If you are just setting up your first company, many of you are certainly wondering how to reach your potential customers. You ask yourself what methods are the most effective and whether it is worth investing in a given channel? Unfortunately, there is not one good answer to this question. Which activities a company undertakes in the field of lead generation is strongly dependent on what the company does.
In some businesses, you should prioritise purely marketing activities, especially those that are mass in nature – when the product is cheap and aimed at the masses. In others, the focus in generating B2B leads should be on very personal activities, due to specialisation in a very narrow niche.
No matter what kind of client acquisition activities you decide to implement, there are a few examples of how not to generate B2B leads in 2020. You will find out what mistakes to avoid to improve your sales process.
1. Offline
Offline activities are certainly good for local businesses. However, one should be aware that even in small towns, every household member nowadays has a smartphone, computer, and IoT devices.
An investment in a billboard or leaflet may seem reasonable, but it is worth considering whether it would not be even better to allocate this budget to promotion in social media or local portals. This solution is also supported by the possibility of easily profiling advertising in Google for local businesses, as these are very narrow targets.
When we build a business with global or national objectives and are in the first phase of the company’s operation, acquiring customers offline makes no sense at all. Such activities do not scale up. By choosing this solution, we reach too narrow a group of recipients. What is more, this method, apart from the so-called word-of-mouth, does not have a spreading character. Therefore, in this case, it is difficult to apply the snowball effect.
Instead of investing in offline activities, it is better to first set yourself specific targets and the results you want to achieve. Only then should the channels be chosen which, according to the statistics, will enable you to achieve your objectives.
2. Call Center
Many companies entering the market may think that a Call Center is the best solution because of its large sales resources and the ability to operate on a broad scale. However, it should be remembered that a Call Center works only in specific types of business. These are mostly companies where it is easy to get in touch with the decision-maker and services or products can be sold during a phone call. On the other hand, if a company specializes in a particular field, requires reaching the decision-maker, and offers a complex and extensive services, the value of the Call Centre decreases dramatically. Namely, in such a case, a Call Center representative, who may not necessarily have experience in sales, let alone know and understand what the company is doing appears between the customer and our company. Consequently, the number of people who will actually be interested in the services is rapidly decreasing.
Companies invest considerable financial resources to be seen on the market as experienced professionals in their sector. However, outsourcing the sales needs to a Call Center, we cause the brand image to be distorted. This is due to the fact that a Telemarketer would never be able to use the same communications as an internal employee of the company.
3. Paid bases
It is very easy to find companies on the Internet that offer different datasets. These can be lists of companies with general information, contact persons, or complete data from markets with different information. However, the main problem with such databases is that statistically, they are out of date at 25%. Therefore, companies that use such databases for mass mailing risk having their domain infected. In addition, such products are sold to many customers simultaneously. This means that, at the same time, many companies acquire the possibility of contacting the same targets included in a given dataset. This, of course, causes that the data of people we contact are very often overused.
Instead of using ready-made sets, it is better to do it manually, but in a more profiled way. Linkedin platform may be the ideal source of contact data. It is a great portal for generating B2B leads. It allows you to find companies by criteria such as the business sector, employment, location, and many others. It also enables entering into direct relations, which is much better than sending mass emailing or Cold Calling.
4. Unplanned events
Trips to conferences, participation in fairs, and industry events. These are very tempting opportunities for entrepreneurs to leave their offices and build business relations. But are we surely counting the costs and analysing the benefits of such trips?
Many companies believe that it is part of their marketing strategy to appear at selected events. It might make some sense. However, when someone from our company plans to attend a conference or go for a business trip, certain issues are always considered and specific actions are taken.
- We analyse what marketing value can be derived from participation in the event and whether it makes sense.
- If a sales team attends the event, we develop a strategy to arrange as many meetings as possible before the event starts.
- If a business event is organised abroad, we try to arrange meetings with companies in a specific location to benefit from the time spent in the region.
- We always use internal, event-specific applications to build up a relationship and use the time spent at the meeting as much as possible.
Otherwise, there is little point in merely attending. Unfortunately, it is easy to forget the objective of such conferences and simply have a good time. That is, of course, nothing wrong, but if our task is to build a sales funnel, this must be included in the fun.
5. Adwords without a good website
The last thing we warn against is the use of paid advertising before properly investing in the website.
Unfortunately, many companies treat a website as a business card or landing page. Be aware that nowadays it can have a much broader meaning for organisations. It provides an opportunity to create communities around the site, educate, and build relationships with customers.
However, the website should first and foremost convert accordingly. This means that as many visitors as possible will react to the content and leave contact details for the sales department. Before our website achieves adequate conversion, investing in Adwords is a pure waste of company resources.
Here again, the question of investing in what works comes up. In this case, you must first take care of a properly designed website before you start investing in traffic.
The coming year will surely be very interesting in terms of ways of successful customer acquisition. We will probably also learn new, innovative methods of sales and lead generation. If you want to keep up to date with market news, subscribe to our newsletter.
