Sales Leads for B2B services – FAQ

This FAQ is focused on small (less than ~100 employees) companies that provide B2B services (e.g. software development, engineering, etc).

What are the different categories of leads I should be thinking about?

While there’s no universal precise definition for different types of leads, the three main types worth talking about in a B2B environment are:

  1. Marketing-qualified leads (MQLs)
  2. Sales-ready leads (SRLs)
  3. Sales-qualified leads (SQLs)

MQLs are generally people that are a good fit for your company some day, but do not have a need at the moment. They’re good to engage with and nurture over time to build trust so that they consider you when they do have a need.

SRLs are generally MQLs with a need that aligns with what your company can help with.

An SQL is an SRL that’s been given the thumbs up by sales, either through observable criteria, or through direct conversation (an exploratory call) with the potential customer.

How do I get more leads from my website?

Want to get more leads online? There’s 3 main things you’ll likely have to do:

  1. Stop blabbing about yourself. You need to get way more empathetic about your customer’s problems.
  2. Narrow your focus significantly. You know you’re getting there if you’re starting to feel uncomfortable because you’re afraid you’re missing out on potential customers. See Why you need a niche, and what to do about it.
  3. Learn how to utilize data to influence your marketing decisions.

See How to make digital marketing less frustrating and How to get started with digital marketing for more.

How do I get more leads in general?

Want to get more leads for your business?

You need to get a handle on marketing that’s focused on lead generation, since not all marketing is focused on lead gen (some is focused on building awareness, sales enablement, or strengthening relationships with existing customers). Marketing that generally lends itself well to lead gen includes:

  1. Referrals.
  2. Exhibiting at trade shows/conferences.
  3. Presenting (either webinars or conferences).
  4. Inbound marketing.
  5. Account-based selling.

Referrals.

Referrals are wonderful. Why? Trust is transferred from the referrer over to you. My preferred approach to getting referrals is to do such good work for your customer that they offer them up unsolicited.

A more active, direct approach is to make referral requests a part of your process (see How to encourage referrals when the work you do isn’t super remarkable). It’s usually best if the project lead from your company is the person to make the request, since they’ll usually be the one that’s built up the relationship with the customer. There’s also a timing aspect to when to ask for a referral. You want to ask when they’re very happy with you and you’ve just given them something to be happy about.

This method can be used to obtain MQLs or SRLs.

Exhibiting at trade shows/conferences.

Getting a booth at a show can be a great way to get leads, or a horrible way, depending on a lot of specifics. While you can find SRLs while exhibiting, the timing is mostly independent relative to the buyer’s schedule, so you shouldn’t count on obtaining many SRLs. Instead, you’ll want to focus on MQLs. Make sure you have a plan in place to nurture the MQLs, otherwise they’ll fall on the floor and you’ll be throwing money out the window.

Presenting (webinars and conferences).

Presenting can be an okay way to generate leads. Much more so on the MQL side than the SRL side. It’s not my favorite approach for lead gen because it takes a lot of effort and costs a significant amount of money, but it does have other benefits that I believe are valuable, which when combined, can push its efficacy over the edge.

Other benefits:

  1. Presenting is a great way to add clarity to the way your company feels about a particular subject matter. This can help clarify the application areas that you do and don’t want to actively pursue as a company.
  2. Presenting provides content that can be re-purposed into other forms of content (eg. an article, a case study).

Inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing is a wonderful methodology because it’s all about positioning yourself to be ready to help when someone needs it. It’s not easy (see pros and cons of inbound marketing), but I think it’s the most rewarding form of marketing currently available.

Depending on the type of content you’re creating, inbound can lend itself more to MQLs or more to SRLs. You can significantly influence the type of lead that you attract.

If you’ve tried several other methods and don’t like what you’re seeing, inbound and content marketing may be just what you’re after.

Account-based selling.

Account-based selling & marketing (best referred to as account-based engagement) is hard. There are two main pre-requisites:

  1. You can identify a small number (say less than a dozen or so) of companies (or divisions at companies) that are extremely valuable to you as a company. Combined, these companies would make up a large portion of your revenue.
  2. You have a strong and unique value proposition to offer up. You need to be ready to handle the initial reaction of “why should I listen to you?”.

If you don’t meet these two pre-requisites, don’t even bother trying. If you do, now you need not only a reasonably sophisticated marketing team, but a very sophisticated sales team, since a fair amount of effort is placed on sales early on to make connections, establish trust, and build relationships. This method is more focused on MQLs because your timing is based on your timing of outreach more than your buyers. This is a very long-term strategy.

How to get better leads?

First you need to define “better”. You likely mean one of these characteristics:

  1. More immediate buying needs.
  2. Better aligned needs.
  3. Higher customer lifetime value (CLV).

In order to increase lead quality, you need to:

  1. Create a list of your favorite customers.
  2. Find the observable characteristics associated with those customers.
  3. Interview a subset of those customers to better understand the way your potential customers view their problems (hint: it’s probably not the same way as you view your solutions!).
  4. Start creating high-quality content around the problems that you solve.
  5. Get that content in front of your favorite potential customers.
  6. Analyze their reaction to this content.
  7. Create more high-quality content.
  8. Be patient. None of this will happen over the course of weeks or months. If you’re not thinking years, you’re done before you get started.

Should I buy quality leads?

There are good reasons to buy leads (eg. you can turn the spicket on and off easier), but keep in mind that when you buy leads you’re not getting your own machine going. That means you’re starting from zero every day, as opposed to building your own marketing machine that builds momentum and can potentially run with less effort in the future. In most cases I think in the long run you’ll want to work toward generating high quality leads using your own content (usually this utilizes your website as the foundation).

Next Steps

If you’re looking for more (or better) sales-ready leads, feel free to reach out for a chat.

Yes, let’s chat

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