How to Find B2B Targeted Leads and Do Proper Segmentation and Improve Sales

A massive problem to solve in B2B marketing is to find answers to “how to get targeted leads” for your business.

 

If you’re in the position of the Head of Growth for a medium to large B2B brand, you know that B2B sales cycles are incredibly long and complex. Further, as the buyers’ table is so big, it’s easy for sales to fall apart months into the back and forth of negotiations.

 

That also means you’ll need a constant stream of top-quality leads to keep your sales pipeline healthy.

 

And, if you’re looking for more qualified leads, you’ll require the marketing-ready B2B data (Get your free sample today from Leadsprospex!) and the right recipe to fuel your marketing mix, including email, events, content, strategic partnerships, influencer marketing, and more.

 

In this B2B targeted lead generation guide, we’ll help you understand some of the most impactful tactics you can utilize to fill your sales pipeline and boost revenue.

 

 

What Is a B2B Targeted Sales Lead?

 

A B2B targeted sales lead is simply that person or organization who has the potential to become a short-term or long-term client. Understanding who has that potential starts with the B2B lead generation process of discovering your buyer persona + ideal customer profile (ICP) and attracting them to your product/service.

 

Setting up your ideal customer profile is essential for sales & marketing teams because it helps obtain high-quality B2B sales leads that may become valuable prospects. Once a sales development representative identifies them as a perfect fit by a set of criteria, they can become a highly qualified B2B sales lead. Buy best-in-class B2B enterprise technographic data and intelligence from Leadsprospex today!

 

There are various types of leads out there that demand different approaches. Although among the most interested in your services, not all will turn into buyers—and the reasons can be unlimited.

 

However, the goal is to attract the finest leads and convert them into potential customers. To succeed, you need to apply these strategies to make your B2B sales lead generation process more efficient and improve sales.

 

 

Top 6 B2B Targeted Lead Generation Strategies in 2022

 

Boost lead generation for your company with these six proven techniques and get more B2B targeted sales leads.

 

Update your B2B Data Lists

 

Your outbound marketing strategy is purely dependent on the quality of your sales lead lists. This simply means updating your B2B sales lists in the following ways:

 

• Identify your B2B data list by Audiences

  • Discover your target and then analyze your current customers’ behavioral patterns by the audience. This will help you understand that you should communicate with targeted people who have an exact need for your product/services.

• Use a Customer Data Platform (CDP)

  • Establish a new CDP to import data for streamlining sales, marketing efforts, management, and customer service to accelerate communication and get outcomes in real-time

 

 

Find Qualified Leads with Cold Calling

 

Undoubtedly, we have entered an entirely new era in technological evolution where various aspects of our lives will never be the same—the same applies to marketing and sales procedures. Sure, SDRs must keep up with the latest trends, as they are constantly evolving. However, while sales have developed new digital ways of finding leads, cold calling has remained as effective as before.  

 

You might have heard that cold calling is outdated; however, this could not be more wrong. As per the RAIN Group report, approximately 51% of buyers prefer to be contacted by cell phone. Out of 15 essential outreach methods studied, sellers found that utilizing the phone made the top five most effective tactics to connect with prospects, including phone calls to past clients, new leads, and existing clients. To generate top-quality leads, follow the below-listed tips for making cold calls: 

 

• Prepare for your cold call

  • Do thorough research about your lead and consider the most appropriate way to represent your services. Moreover, prepare a script and rehearse it well before the call. 

• Pick the right timing

  • Try to explain to the potential prospect that you really respect their time. Avoid calling on Mondays to Thursdays when they are too busy in the middle of the day. Instead, call them on Friday right before the weekend. 

• Don’t be too persistent

  • Maintain a friendly, informal attitude. Make sure to follow up with an email, thank them for their time, and ask for the next opportunity to discuss the details.

 

 

Add Chatbots to All Your Communication Channels

 

A lead response report states that responding to new leads within 5 minutes is essential; however, only 10% of B2B organizations are able to do so. Customers want to get real quick responses to their questions or requests. Powered by AI technology, chatbots provide a quick and easy way for B2B companies to interact with their target audiences.

 

Leverage Social Media Engagements

 

Social media platforms are highly influential spaces that B2B marketers utilize to discover targeted sales leads. The ideal tactic to achieve this is to enter into social media groups to share expertise, engage with experts, and identify leads. The key to blossoming in this is to bypass pitching your offerings to the people in the group. Instead, build a strong rapport with them and allow them to know you. There are many things you can do to achieve this, including:

• Starting conversations in the group.
• Engaging in meaningful conversations that other group members start.
• Appreciating people for the content they share or events they hold or plan to hold.
• Giving replies to questions that people ask in the group.
• After group members get to know you, leverage that connection to interest them in your product or service offerings.

 

Content Marketing

 

Giving “value” should be the keystone in your content marketing strategy. While you do that, you strategically optimize for the questions your targeted leads are most likely to ask, the pain points they’re probably experiencing, and the subjects they genuinely care about. Eventually, your leads will start a conversation with you and choose you over the other competitors.

 

Use your SEO research to navigate your content strategy, content calendar, and topics. As a result, they’ll resonate more deeply with your audience, which will establish a strong lead generation platform for your brand.

 

• Inbound B2B Targeted Lead Generation Formats

  • B2B content marketing is ideal for attracting traffic and generating more sales leads.

• Gated Content

  • Craft a detailed how-to or white paper and propose a free download of the content — with a call to action as asking the user’s contact information. Further, lead magnets are an amazing way to convert an interested visitor into a valuable lead.

• Unique Research

  • Perform broad surveys and create original research reports. This will help you position yourself as an expert and help you build trust with your targeted audience. On the other hand, original research is greatly shareable because people typically cite the information in their work.

• Educational Webinars

  • Take your targeted leads through a webinar that focuses on their pain points. Webinars are an excellent opportunity for deeper, meaningful engagement with your audience. Don’t forget to offer a Q&A session at the end.

• Blog

  • Develop a solid blog strategy that treats your own blog as a conversion platform. It is one of the most effective ways to capture B2B targeted leads.

• Content Placements

  • Content placements on industry-leading websites and blogs are just another way to showcase thought leadership and generate important social proof. They additionally increase brand awareness and expand your reach.

 

Use Segmentation to Personalize Your Outreach

 

Contacting B2B sales leads should by no means look like a promotion intended to attract the masses. Mass outreach is ineffective regarding time, lead conversion, and money. In fact, around 72% of customers say that they only engage with marketing messages that are personalized and tailored to their needs and interests.

 

 

Segmenting your audience database to assemble your outreach much more manageable and unique is highly recommended. 

 

Regardless of utilizing a qualitative persona-based or quantitative statistical approach, you must think about the factors you will use to segment the B2B target audience.

• Segmenting by organization type.
• You can get a lot of data about an organization online and offline, including:
  • Sector
  • Location(s)
  • Approximate revenue
  • Number of employees
  • Legal structure
• Numerous renowned businesses segment their target market and lead by ‘firmographic’ data. Leadsprospex offers actionable marketing-ready B2B data based on country, sector, titles, etc. Don’t forget to get your free sample today!
• Segmenting by decision-maker type.
  • Few organizations segment their target leads and market at an individual level instead of an organizational level. The outcome is generally a series of buyer personas depending upon qualitative research.
  • Segmenting by decision-maker category has the same benefits and drawbacks as segmenting by the organization. Job title data is pretty easy to obtain, and it becomes easy for SDR to find someone who has a particular title. However, one IT Director in a large bank isn’t going to think and act the same way as another IT Director at a similar company.
  • Segmenting by this category is ideal for using segmentation to broadcast your messaging and communications strategy.
• Segmenting by profitability or potential.
  • Some companies will ‘tier’ customers or prospects depending on how well they match their business goals. For instance, you can tier businesses based on:
    • The expected profitability of that company (For example, there may be lower customer acquisition expenses for certain company types)
    • The extent they match your targeted sales & marketing techniques (For instance, when you depend on inbound leads through Google search, is there a segment that depends only on Google?)
    • The extent to which they are likely interested in the purchase
    • The expected lifetime customer value
  • This type of segmentation has many benefits:
    • It enables organizations to allocate their resources better. For instance, a business might target large companies since they are more likely to have larger budgets. However, there may be a segment of smaller firms with much lower acquisition costs and far more profitable.
    • It can support and inform a company’s Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategy. At last, Account-Based Marketing projects usually start with identifying a tier of higher potential organizations.

 

Moreover, there are some fundamental principles and best practices to bear in mind in any segmentation project.

• Flexibility is key.
• Ensure internal stakeholders are engaged throughout.
• Use your existing data.
• Getting the right blend of ‘art and science.’
• Interview prospects, not just customers.
• ‘Sense-check’ the final segmentation model.
• Build tools and materials to bring segments to life.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Generating targeted and top-quality leads is the top priority of every B2B marketer. While there are many techniques that marketers can utilize to generate such sales leads, every year presents new opportunities to improve past performance.

 

Increase your targeted lead generation performance in 2022 by identifying the techniques that suit your business and implementing them well.

 

Contact Leadsprospex today to get your marketing-ready B2B data!