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As you know, B2B sales can be a lot tougher than B2C leads. And there are two simple reasons for that: no cash, and no urgency. In B2C, you are selling to people who have the money in their bank accounts.
They might be having financial problems, or they need something new in their lives – but they have it. For the most part, they will spend the money on whatever you’re trying to sell them. Not so with businesses. Most B2B clients don’t have the urgency you see in B2C sales.
That’s why we have to target our ideal prospects with laser precision and focus on those who are very likely to buy – fast.
This guide will give you some of the best ways to reach out to the best prospects in your niche so that you can start generating interest and leads for your business.
Pick the right prospecting tools
Picking the right prospects for B2B sales is a harder task than it might seem.
With business purchases, there are many moving parts and you have to know your audience if you want to increase your odds of success.
Trying to sell something to the wrong type of business can be a huge waste of time and money. And even if prospects are well-suited for what you’re selling, they still might not make a purchase if they don’t have a budget or if they have other more pressing priorities—even if you’re sure that your solution will help them.
That’s why it’s wise to use every tool at your disposal to find the right prospects and make the most efficient use of your time and resources in reaching out to them. These tools will help you do just that:
Google Analytics
It’s a free service that helps businesses analyze their website traffic. When you use Google Analytics, you’ll be able to find out what types of people are landing on your site and where they are coming from. You can then use this information to zero in on more prospects that match your target market.
Google Webmasters
This service will help you track your website’s search engine optimization (SEO). When you use this tool, it’ll provide you with useful insights about search traffic and keyword rankings. You can then use this information to optimize your site for the best possible results.
Google AdWords
Use this program to get leads for your business by placing ads on search engines like Yahoo! and Bing. These ads will link back to your website, where prospects can learn more about the products or services being offered.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
LinkedIn’s premium version of its sales tool allows users to search for key contacts across all industries in their area, helping users reach out with confidence and build relationships with fellow professionals.
SalesNavigator from HubSpot Sales
This tool provides an automated list of ideal contacts for any industry, including email addresses and social media handles for all the top executives. Use it before cold calling or sending emails to ensure that your prospecting efforts are as effective as possible!
Build in-depth buyer personas
To achieve success, you need to know your audience. Since your buyers are unique, understanding who they are can help you tailor your message to meet their needs. You can determine who your B2B buyers are with buyer personas—comprehensive profiles of the people who buy your products or services.
Here are some actionable tips for building buyer personas for your business:
Determine the goal of each buyer persona
Your buyer personas should reflect different goals and interests. For example, if you sell to businesses, a persona could be the vice president of human resources at a mid-size company in the Midwest. Another could be an engineer at an aerospace manufacturer based in Southern California.
Each persona should reflect a distinct group of people with similar interests and goals.
Create a list of criteria for each persona
Think about what makes that particular group of people tick—and what keeps them up at night.
Try to list 100 traits for each persona (this will seem like overkill when you start, but it’s better to have too much information than not enough). If necessary, ask colleagues for their input or refer to data from past customers or sales calls.
Key attributes
Once you have a better understanding of who your audience is, you will be able to focus on their key attributes that will make up your buyer persona profile.
These attributes will help you identify how your audience thinks and makes decisions when it comes to your products or services. For example: Are they male or female? How many years of experience do they have in their profession? How old are they? What kind of lifestyle do they lead?
Think about your buyer’s motivations
Once you know what the problem is, ask yourself what’s motivating this prospect to solve it now instead of later. How urgent is it? What are their economic factors? Are they in a growth phase, or are they trying to salvage an existing business unit?
Are they understaffed and overworked, or do they have time for research before making an investment? The better you can define their motivations, the easier it will be for you to tailor your offerings.
Evaluate buying cycle
One of the biggest challenges in marketing to B2B prospects is determining whether or not they’re actually ready to buy. Spotting early buying signals helps marketers avoid sending out a premature sales pitch and instead create a lasting relationship with buyers that can lead to sales down the line.
Tailoring your marketing efforts to your target audience’s buying cycle can be an effective way to build relationships and boost revenue in the long term.
Use this list of steps on evaluating buying cycles to find targeted B2B prospects who are ready to make a purchase
Step 1. Identify your target market
Step 2. Identify your target market’s needs and wants
Step 3. Identify the job your product does for them
Step 4. Identify the pain points that prevent your prospect from doing business with you
Step 5. Identify the decisions that need to be made at each stage of the buying cycle
Step 6. Identify who makes those decisions, when they make them and how they make them
Step 7. Identify who influences the decision-maker(s) and when they are most receptive to persuasion
Step 8. Identify other organizations (competitors, complementary products/services, complementary industries, etc.) that have an impact on prospects’ buying decisions and how they make them at each stage of the buying cycle.
Understand client needs
There are numerous B2B lead generation techniques that can help generate qualified and targeted B2B leads for your sales team.
However, the most successful business owners know that the first step to generating more leads is to understand your target market and their needs.
Here are 10 ways to better understand your target market so you can find the right prospects.
1. Read industry publications.
2. Read blogs related to your business.
3. Attend industry events.
4. Join industry forums.
5. Ask customers for referrals.
6. Use social networking sites to connect with prospects.
7. Join LinkedIn groups relevant to your business.
8. Blog about topics of interest to your target market or industry.
9. Use Twitter hashtags related to your industry or target market.
10. Ask employees who have personal relationships with clients for referral information.
Establish measurable goals
Targeted B2B prospects are the key to lead generation. It is therefore important to establish measurable goals for them. Understanding these goals will also help you identify which prospects are ready to be converted into sales opportunities.
Examine your goals in advance
Set up a group meeting with your sales team to discuss how they can reach their goals. Make sure that everyone understands not just what they need to do, but why the goals are important.
If a salesperson is missing a goal, it may be because he or she doesn’t understand what’s expected of them. The reason for this may be that the goal isn’t clear enough, or it’s not tied to the overall objectives of the company.
Break down your goals into actionable steps
These steps must be clear and measurable so that each salesperson knows exactly what he or she needs to achieve.
For example, if you set a goal for increased sales of your product, you should break down the steps to achieve this in terms of daily tasks and activities required from each person in the team.
Make sure that each step is specific and measurable and that each target can be achieved on time and within budget.
Choose measurable targets and KPIs wisely
A good target will motivate your team by giving them something tangible – a number – that they can work towards achieving. It should also be challenging but achievable, meaning they have to put in some effort but it’s not impossible.
Don’t choose wildly unrealistic targets or KPIs just because you want to motivate your staff. Choose something that is challenging but realistic and you’ll see a real improvement in their performance.
Always evaluate each target after you’ve hit it or come close to hitting it. If a certain target is too easy, then raise the bar for the next one. And if a target was too hard, think about ways to make it more achievable for the next time around.
Figure out your value proposition
A value proposition is a statement of how your product or service solves a problem for your customers. If you are in a B2B business and you are targeting other businesses, you will need to provide this information to the prospects to connect with them on the basis of their problems.
Constructing a value proposition for each prospect is an essential part of any sales process. It also helps you in positioning your business among competitors.
Here are tips that will help you come up with a good value proposition for B2B prospects:
1) Identify common problems in your industry and find ways to solve them
2) Identify gaps in the market where you could fill a niche
3) Research how other companies are solving this problem
4) Create a clear and concise messaging that is easy for your target market to understand
5) Break down the problem into smaller, more manageable pieces
6) Check to see if there are any commonalities in the solutions that people are using and adjust accordingly
7) Be unique, but not so unique that it doesn’t make sense from a customer perspective
8 ) Focus on the benefits that your solution has over others in the marketplace rather than just the features of your solution
9) Never lose sight of who you’re targeting (your customer avatar) as every part of your marketing material should be geared towards them first and foremost.
10) Make sure that your message is consistent across all of your marketing material.
Create targeted campaigns
Tailored B2B marketing can help you build trust with potential customers and open up doors that may otherwise remain closed.
Creating targeted campaigns to get targeted B2B prospects is a must in order to increase your sales. It’s important to know your customers and want they want before you can target them.
Trying to reach every business in your niche is not a smart move because it will be waste of time and money.
There are certain things that you need to consider when creating targeted campaigns:
1. Know your target audience and keep them in mind while creating the campaign.
2. Create a visually appealing ad that will grab prospects’ attention.
3. Create a call-to-action button that will entice prospects to click on your ad.
4. Use an appropriate headline for your ad.
5. Be specific when describing the offer on your landing page.
6. Make sure that your landing page is easily accessible to mobile users and contains a clear call-to-action button that can be clicked immediately after viewing the ad.
7. Choose appropriate keywords for the campaign to make sure the ads are shown to relevant buyers, especially if you are targeting a specific location or industry with your ad campaign.
8. Include specific product information in the body of the text such as price, shipping fees, and product availability if you are marketing a product or service on Facebook Marketplace or Instagram Direct platform, or display this information in your Facebook ad if you are promoting an event, service or app on Facebook or Instagram Ads platform.
9. Send emails with relevant offers, discounts, and deals as soon as someone signs up for your email list.
Rank each prospect by order of value
One of the best ways to get targeted B2B prospects is by ranking each prospect by order of value.
If you have multiple companies in the same industry, you need to prioritize your targets. If you are just starting out or in a highly competitive niche ranking each prospect by order of value is crucial.
To rank each prospect by order of value, you must first determine which metrics are the best indicators of their product fit and current level of interest in your company.
These factors will vary depending on your business and target market, but here are some ideas that could help you get started:
Decide on a time frame
Make sure that you define the time frame for which you will keep the data. For instance, you can decide to keep the information for 12 months, two years, or even five years.
You should never collect information that has no relation to your business or is not relevant at all.
Focus on quality
Instead of focusing on quantity, choose to focus on quality so that you can have better results in the end.
The more targeted leads you have in your database, the easier it will be for you to reach them and make sales. If you want to target your market well, then make sure that you get only quality leads from a credible source.
Tune into industry-specific keywords
If you want to find high-quality prospects, then make sure that you tune into industry-specific keywords so that you can get more targeted B2B leads.
For example, if you want to sell medical equipment then you should use medical-related keywords like “heart monitor”. This way it will be easier for prospective clients to find your business and make contact with you.
Frequency of interaction (demographics)
How often does this contact visit our website? How many times did they open our emails? Are they active on social media? Do they complete our webinars/videos?
Look beyond the list
Since there are many ways to qualify leads – by industry, geography, type of company and so on – it’s possible to get leads that meet multiple qualification parameters at once.
That means you’re looking at a lead that comes with a higher probability of turning into a sale or customer than someone else further down your list.
Understand your competition
B2B lead generation is evolving. The B2B purchasing process is no longer a linear path of research, contact, and purchase. Instead, B2B buyers move through a maze of content and touchpoints to reach their final decision.
Trying to decipher your competitors’ brand and marketing strategies can be difficult. But it’s imperative if you want to get the most out of your B2B lead generation strategy.
Here are tips to help you understand your competitors and prospects so you can get more targeted opportunities:
Review the content they’re sharing with their prospects and customers
To figure out how your competitors market themselves, spend time on their website, social media channels, and blog. Look at what they’re sharing with their customers about their products or services.
This will give you a good idea of what value they’re promising their prospects, as well as what methods they use to do it.
What are their web traffic statistics and what’s their SEO ranking?
The first thing you should do is check out their web traffic statistics and see if they’re getting any organic search traffic and if they have enough of it.
You can identify this by going to Google Analytics, looking at the keywords that bring the most traffic to the website, or doing keyword research (using tools like SEMRush or SpyFu) for the target domain.
What’s their conversion rate
You can easily check if a website is converting visitors into customers by using some sort of software that tracks this information. I use HotJar for this, but there are also other tools like CrazyEgg that can give you insight into where your visitors go after they’ve landed on your competitor’s site.
How many leads does their sales team generate per month?
If you want to get targeted B2B prospects from your competition, you should know how many leads their sales team generates per month. This can tell you if you’re going after a large market or not and whether that market is growing or not.
Nail down your company’s market niche
Targeted B2B prospects are the holy grail of marketing. By focusing on a niche, small business owners can get in front of people who really want to hear from them.
Nailing down your target market for B2B sales can be a bit of a challenge. But if you find the right niche, you’ll be able to zero in on the type of company that would best fit your product or service offerings.
The following tips will help you focus on finding your target market.
Identify your core competencies
What makes your company unique? What products or services do you offer that others don’t? These characteristics should be the focus of your business because they will make it stand out from competitors.
Use your resources wisely
If your resources are limited, it’s important not to waste them on customers who won’t buy from you. Focus on building relationships with organizations that are likely to become long-term clients and maximize the resources that you do have.
Final Thoughts
The guide above will hopefully help you to get your feet wet with entering the B2B market and targeting prospects. Study up and don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
Making mistakes is part of the process when you’re new to B2B marketing. Just keep at it, aim for the long-term, and remember that patience is a virtue.
Draw on these guides and others out there, gather as much information as possible, and find what works best for you and your company or clients.
