Are Your Existing Clients More Important Than Your B2B Lead Generation Campaigns?

Should you pay more attention to your existing customers instead of getting new clients through your lead generation campaign? Or should you focus all your efforts on keeping your sales leads flowing through your sales funnel? Most b2b marketers today taut the importance of keeping your existing clients happy, but are they correct? The answer is: yes and no.

Why yes?

Companies who focus too much on doing a good lead generation campaign can miss out on additional business opportunities when they treat each customer as a single transaction sale. Finding new customers just to keep revenues rolling in as actually far more expensive than simply up selling to your current clients.

These days, company efforts alone are never enough to get them the business sales leads they need to keep their business healthy. A successful company needs the help of outside forces to help them with their marketing campaigns. What are the best outside forces to ask for help? Your existing clients, of course! Nothing beats the marketing prowess of genuinely satisfied customers willing to give referrals. When your existing clients are exceptionally pleased with your service, they are eager to share their happy stories with their peers. Of course, as business people, these peers are usually company executives and managers who could very well be your potential business to business sales leads as well. If your existing clients have already put in the good word for you, closing the deal will be a lot more easier for your sales representatives.

Why no?

Being too focused on pleasing your existing customers can lead your company to unpleasant situations in the future. Clients often request and expect too much for giving you their money. Giving in to these requests from time to time does help strengthen your business relationship, but indulge their requests too much and you can end up being abused by even your best client. You have to clearly set boundaries and make your clients understand that they don't dictate your product pricing, the type of services you offer, and the direction of your company.

No matter how effective the referrals of your clients are, you must never stop your lead generation campaigns to keep gaining new b2b sales leads. Focusing too much on your existing clients can be limiting to your business. Furthermore, you could be getting new b2b sales leads whose value is much more than that of your current clients.

Giving both your existing clients and your b2b lead generation campaigns equal attention is the best way to get most out of both. But because doing both at the same time can be too complicated, it's always a good idea to outsource some of your operational processes to a professional BPO company. These firms can help you by doing expert business lead generation campaigns that will surely result in plenty of quality business sales leads for your company. When you have someone else keeping a sharp eye on your b2b lead generation campaigns, you can rest assured of fresh new business leads coming into your business while you make sure that all your existing clients are happy and satisfied.

Why Cold Calling Isn't Used For Lead Generation (And Why It Should Be)

Cold Calling

A lot of b2b marketers accept the fact that cold calling is an extremely effective tool for lead generation and appointment setting; and with the strict rules in place to regulate the practice, b2b marketers and business owners should be more amenable to cold calling their potential b2b sales leads to better qualify them and have a more successful b2b lead generation campaign. Cold calling has a lot of benefits, here are a few:

1. Direct contact with potential business sales leads. You can learn so much more from your b2b sales leads. Attitude, patience, and preferences are just a few of the characteristics one can glean from a few minutes of call. Aside from this, you can also learn a lot about their business if you only know which questions to ask to get them to start on talking.
2. Fastest way to build rapport. Your business sales leads usually need only a few seconds of hearing your voice to decide whether they like you or not. If you fail to appeal to them within that small window of chance, you would be dealing with an even colder prospect. If you make them like you, however, you can get a business appointment with them faster.
3. Great method to use for follow-up. After sending out an email or newsletter, you can use a cold call to contact your b2b sales leads and ask whether they read your email. This is a good opportunity for you to clarify any questions they have about your email or your business; and perhaps to ask if they would agree to an appointment setting with your company.

Despite the obvious benefits of cold calling, why is it still not implemented by all businesses as a major part of their lead generation campaigns? It’s not that they believe it’s an evil marketing method, which is entirely untrue (if done properly of course). The answer, actually, is quite simple. Most business owners and even some b2b marketers are afraid to pick up the phone. It may seem unbelievable to you, but lengthy discussions about how to get over the fear of cold calling can be found on forums and discussion channels.

There are even “how-to” posts about it on YouTube, blogs, and various articles.
What exactly is so fearful about cold calling? Just like anyone, they are all afraid of the prospect of being rejected. Think about it: if you have a business list of 1000 plus contacts and the first couple of cold calls you did were greeted with rejection and a firm “no”, wouldn’t you dread continuing on with that list of strangers?

This isn’t the only factor of cold calling that people are afraid of. While others cite rejection as the major factor, others see cold calling as an intrusion on their b2b sales leads’ time and hesitate to make the call even before they pick up the phone.

If you want to have a great b2b telemarketing campaign for your company yet you also fear cold calling, you can outsource this process to a professional b2b telemarketing company. This way you wouldn’t have to do something you’re afraid of doing but still be able to acquire the benefits it provides.

Mass Media Advertising Is Losing Ground In The Marketing World

When was the last time you completely believed what a marketer told you on mass media platforms like the television, radio, newspaper, or even an email? And if you did believe, did you not spend time researching on the internet for reviews or asking your acquaintances for their opinions before you made any decision to purchase?

Mass media is a relic of the industrial era when companies used largely generic advertising strategies that they hoped would reach their target customers. They had no means of driving their marketing methods to specifically reach their intended targets, so they spread their nets over as wide a market as they could.

Finding qualified sales leads using mass media marketing nowadays is an almost futile effort. Not only is the method of measuring the reach of your marketing strategies extremely difficult and complicated, but the cost of marketing to thousands of people in various places just to reach a handful of potential leads is extremely expensive. Furthermore, those potential leads are not even all verified quality sales leads. So, of the 100 potential leads you get from mass marketing to 100,000 people, you'd be lucky to get 5 qualified sales leads. And because you need more than 5 qualified leads to make your business profitable, you have to spend millions of dollars just so you can market to a hundred thousand more people.

Mass media marketing is a very expensive and inefficient method of finding sales leads. It represents a time of random hard selling and a time when customers blindly followed what was popular among their peers.

This mass advertising is no longer applicable to this generation of clients and consumers who are more knowledgeable, inquisitive, doubtful, and outspoken. With a vast amount of resources at their disposal and easily within their reach, they are no longer susceptible to marketing pitches that are aimed at everyone and no one in particular. Unless you personalize your marketing pitch, your sales leads will not believe that you provide the best solution to their problem when they have hundreds---if not thousands---of other options. The quest for qualified sales leads is further complicated by the emerging desire to become as unique as possible and yet still remain a part of the norm. This has lead to lesser belief in companies marketing to everyone but a distinct distrust of businesses introducing radical new solutions, or rather, the need to verify first from trusted sources any new solution.

Though this poses a unique challenge to marketers, one thing is certain, mass media advertising is slowly losing ground in the business world. Thankfully, the arrival of this technological era has provided marketers with various means of reaching out to their specific target sales leads and enabled them to improve their business relationship on a more personal level. Though most marketing methods are largely met with skepticism, a well-targeted and thoroughly researched marketing plan can become an effective means of lead generation. Even existing (and almost archaic) marketing methods such as email marketing and telemarketing can be repurposed and made to deliver qualified sales and business leads.

Three Tips To Make Your Sales Pitch Rock

When we hear the word sales pitch, one of the most important points to consider is how to make your pitch sell to prospects. Unfortunately, that is one point that companies still have a hard time in doing, especially if they are doing their lead generation campaign for the first time. Why does it seem to be hard to generate the sales leads that you need? There are plenty of reasons why. The most important to remember is that business leads are best generated through proper consideration of what the prospects want. More likely than not, this is the main reason why no sales leads are made. So how do you go about it? How can you make your sales pitch clinch the deal?


Just remember these three points: 

1. Do your research – time and time again, sales people are told to always research their business prospect first. Still, there are still those who are left hanging when they are asked questions by the prospects that they have no ready answer for. In the first place, you must need to know just what the prospect is looking for, what kind of solution they may need, and what your company can do to address that need. What is important here is that you cover everything when you are trying to generate B2B leads. And you can do that easily with good research work.
2. Define your prospects’ segments – it is possible that what you are offering will work with a lot of market segments. Lucky for you if you only need to market in one segment, but if you have to go into several, then you will need to research each one well. Each segment may have a different trigger or reason to do business with you, so you should define your segments well. You can get better sales leads this way since you now know how to grab your prospect’s attention.
3. Craft specific messages – this is where the two previous points merge. Once you know what your prospects want, and what trigger you can use to get their attention, you can then create the correct sales pitch. But the sales pitch itself should not be used in more than one prospect. Sure, this can save you more time, but if you really want to reach out to them, you will need to craft the message that is specifically tailored to them. They will appreciate that added thoughtfulness.

As a business owner, you will need to know how to best maximize your company’s ability to generate more sales leads for your business. There are so many factors that can either attract the attention of your business prospects or cause them to back away. It may also depend on what communication medium you used to reach them, whether through social media or telemarketing. Still, what is important is that you get to send your message across. This is the most important point that you need to reach if you want to get better B2B sales leads.

Can Outsourcing To Telemarketers Help You Generate B2B Leads?

So far, the biggest problem that a lot of firms could ever face deals with the need to make a plenty of profits. This is an issue that has constantly bothered them. How can they make a profit, if their market is packed of competitors? It sure is nice if you could get your hands on something that can give you the edge. This is the reason why B2B leads are so much in demand by a lot of companies. Qualified leads are the best marketing aids that you can get. It can introduce you new markets, improve your sales campaign, and give you the edge over competitors. Whether you succeed or not will depend on just how good is the lead generation company that you hired to do the job. As a business investment, you should seriously consider hiring good telemarketing services if you want your firm to achieve long term profitability.

The fun part, as the old saying goes, will now lie in choosing the lead generation firm. After all, this is a challenge that many entrepreneurs have to face. Selecting the right lead generation firm can be a very daunting task, especially if this is their first time to do so. B2B lead generation services a very handy tool in producing the qualified leads that you need. The reason why a lot of small and medium sized firms these days are outsourcing this job is because of the inherent limitations of their operations. Many of these companies do not have enough budgets to build up their own lead generation team. With the value and usefulness of B2B leads decreasing as they age, there is a greater demand for experts who can professionally handle qualified sales leads. This could perhaps explain the rising number of lead generation firms. After all, they are the best when it comes to delivering qualified leads for their clients.

Aside from the usual lead generation services, version of this that has attracted considerable attention from other firms is appointment setting services. The use of B2B appointment setting services has proven to be very useful in providing the needed B2B leads. What makes this unique from the usual is due to its ability to address the needs of companies that do not have their own marketing teams. With the help of modern lead generation services, it is now possible for firms to improve their chances of making good sales. Professional telemarketers can effectively find new business opportunities and then qualify them to see if they meet their client’s requirements. If these do, then they will proceed to set up a meeting between the prospect and the client. It is that easy. And since telemarketing has improved itself over the years, you are less likely to suffer from a negative backlash from people with bad experiences from it.

The key, of course, still remains with you. It is you who will decide who to work with. And it is you who will have to make the choice. If it is the right one, then things will go very well for you.

7 Ways to Be A Better Networker Than Your Competitors

So you think that meeting people can already be considered networking? Think again. Well, if you want to squash your competitors, then it’s time to do more than just handing out calling cards and giving firm business-like handshakes.

When it comes to networking, are you better than your competition? Smart and savvy businessmen and job seekers know how to make the most of their networking skills to beat their competition.

1. Look for job leads that fast by using Google Alerts. Google Alerts is an effective channel in finding job leads. Given the proper keywords, you could stumble on news relevant to the industry numerous times daily which can assist you in terms of getting opportunities. All you have to do is play with various words and phrases and complement your job search with first hand announcements.
2. Look professional on your social networks. A photo of you holding your puppy may be cute, but that’s not professional. Take note that people that have eggs, avatars, baby photos, or pets as their profile pictures are only offering entertainment, not brand. Think of your resume picture—a latest and decent quality photo with a smile can evoke a positive statement.
3. Never give away leads by your passivity. Don’t just wait there. Instead, proactively upstage your competitors by doing small things which are easier to do for now. Follow up an interview, call the company to know the status of your job application or meet that business lead which you may eventually close to a sale.
4. See Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus and Facebook as just a single portfolio for your business. Define clearly who you are. Are you the same individual on your various social network profiles? Set a reliable message all throughout the different social media platforms. Leverage status updates, profile massages and taglines in order to communicate effectively what sales leads and potential employers would want to know.
5. Make the most of business coaches, mentors and advisors. Nobody does it all alone. Rather than figuring it all by your lonesome, you could get expert advice from individuals that can bring you alternatives or opportunities that you never thought about. Don’t passively sit there and wait for other people to deliver you the leads you need; learn how you can drive your job hunt efficiently by taking it into your own hands.
6. Network regularly to meet your prospect, much better in person. If you’re not, then chances are, your competitors already are, instead of you----that’s making real connections. They may have similar or less experience than you, but the difference lies in them talking to individuals that are passionate and willing to be of help to them.
7. Be a giver, not a taker. If you want to build connections, strive to give more than what you could even receive. And don’t even say that it’s not worth it. It is not even about lending, but remember that in networking, when you give, you also receive. One way to do this is to volunteer; maximize your skills to be useful to others. If you strategize well, not only you can get recognized for your efforts, but you’ll also feel more fulfilled.