The excess of online and continually increasing competition complicates identifying, tracking, and engaging with potential clients. However, things aren’t as disheartening as they might seem at first sight. With proper B2B lead generation strategies, one can survive the challenges, fill the sales pipeline with quality leads, and receive solid conversions more effectively.
Also Read: The Ultimate Guide to B2B Lead Generation Services
Why is Generating Leads Challenging for B2B Companies?
The answer is simple—lead generation is important and challenging. However, one can’t simply overlook this strategy because of its challenges. A business has to generate leads consistently if it wishes to stay ahead of the competition. Here are three reasons why it becomes challenging for B2B companies.
1- The cost
Most of the B2B companies think that lead generation consumes a lot of money. But, to be honest, yes, the assumption is right to a certain extent. The company needs to spend money in a particular area through phone calls or paid adverts to generate a good number of sales leads. According to Madison Logic, you may have to spend an average of $35 per contact to reach marketing people. Furthermore, in the medicinal services, the standard cost is $65 per lead.
2- The time and effort
It is incorrect if you think lead generation gives the desired outcome in a single shot. It takes time and effort to generate quality leads for the business. On average, it takes at least 30 minutes to research the company, another 30 minutes to write a follow-up, and over eight dials to get to a prospect. And if your lead is not a good fit for your firm, all this time and effort will be wasted.
3- The emotions
While it’s true that time and money are essential in lead generation, it’s also true that emotion plays an equally important role. Consider getting rejected by your prospects over a phone call. It’s hard for even a successful business representative to handle this rejection.
An experienced B2B lead generation professional may sometimes understand that some leads are unsuitable for their business after interacting with them multiple times. This realization can also hurt their emotions.
Also Read: What are the 5 Things To Avoid In B2B Lead Generation?
5 Most Common B2B Lead Generation Mistakes
Now that you know that lead generation is quite tricky, converting them sometimes seems more like luck than anything. Apart from this, some more barriers to lead generation can hurt your revenue growth. B2B companies make many B2B lead generation mistakes, pulling them down the race. So, without delay, let us face them, find reasons, and learn how to overcome them.
1. Following up too slowly
Experienced B2B companies easily fall into making this mistake. It’s understandable because responding to a lead in 2 or 3 days was fine ten years ago, and it took a week to prepare a quote. So, sales reps who have been in their roles for a while are operating with the mindset that waiting a few days on a lead is fine. But those days are gone, and younger companies bring a more responsive approach to handling leads.
Solution:
The data consistently shows that companies who follow up within 5 minutes of receiving a lead are the most successful. Companies that complete a 5-minute response time for leads have achieved:
- 6X revenue growth in 12 months
- 9X shorter sales cycle
- 500% growth in the team.
74% of buyers work with the sales rep, the first to add value. So, if you have something to say and say it first, you’re three times more likely than the next sales rep to win the business.
2. Not enough brand credibility
B2B companies need to understand the balance between lead generation and brand activities. Because B2B is a trusted purchase, it’s easy to scare off leads if your company is too aggressive in lead generation and doesn’t have enough brand presence to back it up. A B2B company that is unknown in its market and has a limited track record always has difficulty growing quickly. No B2B buyer wants to be the first to try a company (and fail), so buyers wait for credibility before buying.
Solution:
B2B connections are often long-term; marketers must gain customer trust and a positive reputation. With this in mind, try connecting your lead generation procedure with brand-building activities. Too much lead generation without any brand-building technologies will result in a loss of money and time. The following are a few moves B2B experts must make to set up a reliable reputation in the market:
- Prioritize building business relationships. An email updating the user on products or services or even a 5-minute call can keep the relationship strong and build admiration, appreciation, and commitment.
- Be available to customers on every possible platform. They need to know that you are accessible whenever a problem arises.
- Establish a sense of trust with other B2B companies around you. This method will attract business owners and decision-makers to your organization.
3. Friction in the sales process
Have you ever interacted with a company where you explained your situation to a salesperson, only to be delivered to another salesperson and have to explain the whole situation again? This is probably because this has become common in the last few years. It’s called ‘friction’ in the sales process, and it’s been happening quite often lately because, in the name of efficiency – many companies have segmented their sales process into various stages, with different people handling the different stages. One person will screen you, another will handle the sales process, and potentially, a third will negotiate the specifics of your contract.
This is efficient for the seller, but it’s inefficient for buyers. And that’s bad in B2B because high-value B2B buyers don’t expect to be tossed from salesperson to salesperson like a baton on a race track.
Solution:
There are two ways to fix this lead generation mistake:-
The first is to put an experienced salesperson in charge of each lead and work that leads from beginning to closing. Companies with low-volume and high-value leads and a rapid screening process that allows salespeople to score quickly and free leads that do not meet company criteria can do this.
The second way to fix this lead generation mistake is to train and communicate between multi-person sales teams. Many tech companies successfully combine two-person sales teams with one junior and one senior salesperson. This works if the company has a rigorous sales process, strong sales management, low staff turnover, and excellent communication.
4. Sending potential leads to a generic page
You might have spent hours crafting a perfect ad or well-designed campaign message, but it doesn’t help your business if you direct potential leads to a web page with little interest. According to MECLABS‘ recent survey report, over 44% of clicks generated by B2B companies directed users to the homepage rather than any particular landing page, which results in an increased bounce rate.
Homepages are usually confusing for new visitors as most consist of various navigations for services and content, most of which are unhelpful to a specific ad or campaign. Displaying the same standard content rather than presenting particular solutions to real problems is the quickest way to lose leads to your competitors.
5. Not delivering value with every interaction
Have you ever received an email from a salesperson that reads, ‘Hi! I’m following up to check in and see how your decision process is going?” They are the worst. And yet, many salespeople default to them because they’ve failed to confirm a follow-up process for a specific time to discuss a particular action or event. These emails put salespeople in an order-taker position rather than a trusted-adviser position. And they give the receiver no reason to respond other than a courtesy – which is in short supply in the modern work world.
Solution
To avoid ‘check-in’ emails, set a next step that will be initiated by the salesperson at a specific point in time. That way, the receiver expects the communication, and they’ve completely confirmed they’ll respond to it.
It’s also important for salespeople to add value during every interaction with buyers. One way to do this is by having a ‘Top Ten Resources’ list for the sales team. When communicating with prospects, they can choose the most relevant resource to send to each prospect and include it in their communication.
Lead generation is too high a priority for B2B industries. It represents a significant chunk of their marketing budget for it to underperform. Unfortunately, this area has plenty of challenges, but companies can meet them head-on by following the best practices shown above. With this approach, you’ll watch the number of quality leads soar and reap the rewards of high conversions.
Conclusion
