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