18 B2B solutions for generating qualified leads overnight

Finding qualified leads has become the perpetual Holy Grail. Every company has its own solution for generating prospects with high sales potential. In B2B prospecting, the sales cycle remains long to transform a contact into a qualified contact, then into a prospect and finally into a customer.

To save time, some companies focus on buying qualified leads. Others adopt a different strategy and means of qualifying a sales lead: appvizer details them for you, and shows you which sales-oriented marketing platforms are ready to adapt to your criteria and needs.

Did you say quality and performance? We thought so.

Here's what we have to say:

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What is a qualified lead?

Definition of a lead

A lead is a prospect, a potential customer. It's a contact with sales potential (or not) to be determined.

This person is merely a sales lead to be observed: the aim is to obtain information about this contact to assess the degree of opportunity with this lead, and to qualify his or her purchasing intentions.

Example:
A visitor to your website is a reader.
If he leaves his contact details to subscribe to your newsletter, he becomes a lead.
In marketing terms, you don't yet know their degree of maturity to make a purchase.
You don't have enough information to determine at what stage they are in the buying process: understanding, detecting advantages, price, product choice, ready to buy.

Definition of lead marketing: the qualified prospect

A qualified lead is a contact for whom marketing has identified sales potential, known intentions, and a context close to or far from the sale.

The lead qualification stage is handled by marketing.

At each stage of the qualification process, as the prospect becomes increasingly qualified, marketing monitors the qualified prospect's degree of maturation to bring him or her to the final stage: making an appointment, or sales proposal.

Lead qualification criteria

An unqualified lead becomes a qualified lead when marketing obtains, for example :

• the prospect's age,the prospect's position,
• buying power,
• contact details,
• the company's market position,
• signals about the company's development,
• information on the prospect's needs,
• budget range to satisfy them,
• their expectations of your service or product,
• the prospect's choice of one of the packages you offer, etc.

The sales lead

Once the leads have been qualified, only the hottest prospects, i.e. those for which marketing has identified a state with real sales potential, are passed on to sales.

Sales reps are responsible for making appointments and closing the sale (finalization, signature), using the advanced knowledge of their customers' needs provided by marketing.

Also known as sales leads, qualified leads are defined according to the different criteria mentioned above.

Why is it important to qualify BtoB contacts?

By aligning marketing with sales, a company gains in productivity:

• marketing qualifies contacts with sales potential,
• marketing nurtures leads until they are ripe for purchase,
• sales focuses only on the most promising prospects,
• sales staff have valuable data to convince and personalize their offer,
• the company doesn't waste time prospecting contacts not interested in its offer.

Qualified lead generation: the current situation

Objectives of lead management

According to the Companeo B2B Lead Barometer (2017 edition), the priority of decision-makers (general management, marketing management, sales management and communications management) is to generate quality leads.

By this they mean that contact qualification is the major issue for all managers:

• 90% of decision-makers want to increase quality,
• 72% want to increase volume,
• 70% want to reduce the cost of a qualified lead.

Evaluation criteria for measuring effectiveness

How to evaluate qualified lead generation actions?

The 2016 barometer of B2B decision-makers, Enterprise@iProspect and Infopro Digital reveals the following practices:

• 42% of respondents evaluate the success of their actions by the increase in the number of appointments booked,
• 57% believe their actions are measured by sales generated,
• 71% target prescribers and users involved in the decision-making process.

1 in 2 B2B marketing decision-makers segment their contact base and personalize their messages

Source: B2B decision-maker barometer, Enterprise@iProspect and Infopro Digital, 2016

Difficulties in finding qualified prospects

• for 88% of decision-makers, the poor quality of leads is a hindrance; contacts are very poorly or insufficiently informed;
• for 48% of managers, the company does not have sufficient skills or internal resources to produce qualitative content to attract prospects;
• for 46% of respondents, the organization lacks the human resources to handle leads.

2 important lessons for generating qualified leads

To enable sales reps to focus their energies on qualified leads, and for the company to make the cost of its leads profitable, 2 essential criteria need to be borne in mind:

• Criterion no. 1: it's essential to identify all stakeholders in the purchasing decision process,
• Criterion n°2: it's essential to identify the concerns and needs of each profile, so as to send the right message to the right person at the right time.

Let's weigh up the pros and cons of prospecting with or without software, and see which solution is best suited to qualify your B2B contacts in your competitive context.

4 ways to find prospects without software

Solution #1: cold calling (laughs)

Some companies try to find qualified leads by making cold calls.

The time and energy spent by sales reps is phenomenal, and a source of daily stress.

It's a proven fact that salespeople don't like to prospect over the phone: this old-fashioned contact qualification technique is counter-productive.

Solution 2: Participate in networking and events

For independent consultants and local VSEs, professional associations and local events are a way of finding customers.

Relationships and word-of-mouth are of paramount importance here: it often takes a considerable amount of time before trust and proximity are established.

It's worth noting, however, that the DCF(Dirigeants Commerciaux de France) network, for example, brings together local branches through which sales executives and managers set up initiatives to promote best practices among SMEs and SMIs.

Another recent initiative is the 2018 launch of Linkedin Local, networking evenings where professionals can meet and get to know each other.

Solution 3: Exhibit and give a talk at a B2B trade show

The E-marketing 2018 trade show, for example, is an unmissable event for meeting digital marketing professionals: this is an opportunity for many companies (such as software publishers) to exhibit and seize opportunities.

More than 15,000 qualified professionals in the field of digital marketing are gathered in one place in Paris on April 10, 11 and 12, 2018!

Solution no. 4: get recommendations from your customers

Your best advertising: your satisfied customers. Beyond a testimonial on your website, ask your satisfied customers to talk about your excellent services around them: entrepreneurs know other entrepreneurs, who themselves encounter the same issues and are therefore likely to be interested in your services.

4 intermediate tools for targeted prospecting

Solution n°5: buying qualified leads (really?)

This is not the most recommended method, as you need to remain vigilant and be very clear about your selection criteria. In some cases, the leads generated are fake or of inferior quality.

However, many companies, such as Edilead, Efficonex and Timeone, offer the option of buying qualified leads: these companies sell the contacts you want to reach.

Our advice: if you want to go down this route, make sure you have the right quality (clean, up-to-date database, volume of contacts, compliance with current legislation, etc.). Evaluate the profitability of your investment.

Solution 6: Affiliate marketing

Principles and benefits of affiliation

To give a simple definition of affiliation : a company offers to pay a blogger, for example, on a per-lead basis. How it works: the blog owner publishes an article promoting your products or offer, and encourages people to click on a link to your sales page.

As an affiliate, you need to target B2B sites that specialize in your themes, to be sure you're addressing the right audience. The affiliate is then the blogger.

Serious affiliation platform: Advibe

The Advibe affiliation platform is particularly popular with web marketing agencies wishing to manage high volumes.

Advibe offers advantages that appeal to companies looking for a management platform that is both customizable and configurable, and capable of managing a variety of revenue sources such as clicks, double-clicks, CPL, etc.

Video overview of the Advibe affiliate marketing platform:

Solution 7: Use targeted advertising

How targeted advertising works

Google Adwords, Bing Ads, Twitter and Linkedin ads are just some of the ways in which online advertising can be used to generate leads.

This type of advertising is displayed if the Internet user's profile matches the targeting criteria defined beforehand. Visit the various ad management platforms for these networks.

The 3 types of targeted advertising

• personalized advertising, known as classic advertising, is displayed when age, gender or location are detected;
• contextual advertising is displayed according to the type of text content consulted by the user;
• behavioral advertising is displayed according to a web user's behavior over time, such as successive visits to a site, interactions or keyword searches.

Solution no. 8: Survey users in your market

The approach to take

Organizing an online survey to find prospects is instructive! By adopting a non-commercial approach and asking pertinent questions, you adopt a posture that reflects your concern to respond as effectively as possible to market demands.

You can :

• conduct market research,
• understand users' expectations,
• qualify prospects by different expectations,
• target potential customers by sending them appropriate content,
• save time by using specialized software to process your online survey.

Recommended software for your online survey: Drag'n Survey

Drag'n'Survey makes it easy to create and share your online questionnaire.

You can use pre-built, customizable templates to create and distribute your online survey, as well as quizzes.

You can share your report with password access, send the questionnaire by email, distribute it on social networks, or display it on your website from the interface.

The results analysis function lets you take the necessary step back.

Discover the Drag'n'Survey tool in the video below:

4 inbound marketing levers to attract customers

An inbound marketing approach consists of bringing visitors to your website, then qualifying them using a variety of techniques.

The diagram below will help you understand the steps involved in this process of generating qualified leads, the opposite of intrusive advertising.

Solution no. 9: attracting visitors through content and SEO

The principle of content marketing

This is the top of the funnel: you attract readers interested in your topic by publishing content on your blog that addresses their questions and concerns.

This technique works if your content is optimized for search engine optimization (SEO). This technique is known as content marketing.

Software to use

• A CMS such as WordPress or Drupal lets you set up your blog.
• Tools like Ranxplorer, Insight Yooda and Visiblis are essential for finding your keywords and working on the semantics of your blog posts.

Solution no. 10: convert web users into qualified leads

The principle of lead nurturing

By offering premium content for download, for example, in exchange for an e-mail address or other information such as a company name, you begin to qualify a lead and gather precise information.

To nurture the prospect into the buying process, you need to gradually nurture them with content that will enable them to see all the contours leading up to the purchase.

We take the opportunity to observe what they're reading and ask them for more information to help us advise them. This is called lead nurturing.

Using criteria defined by you, you then assign a score to each lead you collect - this is called lead scoring.

When the score is satisfactory, the lead is sent to the sales rep for an appointment.

Software to use

Inbound marketing relies on the use of marketing automation tools: setting up landing pages or sales pages, sending emails, contact forms and so on.

Marketing automation software enables you to set up scenarios according to different profiles and states of maturity. It is essential to couple the software with an emailing solution such as Sarbacanne, Newsletter2GO or wewmanager, and a CRM to track leads and personalize messages.

Please note: Neocamino offers a global solution that enables small and medium-sized businesses to have all their tools on a single platform. All-in-one inbound marketing.

Solution 11: Publish an expert article in an online magazine

Identify B2B blogs and media that focus on your industry. Readers are qualified prospects in your field.

By publishing an article with usage value in this type of medium, you'll enhance your expertise and build trust, generating a first degree of proximity.

On appvizer magazine, we regularly publish expert articles on specific topics such as marketing, HR, payroll, tax issues and more.

To find out more, contact us!

Solution 12: Linkedin and social selling

The success of the Social Selling Forum confirms the trend: Linkedin 's conversational aspects make it a popular tool for finding and qualifying prospects.

Salespeople can seize a variety of opportunities by adopting an inbound marketing approach:

• reply to an exchange in comments on a post,
• contact members of a professional group,
• qualify a company's decision-makers,
• observe the signals emitted by that company,
• publish content with strong appeal.

84% of CEOs use social networks to find out more about a brand before making purchasing decisions.

Source: 2017 B2B marketing barometer by Infopro Digital and iProspect.

5 high-performance B2B approaches to sales qualification

Solution 13: Account Based Marketing (ABM)

Principle and benefits of Account Based Marketing

Account Based Marketing (ABM) involves one-to-one marketing, focusing on strategic accounts.

The idea is to identify profiles with high sales potential in advance, to focus resources and efforts solely on these profiles, and to feed these selected profiles with hyper-personalized messages.

We "reverse" the inbound marketing funnel and start with the lead. It's all about qualifying what might trigger a purchase by providing the most personalized response.

A commercially-qualified lead becomes a significant business opportunity, because it has high potential.

By concentrating its efforts on targeted key accounts, the company increases its sales in proportion to the importance of each key account.

Other benefits of Account Based Marketing

• strong return on investment
• sales resources are not spread too thin,
• personalized marketing,
• follow-up in the funnel is precise and assessable,
• the sales cycle is shortened,
• marketing and sales are clearly aligned.

The technologies to use

For a targeted, personalized B2B approach, a number of tools are required, some of them complementary:

• a web tracking solution to identify lead behavior on your website,
• software to identify profiles on Linkedin and other platforms,
• an intelligent, automated email prospecting solution,
• an intelligent platform for scanning the web and identifying business signals,
• a CRM tool for database management and effective follow-up,

There are several technologies available for qualifying high-potential B2B leads. Each SME should focus on those that best support it, depending on :

• target customer profiles,
• its sales cycle,
• business activity,
• objectives,
• its resources,
• the competitive environment of its market.

Solution no. 14: B2B web tracking

Advantages and definition of web tracking

B2B web tracking is used in advertising and affiliation, but also to manage emailing campaigns, and above all to track visitors to a website, notably by means of their IP addresses.

The aim is to track visitors to your website, or more precisely their behavior, in order to qualify leads in their purchasing process.

For example, BtoB web tracking enables you to track Internet users who have opened an e-mail, clicked on a link or visited your site.

This webmarketing technique can also be used to observe the pages visited on your site, or to track a visitor in order to assess their path and maturity with regard to the purchase.

The aim is to identify what really interests the visitor, so as to optimize the sales tunnel and achieve the expected scoring.

The right tool: Visiblee

The Visiblee solution goes further than basic web tracking: it identifies anonymous visitors to a B2B website and the companies to which they belong.

Visiblee uses state-of-the-art technology to cross-reference IP addresses, cookies and metadata with qualified web sources and databases.

The result: access to highly accurate sales information, a powerful lead nurturing tool, automation processes and effective lead scoring.

Visiblee promises great business opportunities. Discover the tool in the video below:

Solution 15: Automated B2B prospecting by email

Principle and benefits

Imagine a B2B email prospecting platform that works in place of sales reps, automatically sending emails to leads to qualify the hottest prospects.

Imagine a solution that analyzes your CRM data and compares it with a database of hundreds of thousands of qualified profiles.

Yes, it's possible: all you have to do is define your customer profiles in advance!

Recommended platform: Blacksales

The Blacksales software revolutionizes the world of email prospecting: it performs the work detailed above.

It also analyzes Linkedin databases, and contacts prospects by email, sending value-added messages for each recipient.

The solution includes a content library to fuel exchanges and provide quality lead nurturing.

Blacksales' strengths:

• invoicing is based on results. The company using the solution is debited when the prospect responds positively, according to the cost of the lead stopped;
• the Blacksales solution connects seamlessly with Salesforce Sakes Cloud CRM, and other applications such as Pipedrive G Suite and Microsoft Office 365;
• sales reps focus on the hottest prospects!

Discover automated email prospecting in the video below:

Solution no. 16: sales intelligence works for salespeople

How sales intelligence works

Sales intelligence is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to qualify B2B contacts.

This intelligence constantly scans the web on behalf of sales reps to qualify decision-makers, companies and the corresponding scoring.

This type of intelligence replaces the human and saves all those time-consuming tasks by benefiting from automated data sorting.

As a result, sales staff can focus their efforts on the most qualified prospects.

Recommended platform: Bypath

Bypath supports sales reps at every stage of the B2B sales cycle by harnessing the Big Data available on the web.

The solution's algorithms digest millions of pieces of information in real time to deliver the most relevant data on the prospects that interest you.

Sales managers, sales engineers or sales representatives can retrieve fresh data to update their CRM database, and benefit from the assistance of AI in their prospecting right through to closing.

Bypath also accelerates the social selling process.

Video overview of Bypath's capabilities:

Solution 17: Predictive lead scoring

The approach and how it works

This approach is also based on Sales Intelligence. Starting from your persona, your typical customer profile, artificial intelligence scans the web to detect corresponding companies and business signals, then classifies them in terms of opportunities.

The solution then scores the leads and notifies the sales rep when an opportunity has arisen.

This type of artificial intelligence learns from your use of the solution to generate ever more relevant results (machine learning).

Recommended platform: Predict by Sparklane

SMEs with up to 50 employees can chase what they call digital lead marketing with serious performance with Sparklane's Predict solution.

The great strength of this platform is its ability to contextualize the lead: your sales representative adopts a consultative approach, providing the right arguments at the right time, to the right person.

Predict connects easily with CRMs such as Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics, enabling you to integrate the latest data published on the Internet.

Video overview of Predict's capabilities:

Summary table of software for qualifying B2B leads

See all software Lead Generation

Solution 18: No CRM, no chocolate

All this targeted prospecting software brings you closer to the sale by enabling you to better qualify your leads.

However, you mustn't forget to centralize your data in CRM software, a mandatory tool if only to ensure effective customer follow-up.

Software publishers have taken this point on board, and now allow you to connect their qualified lead generation solutions to a CRM.

To help you choose the right CRM, we refer you to our CRM compendiums and dedicated articles on Salesforce Sales Cloud, Microsoft Dynamics, Sellsy and many others...