A quick research on effective B2B prospecting and lead generation techniques will reveal to you that referrals are the primary source of sales and marketing leads for many B2B sales teams.
Referrals are a great source of new business, and they convert really well.
To emphasize the importance of referral marketing in the B2B sector, here are several statistics you should remember, as reported by ThinkImpact:
- Referrals generate 65% of new business prospects.
- 78% of referrals result in potential customer leads for B2B companies.
- Only 3 out of every 10 B2B companies have a structured referral program.
Sure, referrals are effective, but the main drawback is that it’s quite challenging to turn them into a reliable and predictive B2B prospecting method.
Particularly if you initially lack a big audience.
In that situation, you will probably want to concentrate on different B2B prospecting techniques.
Approaches that emphasize engagement and identifying your target audience in their usual avenues.
This is what we will concentrate on in this guide.
- B2B Sales Prospecting: Overview and Metrics for Outreach Campaigns
- 3 Ineffective B2B Prospecting Techniques
- 3 Effective B2B Prospecting Techniques
What Is B2B Sales Prospecting: Overview and Outreach Campaign Metrics
So, where should we start?
B2B sales prospecting involves searching for possible buyers, leads, or clients and turning them into new business for you.
The ultimate aim of prospecting is to guide your prospects through a series of outreach attempts until they either convert or make a purchase.
This might appear simpler in theory than in practice.
As stated by HubSpot, half of sales time is squandered on ineffective prospecting.
This could be due to a few reasons, including:
- Employing prospecting techniques that are inappropriate for B2B marketing (which we will discuss further below).
- Focusing on the incorrect audience (this may occur if you’re unfamiliar with effectively filtering LinkedIn searches).
- Falling short of organizing your cold messages or presenting your strongest value proposition when engaging with leads.
The main idea is that it’s hard to determine what is effective and what isn’t without a thorough data analysis.
You are able to form specific assumptions depending on your sector and understand your intended audience. For instance, be aware that you’re more prone to grab your leads’ interest via emails rather than through a message on Facebook or Twitter.
Before discussing effective B2B prospecting techniques, it’s important to consider a few other ideas while building up your sales pipeline.
Five Key Stages of Sales Prospecting to Remember
When you want to start a sales outreach, take your time to understand where your leads stand in their buyer journey. Are they ready to make a purchase?
Or are they in a discovery phase? This understanding is sure to significantly improve your results. This involves segmenting and organizing leads based on their stage in the buyer’s journey. Generally, the typical B2B sales pipeline might include:
- Finding and Qualifying
Reach out to your potential prospects to find out if your solution aligns with their needs. This way you are directing resources toward the right opportunities. - Initial Meeting
Engage in your first deep-dive conversation with the lead. This meeting aims to gain a better understanding of their specific requirements and establish a rapport. - Presenting a Proposal
If your product meets their needs, deliver a solid B2B sales presentation, send them a proposal that outlines your benefits, detailed costs, expected returns, and any other pertinent information. - Negotiating Terms
Be prepared for discussion. Your proposal might lead to negotiations on aspects such as budget and service terms. - Closing the Deal
Once everything checks out, close the deal and update your CRM. Future focus should be on maintaining a strong relationship and ensuring client satisfaction.
Not all prospects will be ready to buy from you immediately. And that’s fine. For such leads, you need to have a nurturing system in place. Schedule follow-ups and bring more value with educational content.
Metrics for Tracking B2B Prospecting Success
To maximize the effectiveness of your B2B prospecting, set up tracking of various sales metrics. Here’s what you need to monitor:
- Qualified Leads Count
Monitor how many leads match your defined qualifications for potential clients. - Conversion Rate from MQL to SQL
Assess the conversion rate of marketing-qualified leads into sales-qualified leads. This reflects the effectiveness of your initial qualification efforts. - Success Rate
Determine how many of your qualified leads result in actual clients, highlighting the efficiency of your sales process. - Cost of Acquiring Customers
Calculate the cumulative sales and marketing costs necessary to secure a new client. - Value Over Customer Lifetime
Evaluate how much revenue a customer brings throughout their relationship with your business. - Sales Outreach Performance
Keep track of metrics such as email open rates, LinkedIn connections, response rates, and more for a comprehensive view.
These metrics can be tracked automatically using various sales prospecting tools (Lusha, Hunter, ZoomInfo) or manually through CRM systems (HubSpot) or custom spreadsheets. Tools like Salesforce offer comprehensive dashboards to simplify this process.
Interpreting Campaign Metrics and Key Performance Indicators
To effectively gauge your campaign efforts, you must recognize that metrics and KPIs can vary greatly. Factors influencing this include your industry, the specificity of your outreach templates, target audience particulars, and your business proposals. When running B2B campaigns, some standard outreach benchmarks you might aim for include:
- Typical Open Rate: Around 49%-70%
- Response Rate Average: Approximately 9%-18%
- Booking Rate Standard: Around 4%
Keep in mind that these numbers can change based on the scale of your outreach and the quality of your contacts.
When benchmark targets aren’t met, tweaks may be necessary:
- If your open rate is low, test your email subject lines for better engagement.
- Should your response rate fall, reassess the angle of your sales pitch, refine your value proposition, or adjust your call-to-action.
- A poor meeting booking rate means you need to refine your offer or target a more specific audience.
Incorporating these adjustments ensures your strategies remain dynamic, allowing you to optimize your outreach methods for greater success.
Three Ineffective Methods in B2B Prospecting
1. Skipping Trials for Your Prospecting Messages
Imagine this scenario: you set up your initial email campaign after preparing your domain, hoping for promising results. Unfortunately, the results fall short of your expectations. It would be easy to move on to another method, but that approach often hampers success. Each target group interacts differently with cold messaging, influenced by the content and structure of your messages.
While experimenting with different marketing platforms, conducting tests to identify the most effective message and format is beneficial. For instance, try comparing two LinkedIn connection campaigns using distinct request messages or test various email subject lines to determine which generates more opens. Another option is to use an integration tool in one campaign and leave it out in another to detect its impact.
Even if your strategy centers on one channel like LinkedIn, consistently evaluate different message approaches—assisted by data. Implementing such trials is straightforward with tools like Dripify, which randomly assigns contacts to different campaigns for easy message testing.
2. Impersonal Mass Outreach
Mass emails and LinkedIn requests are commonly seen in digital outreach efforts. However, they rarely succeed today without personalization. Sending broad, automated messages is like firing a shotgun without aiming. This method may have worked in the past, particularly for earning SEO backlinks, but with growing recipient awareness, it’s often counterproductive now.
Spammy or general requests lack the distinct touch people appreciate. Most users anticipate a generic sales pitch once they receive an unpersonalized request and often dismiss it.
Investing the necessary time in personalizing messages offers a higher return. Should resources be limited, utilizing artificial intelligence tools for crafting custom intro lines can ease this process. This approach, tested in our campaigns, led to numerous successful interactions in a brief period.
3. Lack of Automation in Prospecting Efforts
While poorly executed automation can harm your outreach efforts, overlooking it entirely is not advisable. Properly set up automation can elevate your B2B prospecting. To avoid common pitfalls, avoid launching into a sales pitch too quickly, refrain from generic outreach, and optimize your profiles for professional engagement.
Effective automation involves tactical activities like interacting with a prospect’s recent posts and sending a personalized connection request. Adding a creative touch, such as personalized emails with visual elements, can remind prospects of your request.
Engaging them with thoughtful questions upon acceptance paves the way for meaningful communication. Despite automation, it’s crucial to remain ready to interject personally at key moments.
For an adaptive approach, consider automating certain parts, such as LinkedIn interactions or email campaigns, to focus personal efforts where they matter most.
Three Effective Methods for B2B Client Acquisition
1. Hosting Your Own LinkedIn Virtual Seminar
Running a LinkedIn webinar can establish you as an industry leader and significantly expand your connections.
Here’s a step-by-step of what you can try:
- Organic Promotion: Create posts using your speakers’ profiles. This could include videos, shorts, polls, and announcements. Optimize these to attract more engagement.
- LinkedIn Engagement Pods: These groups help boost your content, making it more visible.
- Poll Engagement: Utilize data from your LinkedIn polls. Reach out directly to those who participate.
- Continuous Invites: Schedule automatic invites to your existing LinkedIn network throughout the month to maintain a steady reach.
- Event Scraping: Search for other industry events on LinkedIn that align with your interests for targeted outreach.
- Group Scraping: Identify and connect with members of LinkedIn groups relevant to your webinar topic.
- CSV Connector Campaign: This tactic allows you to surpass the LinkedIn connection limit by uploading contact information from a CSV file.
- Open InMail Outreach: Use InMail to broaden your reach by engaging with professionals not directly connected to you.
These strategies are sure to help you increase your webinar attendance and strengthen your professional presence on LinkedIn.
2. Comprehensive Funnel Marketing Automation
Automating the marketing funnel can make client outreach more efficient. With sales prospecting tools like Linked Helper, you can streamline the prospecting process.
- Omnichannel Messaging: Using drag-and-drop features to establish multiple communication channels effortlessly keeps your outreach consistent across platforms.
- Custom Workflow Creation: Tailor your marketing flows according to specific actions and conditions. This customization ensures that each contact receives messages best suited to their needs.
- Pre-Made Templates: Utilize pre-designed templates that simplify the automation setup, providing you with tested pathways proven to engage prospects effectively.
These automations not only save time but also ensure no prospect slips through the cracks.
3. Personalized Dynamic Visual Content in Your Messaging
Elevate your outreach with the use of hyper-personalized images or GIFs. Here’s how this method can make a difference:
- Personalized Elements: Integrate dynamic elements such as the recipient’s name, company logo, or profile picture into your visuals. These elements grab attention and make your communication more relatable.
- Hyperise Integration: This tool simplifies the creation of personalized visuals, making it accessible and efficient.
Why is this effective?
- The human brain processes visual content in milliseconds.
- Your prospects get over 5,000 daily marketing messages. You have to stand out with a unique impression.
- Personalized visuals grab attention and make your audience engage.
Integrate personal touches into your dynamic visual content to significantly refine your outreach efforts. Make your message really memorable in any oversaturated market.