Every B2B lead generation campaign is primarily geared towards getting valuable leads into the sales pipeline. Prospects are those who are interested in the product or service that you offer and the sales process involves convincing people who have little or no time to speak with them and convert them into prospects. With most businesses looking at sales calls as unwelcomed interruptions in their already hectic schedules, getting these leads is quite challenging for any sales team.
- To be successful, lead generation campaigns must have great offers that help people overcome inertia, moves a prospect to action and along the buying cycle, and most importantly, it imitates the persuasive power of a salesperson.
- Hard offers could be a free seminar or a free consultation and these require more effort on the respondent’s part and they tend to emphasize the business value. Though these receive fewer responses when compared to soft offer, the leads are more qualified.
- Soft offers include sweepstakes, free premiums like T-shirts or USB flash drives, and educational pieces like white papers. These offers that require lower commitments combine broad appeal and high perceived value with a low risk of having to talk to a certified sales professional.
There are hard and soft offers that attract profitable customers.
- Sales training is all about asking the right questions; these are the ones that lead to sales success and not dead ends. A part of attracting qualified leads is to stop wasting time chasing the wrong leads. To avoid this, the sales team needs to listen to what the contact is saying about their specific needs and requirements. Even if your product or service is awesome and has some amazing features, potential customers who think that the sales representative is not taking the time to listen will just find another person who will. Consultative selling goes a long way in getting more valuable leads into your sales pipeline because buyer needs are always indentified before suggesting products that satisfy those needs.
- Creating a leads qualification system is essential for online products and services. It could be as simple as placing ads on Google to target potential customers to creating free ebook or report that can be downloaded only after people answer a few questions. Including links to blog posts that offer more information about the product or service is another great way to generate targeted leads. There are different sales funnel and analytics software that offer valuable information and metrics that enable you to close deals for as many qualified leads as possible.
- A sales trainer must conduct training for new and existing sales staff, document it, and also take feedback not only as a part of their professional development but also to share their formula for sales success. This consistent strategy ensures that every certified sales professional is qualifying leads in the same way and having a system in place help a company duplicate their success having shared it with all the members of their sales team.