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Lead Generation

The B2B Lead Generation Process: A Primer On How It Works

Sales are important for any business. This is how businesses thrive and become successful. However, the art of selling has suffered tremendous changes during the years, and now terms such as Lead Generation are on any marketer’s lips. But what is B2B Lead Generation and how does it work?

A short definition

Lead Generation represents a marketing area responsible for identifying and nursing potential prospects in order to engage them in a sales conversation. Basically, it is nothing short of a science of getting new customers, and turning the current ones into loyal ones. As far as B2B Lead Generation is concerned, it is the marketing solution for pitching business solutions to prospecting buyers, in order to offer a product needed or desired for promoting and helping the respective businesses.

Selecting prospects

One important activity to be taken into consideration in B2B Lead Generation efforts is the correct selection of prospects. These can be split in four large categories, as follows:

  • Prospects that have a set budget and a well contoured need for a certain product or service.
  • Prospects that do not have a set budget, but are interested in learning more about a certain product or service.
  • Prospects that already have a supplier for a certain need, but may be kept in mind in case they are no longer satisfied with their current supplier.
  • Prospects that have no need for a certain product or service produced by your business (knowing who does not need your business solutions helps cutting down on fruitless marketing efforts).

Educating prospects

In order to identify potential buyers, a wide array of marketing tools has to be used, such as webinars, social media campaigns and so on. The purpose of using such tools is to educate potential prospects into considering you as the business solution for their needs, when a certain need arises.

Evaluating buying intent

The next step after getting in contact and educating prospects is to evaluate their purchasing intent. For that, marketers need to learn how to read the signs that a certain business owner can be engaged in a sales conversation. Based on the education already received during initial stages, the business owner will be easier to convince into purchasing a certain product or service.

Let’s recap. The stages of B2B Lead Generation to be employed are:

  • Establishing who the best prospectors are.
  • Teaching them about your business solutions.
  • Getting them on the talking table.
  • Landing sales.

Tip: While phone marketing is considered an obsolete tool in some circles, it can still serve in the initial stages of Lead Generation. Do not hesitate to involve various types of marketers in the process of identifying potential prospects, to maximize your success.


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