5 Ways to Generate B2B Leads and Sales During COVID-19

0 comments / in Growth Hacking / by Mou Mukherjee

There is no denying that COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on businesses. Slowing down of sales and falling revenue curves have become a major concern. A recent survey by McKinsey suggests that 50% of B2B buyers are putting a hold on their purchase plans.
With limited scope for doing business and restrictions on movements, we now have to think out of the box. We need to revisit and modify strategies and quickly adapt to the “New Normal”.
This article elaborates how you can remodel your existing sales strategy and make use of the available resources to generate leads, find buyers, and improve revenue generation.

Lead Generation and Sales Strategy During COVID-19

To remain in business and recover from loss in these challenging times, businesses need to evaluate their strategies and shift response. Here is how you can create a successful B2B lead generation strategy that boosts sales:

1. Remodel B2B Sales Prospecting

Impact of COVID has forced sales leaders, marketing managers and teams to rethink the way they communicate and interact with their prospects. If you want to increase the likelihood of sales prospecting, avoid the conventional marketing strategies and make the necessary changes to stand out.
Sales prospecting is the process of actuating and acquiring new customers by searching for potential buyers for your products or services. The ultimate goal of sales prospecting is to move your prospects down the sales funnel until they eventually convert into sales.
To create a strong sales prospecting strategy, businesses need to focus on target markets and establish connections with key decision makers.
Find out specific target locations where your business has more demand. Once you know these details, it will be easy to initiate lead prospecting and generate better conversion.

2. Increase Customer Outreach

Instead of sticking to one type of sales and marketing campaigns, consider stretching your marketing arms and exploring more lead generation channels. This will broaden your outreach and help you increase the target market.
Include tried and tested methods such as cold calling, email marketing which can surprisingly boost lead generation process.
Get proactive with customer outreach and ask your connections and customers for referrals. Do not shy away from proactively asking people in your network for contacts.
This will increase your chances of closing deals faster because most buyers prefer to do business with people they know or know of.

3. Analyze Your Prospects’ Customers

Your sales success depends on your prospects’ customers. As you try testing the waters before starting post-COVID sales process, it is wise to analyze the end users. Their buying behavior directly influences your sales performance. From a financial standpoint, if they are doing well, your prospect is likely to buy from you.
For example, you are a food manufacturer looking to sell your products to shops and retail chains. So you should find out whether there is demand in the market and if the end users are going to appreciate your product.
Buyer’s journey mapping and path to purchase research is ideal to help you identify and eliminate the sales gap by creating and modifying b2b marketing tactics.
It is vital to know how your prospects’ customers are coping as you think about the resources you wish to invest on a business. If you see that the demand for the services or products you sell is low, then you need to shift strategy and make the necessary adjustments.
This will help you make an informed business decision and apply the changes that can influence the sales cycle.

4. Validate Existing B2B Database

You are measuring the number of B2B leads your sales team generates from the existing database and contact lists. You are also monitoring the likelihood of purchase decisions based on analytics.
But do you know you can slash the time it takes to generate leads if you can identify the legitimate b2b buyers? With the help of data validation, you reduce the time and effort it takes to push prospects down the sales funnel.
Companies and brands face challenges due to bad data. According to a study by Straight North, out of 350,000 marketing inquiries they analyzed, only half of them turned out as valid sales leads.
By giving your sales teams invalidated and incomplete contact data, you risk investing your resources that will generate poor or no returns.
Data validation can significantly improve the quality of leads and reduce the overall cost associated with b2b lead generation. It is the process of verifying and appending contact data so that you can increase chances of sales.
Michael Brenner, the CEO of Marketing Insider Group, says that lead validation is critical to marketing success. Without validating data, businesses cannot accurately forecast marketing and sales ROI.

5. Consider Tele-Marketing and Other Remote Selling Options

It is no secret that the Coronavirus pandemic has negatively impacted face-to-face or direct selling process. Telemarketing and other remote sales opportunities open a wealth of opportunities for you to connect with buyers.
Easier said than done, telemarketing requires expert sales questioning techniques and presence of mind. Good telemarketers make sure they do not sound like telemarketers or robots. The best of b2b telemarketers sound confident, empathetic, and helpful.
Empathy and personalization are the key to success in telemarketing. If you fail to find out the customer pain-points and mindlessly pitch your prospects without personalizing, chances are you will never be able to win your buyers.
That is why, you should consider collaborating with expert professionals in this industry like . StatByte Marketing Solutions who can take your sales efforts to the next level.
There is no doubt that sales are slow during this season and COVID-19 is at the heart of this problem. While the pandemic has certainly created a chain of problems, businesses that are able to adapt to the current situation and take advantage of the opportunities available at this point are the ones who are most likely to survive after the crisis is over.