idea that people will do what others are doing if they believe those actions are the right things to do. Some examples of social proof in action are client recommendations, influencer testimonials, and user reviews. Here’s how to build tremendous credibility and make clients refer you.

It’s not enough to convince leads that your solution works; you have to tell a story that it has worked for someone else in a similar situation. Social proof is most effective when seamlessly weaved into a compelling story, which brings us to our next point.

#3: Can I work with this vendor?

 Convincing prospects your solution works is one thing; earning enough of their trust to turn into your business partner is another story. In fact, it’s going to take a pretty captivating story to convert your lead into your customer.

Telling your company’s or brand’s story helps build and cultivate your relationship with a prospect. Stories are an indirect way for your prospects to go through what your other customers have experienced. This is why brain scans show that a well-crafted narrative is more persuasive than a slide deck packed with stats and charts.

Related: Why work with a lead gen company when I have an in-house marketing person & my own CRM?

#4: Do I have enough information?

 Making decisions based on limited or partial information is the rule, not the exception, in most business situations. But there are ways to turn this potential obstacle into opportunities for helping leads reach a buying decision.

According to the information gap theory, curiosity arises when there’s a gap between what we know and what we want to know. That is, curiosity increases with uncertainty. At the buying stage, you have to frame your prospect’s belief that she probably doesn’t have sufficient information as motivation to find out more and engage with you further.

#5: Will I be able to justify this?

 In our first point above, we focused on the need to highlight what your prospects can potentially get out of making a buying decision. But when it comes to motivation, the need to avoid pain or loss is a more powerful force at driving our actions than the desire to gain. That is, people care more about losing a dollar than gaining a dollar.

To help your prospects justify choosing your solution, you also have to emphasize what they stand to lose by sticking with the status quo or selecting another option.

The Takeaway

The key idea to remember here is that, at the final step before leads convert into customers, you need to appeal both to the rational and emotional sides of your prospects’ brain. Of course, we’ve only outlined some pretty broad brush strokes here, and you still have to rely on how well you really know your prospects to come up with answers they’re really looking for. Just because an area in the brain lights up in FMRI scans doesn’t mean that’s exactly how your leads are going to behave.

Believe it or not! You can get More Leads without Generating Web Traffic

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In B2B marketing, perhaps no two words are as important as Traffic and Conversion. These two spell the difference between being in the black and being in the red. But you probably already know this by now: More web traffic does not always mean more leads. Traffic that does not convert is useless. That’s really unfortunate. Luckily, you can still increase your leads production without necessarily increasing your web traffic. Convenient, right?

Here are surefire ways to increase your conversion – meaning, turning traffic into leads – without actually increasing your web traffic.

Amplify your Unique Selling Point

I said amplify. Not just state or declare or put it there for all to see. Maximize and optimize it by making sure it grabs the viewers’ or readers’ attention the moment they see it, or at least, creates a strong connection with them. A convincing declaration of your unique selling point can build trust and keep prospects on the page longer than they originally intended.

Pro tip: Use “action” words, not just passive words. And yes, sell the solution to their problem, not your product. Don’t be too salesy like a snake oil salesman.

Related: Threesome Tactics To Generate Sales-Ready Leads Through Inbound Marketing

Simplify your Home Page

Really, just KISS it, or “Keep It Short and Simple”. Or “Keep it Simple, St****.” The simpler your homepage is, the easier for the viewers to navigate through it and find what they need and want. Just make sure it answers these questions:

#1: What does your product or service offer? 

Callbox - Best Sales Lead Generation Services

#2: How will your product or service solve my problem? Explain the benefits you provide, not the features.

HOW WE HELP BUSINESSES SUCCEED - Callbox

Don’t make the common mistake of talking about yourself at length. Harping about your accomplishments will bore, if not totally turn off your viewer.

Pro tip: Remember, the homepage is yours, but it’s about the customer or client or guest. If it’s about them, they’ll stay longer.

Related: Inbound and Outbound Strategies is a Match Made in Marketing Heaven

Make your Headlines & Contact Information Visible

It’s the goal of the webpage to at least generate inquiries. If your headlines can’t be seen, what do you think would make any visitor want to learn more from it? Make sure your headlines attract the visitors’ attention as soon as their eyes land on the page. And that “Contact Us” page? It’s not just for display. You really have to make an effort to make it as user-friendly as possible – make it visible and easy to read. No fancy fonts, please. If can make your contact number(s) so conspicuous the visitor doesn’t have to look for it, so much the better.

Pro tip: You have to make the visitors feel confident in you, in your product or service or whatever you’re selling.

Related: What to Tell Clients Who Say “You’re too expensive.”

Offer Incentives

What sounds better than freebies? Rewards! Incentives! Bonuses! Use the psychology of free stuff. I don’t know, but there’s something about those words that give them a really nice ring when spoken. Positive reinforcement almost always works, and it’s true especially in marketing. When you add something extra – like a reward or bonus – to your unique selling point, it’s easier to close the deal with the visitor. Offer a “money-back guarantee” or “free replacement” or “lifetime warranty” and chances are, you’ll clinch the sale.

While you have already effectively differentiated your product or service from the competition through your unique selling point, the incentive to bonus or reward adds value to the whole thing, and even builds a deeper client-business relationship.

Pro tip: Your message should be “You can’t get from others what I’m offering you.”

Related: How to Defend a Higher Price: 3 Steps

Grab a copy of our FREE EBOOK, The Ultimate Lead Generation Kit Ebook! Updated with links to the best and latest techniques that will help generate quality sales leads for your business.

Focus on Outbound

The previous four tips focus on optimizing the webpage. This last one is a no-brainer in terms of increasing leads without increasing web traffic volume. Why not try some of the most effective outbound marketing strategies?

Event marketing is a simple and easy way to interact with prospects and turn them into leads. Experiential event marketing is even better, as it goes beyond the mere physical presence of people at an event. Here are some unconventional event marketing campaigns, find out why they totally worked.

You can also try email marketing if you’re on a shoestring budget.

Watch our Email marketing video series now.

Email Marketing Series: How to Make Emails your Impossible to Ignore [Video]

And of course, there’s good old targeted telemarketing if you want fast results. Whatever medium you choose, the most important thing is choosing an efficient and effective third-party service provider.

Pro tip: Do not settle. When you’re outsourcing, you simply do not settle for mediocre results. 

Related: Is there such thing as a good B2B lead Generation Company?

Conclusion

One key takeaway here is, when you implement something new, make sure it’s measurable so you’ll know what works for you and what doesn’t. More importantly, don’t stop trying testing new things. Observe what your competitors are doing successfully that you may apply to your own. If you don’t think imitation is the highest form of flattery, then just make it your inspiration.

Case Study: Giant Software Solutions Provider Improves Lead Capture and Conversion with Callbox

Learn more lead generation lessons and tips at The Savvy Marketer’s Blog!

Love to know how we generate qualified leads?

Get in touch with our Marketing Consultant or Dial +1 888.810.7464  or 310.439.5814

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How to Efficiently Capture B2B Leads through your Website

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Your website is obviously an important facet in your B2B lead generation campaign. Aside from providing exposure, it acts as a bridge through which you and your prospects can easily engage each other in professional dialogue. More importantly, it can also help locate the right kind of people for your sales pipeline with the use of lead capture devices.

One can never really doubt the importance of lead capture devices. Information after all is important in determining high profile B2B leads that are sure to convert. With this in mind, it is imperative for marketers to optimize their lead capturing for better lead production, which is something seldom practiced by many B2B business nowadays. This in part involves planning a landing page that produces contact information. Further, there is a need to create lead capture devices that attract one’s target audience.

These considerations constitute the main challenges in B2B lead generation and lead nurturing. However, these can be countered by reading the tips below.

Focus on content rather than increased web traffic. The volume of site visitors might be an object of satisfaction. In reality, however, not all of these visitors would stick around for long. In fact, a good majority would not go so far as clicking a link or going through the site’s menu. What is needed is content and a site design that keeps users interested. For the sake of generating high quality B2B leads, go for simple site designs that are professional-looking without coming across as hyper-minimalist.

Fertilize your fill forms. Now, the worst thing you could do with your landing page is to supply it with impotent fill forms; impotent in the sense that they lack a sense of urgency, or suffer from an overdose of it. Clearly, it is important to remember the fundamentals of efficient web fill forms for B2B lead generation: answer fields that require specific information, a call to action or submission button, and a catchy design.

Offer free informational materials. Always keep in mind your B2B prospects want to learn new things about their industry. And they are also determined to learn about the issues they are confronting as well as the corresponding solutions. Supplying them with free informational materials such as newsletters and eBooks can stimulate their interest to learn more about your company. Other than that, every subscription corresponds to B2B leads.

Optimizing your website for B2B lead generation entails a lot of hard work. But the brunt of the task can be mitigated by partnering with a firm that specializes in lead management and appointment setting.

Bad Leads are Bad for Business: The Wrong Attitude in B2B Prospecting

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Let’s face it. Your business thrives on B2B leads. Sales goals become realistic when you focus on your lead generation. The art of selling owes much of its gains to this aspect, but the real success lies in B2B prospecting.

An art in and of itself, prospecting is as complicated process as lead management. But marketers too often would assume otherwise. Apparently, you only have to contact a set number of individuals and ask them if they have issues in need of resolving. There is nothing more to it, only that it requires a certain level of competency. B2B companies take on a cynical attitude, putting lead qualification always above teleprospecting.

Unfortunately, poor prospecting that produces weak B2B leads triggers a chain reaction that correspondingly affects the sales pipeline, from appointment setting down to conversion. Many businesses owe their poor sales performance to this.

Prospecting and lead generation after all are disciplines that should be taken seriously. It would be best to NOT consider these prospecting practices and take on a better outlook in lead management.

Not doing your homework. You don’t participate in a NASCAR event without fuel. And sometimes, you will need to figure out the most efficient fuel for your tank. Likewise, B2B prospecting helps you get ready to initiate customer dialogue. Find out more about your target demographics and set an efficient profiling system. Referencing your company objectives could also help in identifying the people perfect for teleprospecting.

Not engaging your targets. And this means calling the wrong person. The main task behind teleprospecting is to tap leaders. They are people who uphold a high stature within their companies and whose influence is crucial in determining the path of their enterprises. As such, every decision for a purchase relies on them. It would be a dire mistake if you contacted someone in one of the lower managerial tiers.

Being uncertain. For businesses, especially when it comes to lead generation and teleprospecting, perseverance bears success. You cannot get it anywhere else. But even more important is having a clear direction as referenced in your company objectives. What are your plans once a prospect turns “hot”? What makes your solutions better than the others’? Do you have anything else in store? These are typical prospect questions. Nonetheless, they seek to iron out your current inadequacies. If you are unable to answer these, consider revamping your strategies.

If companies opt to increase their sales, then they should opt for quality B2B leads that could easily convert. This could only be possible once proper approaches to B2B prospecting are applied.

Simplicity Is Beauty For Lead Generation

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It is said that a true test for a chef is to make a simple dish taste exquisite. That is also the same principle in marketing as well. How can you simplify the lead generation process without sacrificing quality and productivity, indeed, actually end up improving, of generating sales leads? Turning a complicated concept into a simple, impactful, and meaningful message is nothing less than a complex exercise. How you do that would be the true test of your ability as a marketing and appointment setting specialist.

So, how do you make that happen?

First of all, you need all the data that you can get. Be it figures, graphs, reports, etc. all of these can serve as information source. Once you have everything you need, now is the time for you to take them apart, piece by piece, looking for that common detail that they all share, that one detail that pretty much summarizes what your company’s product, purpose, and market is all about. Sure, this can be real work, and you might not be able to manage it, so you might want to leave the analysis to a business database agency.

Next is the crafting of the message. Remember, your message must tell a story, one that appeals to the emotions. Emotions are what influence a customer to buy from you or not. Next is the communication medium to use. It must be one that can have the maximum impact on your audience at the shortest time. Direct marketing tools like email and telemarketing might be good places to start. No matter what you use, if it can help bring you a lot of B2B leads, then stick to it.

Lastly, always be human. Marketing lead generation is a social activity. You are dealing with real people with their own idiosyncrasies and preferences. You have to adjust your marketing efforts to meet the unique needs of your audience.

First Call Resolution In A Telemarketing Campaign

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First Call Resolution In A Telemarketing Campaign

First-call resolution (FCR) is the immortal mantra of inbound marketing campaigns. If you cannot satisfy a customer’s questions on the first call, then your marketing campaign is not doing enough. While this is clearly applicable in the inbound marketing business, will it also apply to outbound lead generation processes? The answer is actually a ‘yes’. You can employ FCR strategies when looking for qualified sales leads.

The premise is actually simple: we want to resolve everything in just one call. This will save everyone the time, money, and effort involved in entertaining each call. The less repeat calls you make on a single person, the more people that can be contacted in a single day. In terms of marketing and appointment setting, qualifying leads with a single call can mean a big thing. But for this set-up to work in a lead generation campaign, you need to have initiative.

It is not bad to follow your sales script, especially if it comes from your client. In fact, you should follow it to the letter. But if you want to do better, then you have to take some initiatives and decide on your own if you should add more qualifying questions during the call. This will require some experience for you to do it right (not to mention a few experimentation), but in the end, this might be just what you need to generate more B2B leads. Such a judgment call may not be that bad to make, you just have to try

The Five BEST Sources Of B2B Leads Prospects

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There is no one method that will serve as panacea for your lead-prospecting troubles. In marketing, as in life in general, everything is case-to-case basis. What we have, however, are ideas that are worth trying as suggested by experts and backed by empirical data.

According to a survey by the Chief Marketing Officer Council, most valued source of leads is from customer referrals. Amazing, right? While the criteria ‘most valued source of lead’ is somehow vague, one can logically infer that the reason marketers value a certain source more than they do others is because it produces concrete better positive results.

Here’s the top five sources of B2B leads:

  1. 54% Customer Referrals

  2. 14% E-Mail or Direct Marketing

  3. 8% Internet

  4. 7% Events

  5. 8% Other

Interesting, right? Read on.

Customer Referrals/Existing Customers

It’s overwhelming how big a portion of the pie goes to Customer Referrals/Existing Customers. But who are we to argue with numbers? So stop what you are doing right now and imagine how referrals from satisfied customers could generate valuable leads and grow your business. No, don’t just imaging it. Internalize it. See, customer referrals are a means of providing immediate credibility. With the increasing ability for consumers to share personal expression on the Internet, Blogs, E-mail, and word of mouth, the ability to communicate has enhanced the voice of the customer. In business-to-business transactions, a customer referral is more likely to lead to an appropriate contact with a relevant message, which is far more powerful and likely to result in success than a cold call from a third party.

So tap into that seemingly infinite wealth of existing customers and convert them into living testimonies. Never waste an opportunity to treat your customers as partners. Make them feel like they are a part of the company and your goals and chances are, they won’t hesitate to mouth a praise or two about you to friend.

Related: Building Tremendous Credibility and Make Clients Refer You

Email or Direct Marketing

Though a fraction only as effective as customer referrals according to the research by CMOC, emailing or direct marketing packs a punch, too. Admittedly, email can sometimes feel like an old tool – obsolete, even — in the marketing mix, but put yourself back into a customer’s shoes. It’s still every marketer’s bread-and-butter for prospect questions, service and support, and loyalty checks.

Here are 7 Stats That Proves Email Marketing Is Still The MOST Reliable Channel [INFOGRAPHIC]

Advanced email solutions can make email marketing specific, personalized and efficient. Remember, it’s easy for people to forget about your company or lose track of what you’re offering if they haven’t visited your website in a while. Previous customers can be brought back as “fresh” leads, so use this to your advantage by creating solid email marketing campaigns specifically for those you know. Create a list of all your past customers, and then categorize that list down further if possible to create a few very personalized email marketing messages.

Related:The Hidden Gems of the Web: Where Can You Get a Good B2B Lead List? 

Get accurate and reliable information of your prospects with database profiling services.

Internet

As more consumers go to social media for customer service or to poll friends and family for advice on upcoming purchases, it’s no surprise the channel becomes an increasingly important source for marketers to track. What’s a little surprising is that it placed just number three on the list, but that’s beside the point.

Related: Why B2B Social Media Marketing Still Deserves Attention

First, make sure you have a website that’s user-friendly, catchy, and comprehensive. Your website houses valuable persona-focused content, contact information, product and solution information, and more. It’s also likely the hub that social, advertising, event, email and other tactics drive traffic to. Condition leads to go to your website for solutions and relevant information, and make sure your website is set up to collect valuable lead insights.

Related: Essential Components of a Lead-generating Website

Second, take full advantage of your blogs. Blogging efforts optimize your website for new visitors and is an effective way in nurturing existing leads. Ask your social community a question or poll them to see what they think about a particular subject. Find common problems people may have related to your industry and show that you have the solution on your blog. This will help you improve your credibility and hopefully get people interested enough to take the next step and talk with you about what you can do for them.

You can use social media as a way to promote as well, and create lead generation forms to include on your social accounts.

Introducing: The Ultimate Lead Generation Kit To Jump start your Business!

Introducing: The Ultimate Lead Generation Kit To Jump start your Business!

Events

It’s one thing to be present on the internet and active in social media. It’s another thing to be physically present during big events and present your brand or product as something tangible and relatable to prospects. Events are an investment for brands at all stages of the marketing funnel—from awareness with new prospects, through the loyalty and retention of existing customers and clients. Events are perfect opportunities to merge the online and offline experience. Generate meetings and hype event excitement with an online campaign to start measuring lead activity. Hey, if you can get your loyal customers to testify during the event, so much the better.

Event marketing tips to ponder:

Others

This has always been an enigma and a cause of speculation in any kind of survey result because no one can pinpoint it’s exact components. For some, it’s an excuse to be subjective – you can include your personal favorites there. Like these two I included below.

  • Strategic Partnerships

I have a bias on companies that take advantage of strategic alliances with parallel companies. Think about a wedding dress couturier partnering with a flower shop; or a sports equipment shop teaming-up with a chain of fitness clubs. It’s always a win-win situation whichever way you look. So look for a company that you can benefit from (make sure it can get something from you, too, or else it wouldn’t work) and start talking about the possibilities of expanding your prospects base. If you’re lucky, you can even share some industry secrets.

  • Cold Calling

I hate to admit it, but even in this era where social media is threatening to takeover, good old cold calling still carries some weight. It is no secret that the basics of cold calling are very sound. You get to know the actual potential of the customer when you visit his office, and sometimes, depending upon your company’s product and brand, the customer might even convert immediately. This is when you literally grab the bull by the horns. Sounds tough, but if you are out of ideas for sources of prospects, then you better review your script and start with cold calling. Trust me, you will find prospective customers which cannot be found by way of other methods.

Check out: 5 Seconds to 5 Minutes Rule in Calling Generated  over 40% of Increase in Sales

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Richard Branson on How To Effectively Generate B2B Leads

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Whenever we find a potentially good business idea, or perhaps a strategy that could help improve our lead generation process, there will always be some people who will discourage us about it. The question here is this: will we let them do it?

This is where the words of Sir Richard Branson, owner of the Virgin Group, make some sense: “Screw it. Just do it.” No phrase emphasizes the importance of just going ahead with your plans or goals as what he said. Truly, this is an inspiring piece for many telemarketing representatives who are looking for better b2b sales leads.

Often, a lot of enterprising businesses fail to generate B2B leads using new marketing tactics due to discouragement from many quarters. Sure, naysayers and critics may have a point in what they say, but that should never be your reason why you should stop your plans. Rather, this is your chance to prove them wrong, to show them that you really are in the right track.

Besides, even if you are wrong, starting from scratch meant you really have nothing much to lose. You can always do better next time. Now, if you succeed on your new appointment setting strategies, then it is your big win. It is all about willingness to take risks, as well as ingenuity in making your venture successful. Richard Branson did it. Look at where he is now.

That is all there is to it, apart from outsourcing your work to professional lead generation services. That would be a different story.

Communicate Well And Start Generating Qualified B2B Leads

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One of the nice things about our current business environment are the availability of ready information, both on the customer and the provider sides. With the explosion of social media and other information sites, information is right at your fingertips. While this can be a great help for your lead generation campaign, this can also act as a double-edged sword. Too much information can turn away potential B2B leads, but too little can also cause them to look for other sources. How will you achieve your B2B appointment setting aims, then? The key here would be context. You have to properly set up the expectations of your prospects.

Using shock tactics can be a good idea, but you must remember to keep things under control. By no means should you employ tactics that might offend them, put a stain on your image, or ruin your credibility. There are many ways to get the attention of your prospects. For example, you can use B2B telemarketing services. This can help you identify potential sales leads and help you be more effective in reaching out to them. Still, the main point here would be your communication skills. You need to know what to say, when to say it, and for whom your message is for. That will be the most crucial point that you should consider when planning your lead generation campaign.

It is all about you and your message. So, if you want to be effective in your B2B lead generation efforts, you might want to take a look at your sales pitch.

Generating B2B Leads? You Ought To Delight And Entertain

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While some pundits will say that this is just what selling is all about, I would like to point out the fact that there is a difference between selling and selling right. Selling is just that, selling. There is no concern on whether you want to generate qualified sales leads or not. You can lie, deceive or misinform, just to get results. Of course, if you want to be effective, you need to be honest and factual. Now this is where the problem with B2B lead generation comes in. You ought to show your business prospects the facts, but number and figures alone will not get you those B2B leads at all. You need to take care of presentation as well. And this is how you do it:

  1. Surprise them – give them an ‘Aha!’ moment. Give them a familiar situation, but one where your insight is fresh and innovative. That can help your B2B telemarketing team.
  2. Tell them a story – stories can be an incredible way to keep their attention. A well-paced narrative will keep your prospects spell-bound until the last chapter of your presentation. Pepper it with trivia and other relevant facts that they can use.
  3. Make it fun – this will also liven up the conversation, as well as help grease the wheels of your appointment setting process. This can aid you greatly in relationship-building.

There are other tactics that you can use to delight your prospects, but these three would be a good place to start. You can succeed in your lead generation campaign better this way.

When Not To Solve Problems During Lead Generation

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Solving problems is only natural when we are conducting lead generation campaigns. After all, if we do not solve problems, how can we turn prospects into qualified B2B leads? That is why we need to offer the right business solutions to your prospects. There are a lot of things you would want to say to your prospects, offer answer to their problems. But have you ever thought of those rare moment where you do not need to solve problems? Sometimes, not solving a business issue can get you the sales leads you wanted. The idea behind it is actually sound.

To begin with, you must first understand that some of your prospects may be aware of their problems already. They might just want to have a sounding board, or probably a second opinion on whether this is their real concern. Also, it is possible that they know the solution already. Your telemarketing team may not need to talk much. Your team will just have to listen, and the answer will present itself on its own. And would it not be a much better appointment setting tactic. At least you will get the full cooperation of your business leads. All you need to do is to be sharp at the details.

While it is possible that you have a lead generation team ready for the task, it may not be economically feasible to have a large one for a seasonal campaign. Perhaps outsourcing the work will do you good. There are a lot of telemarketing, advertising, and other agencies that can do the job for you.