Every business wants to grow, but do they know how to best do it?
Because we help generate warm sales leads for growing businesses, we want to share the B2B prospecting tools that we’ve found work best for our clients.
We know that you want to spend most of your time closing the deal, but did you know that prospecting for your B2B business is as (if not more) important as sales calls and meetings? If we look at the sales funnel, you’ll naturally need more prospects at the top due to most falling off after continued qualifying.
Therefore, in order to keep the top of your sales funnel filled with activity, you’ll want to use one (or several!) of these B2B prospecting tools to grow your business.
Custom List Creation
The first thing you’ll want to do when you’re prospecting for new clients is to create a custom, targeted list. Whether you perform this activity internally or outsource to a lead generation partner, if you don’t know who or what businesses you’re targeting, it’ll be that much harder for your team to help the business grow.
Long gone are the days of buying an email list in hopes of hitting the jackpot of qualified contacts only to find out that most of the “leads” aren’t even at the listed company anymore.
Nothing is more frustrating than taking the time to build out a contact list and reaching out to the emails and phone numbers only to find it useless.
Through years of industry knowledge and access to market intelligence, our sales lead generation experts work directly with your team to create a targeted list of sales leads that fit your company’s needs. Our team helps you find the RIGHT lead at the RIGHT company based on who you determine the key decision maker is at these companies.
Click here to learn more about custom list creation and it’s benefits
Direct Mail
Have you ever considered using direct mail (AKA snail mail) to reach potential clients? With everyone receiving countless technological touch-points each day, taking a different approach with physical mail could be just what your target client needs!
And, when you think about how you feel when you get cool things in the mail, isn’t it a fun feeling?! Now, imagine you send a personalized package to a target client. They’d be so excited at the thought you put into a gift for them that when you reach out to follow up, they’ll be a warmer lead and therefore easier to convert than cold calling.
We love the idea of sending personalized gifts that relate to your business and/or your clients. Even including something that they’ll actually use, like a cool tumbler or a travel mug with some drinks specific to where you’re located is a fun way to engage potential clients!
Related Post: 5 Things to Consider When Outsourcing B2B Lead Generation
We know we just hyped up direct mail, but that doesn’t mean email is now obsolete! Email is great for quickly reaching out and making a connection with your business prospects.
We also get that people are busy (who isn’t these days?!) and might have missed a call or email you recently sent. So, we utilize email throughout our lead follow-up sequence to ensure that we connect with our prospect at the right time.
Tip: Following up multiple times via email is actually not creepy or annoying. Sometimes, your contact has opened your email, simply forgot to reply, and just needs a little follow-up to remind them to respond.
Related Blog Post: The Difference Between MQL and SQL
Social Media
With about 3.48 billion people on social media (that about 45% of the world’s population), you’re bound to reach and connect with your target clients online.
What’s amazing about using social media for B2B prospecting is that there are so many ways you can utilize it! Here are some ways that we’ve found it to be beneficial for us and our clients:
1. Connecting with other business for collaborations – Not every interaction on social media will (or should) have a goal of driving a sale. We’ve found that interacting and simply making connections with other businesses have opened the doors for collaborations, which are mutually beneficial for getting in front of new audiences of people who could be interested in your services.
2. LinkedIn Targeted Campaigns – LinkedIn is great for creating hyper-targeted campaigns to generate qualified leads. You can target users based on their industry, job title, and even specific groups for even more specific targeting. We’ve used LinkedIn marketing to market for upcoming events and have found an increase in ROI due to targeting more qualified prospects.
3. Facebook Retargeting Ads – We all know that someone more familiar with your brand is more likely to convert. And when the average number of touch-points being 7 before a someone converts to a lead, retargeting them with more information on your business can only help them better understand how you can help.
Related Post: How to Use Facebook for B2B Lead Generation
Networking
While we would love to encourage you to get out from behind your computer or phone and interact person-to-person, we fully understand that COVID-19 has changed the way networking events are structured. One way that we’ve seen success with networking in this new remote time is with intimate video round table discussions.
From attending virtual conferences and making connections with speakers or other attendees to hosting your own small event to bring business leaders together, we’ve found that forming relationships adds another level to our prospecting to better qualify leads.
Inbound Marketing
Inbound Marketing is great for allowing prospects to tell you exactly what they want so you can connect at the right time with the right content. You can utilize the prospecting tactic through blog content, content upgrades (to collect emails by providing extra value), social media ads, and email marketing.
An example of an inbound marketing funnel could be:
Blog post
Content upgrade
Email marketing welcome sequence
Retarget using Facebook ads
What to do Next:
Now that we’ve gone over several essential prospecting tools you need to help your business grow, you’re probably wondering what to do next. When creating a system for your marketing and sales funnels, you’ll want to have something in place to warm your newly created leads.
Don’t worry, we have you covered with the optimal lead follow-up strategy to make sure you reach your leads at the best time. If you don’t have a strategy for following up with leads, download our free guide below. We discuss our tried-and-true method that we use for ourselves and clients that can help you too!
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
WANT TO IMPROVE YOUR INBOUND LEAD FOLLOW-UP STRATEGY?
Fill out the form below to receive our free follow-up cadence template to help you nurture your leads down the sales funnel and increase your sales.