5 Myths About Lead Generation That Marketers Still Believe

Sales strategies have changed dramatically over the past decade. People now tend to belittle the importance of certain practices, such as lead generation. On one hand, part of the marketing community, states that this strategy is a waste of time and money. On the other hand, others rely on lead generation to improve their business. In order to break false beliefs, we present you 5 myths about lead generation that marketers still believe.

Myth 1: One size fits all

Nowadays, modern sales are highly personalized. This requires every company to have its own buyer persona. If the prospects don’t fit your buyer persona – that’s a research problem. At BizzBee Solutions, we dig deep to collect B2B data according to your ideal customer profile. This process starts with screening the web, LinkedIn (using advanced Sales Navigator tools), and other databases that we have access to. In order to ensure that they match your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) criteria, the relevant companies go through a process of manual screening.

After we have the list of relevant companies, the next step is to look for people that are matching the ideal positions. Usually, we identify 3 to 5 positions per company in order to reach more people and increase the response rate. Furthermore, for each relevant position, we are looking for their contact information: email, LinkedIn URL, phone number, etc.

Myth 2: Cold calling is no longer an option!

Wrong! According to a survey made by RAIN Group, a phone call is the buyer’s second most preferred way of getting in touch with sellers. Obviously, the first one is an email. Do you remember the sales era before the outbound prospectors began warming up the potential buyers? Sellers would call and repeat the same lines that they learned by heart regardless of who the prospect was. In addition to this, they sounded artificial and it seemed that they were talking with machines. Buyers hated that. Nowadays, the approach is completely different. A seller tends to convey a targeted message to the prospects by demonstrating an understanding of their specific pain points and introducing a good solution according to that.

Myth 3: The more leads you have = the more money you can make

Are you one of those marketers who still believe that the more leads you get, the higher the chances of getting a deal are? Although you generate more customers, it doesn’t mean that your business will be more profitable. In fact, if you want your business to be more successful, you should focus your attention on returning customers. Even research shows that returning customers are 60 to 70% easier to sell rather than new customers.

On the other hand, according to a report by the Aberdeen Group, over 80% of generated leads are never followed up on. Instead, they are dropped, or even disappear. This implies that seeking more leads can be an ineffective strategy. After all, some of the leads will never turn into your customers. Therefore, it is better for you to process the leads that you have, and continue to nurture them.

Myth 4: Cold meetings do not bring clients

Meetings can be time-consuming. Definitely, people won’t spend time unless they have an interest in how you might help them. The problem is not about the format of the meeting. It is about the people in that meeting to bring up the value of your product or service. The focus of your sales team should be on a potential client’s desires or pain points and the solution you can provide to them.

At BizzBee Solutions, contact research is one of the key components of our outbound prospecting. Our research process is multi-stage. First, we create an Ideal Client Profile (ICP) as targeted as possible (including demographic, firmographic, technographic and psychographic data). Second, teams of researchers look for the perfect fits to these ICPs, often combining databases, and offering the benefit of manual human selection. Last, but not least, a list of contacts is ready to be imported into the company CRM.

Myth 5: Buyers want to be left alone to complete their journey

Besides the limitless access to information, we believe that buyers want to complete the buying journey all by themselves. Likewise, their choice is determined long before they contact you. Let’s take a look into a different perspective on the abundance of information. Ask yourself if you are able to keep track of all the novelties the modern world can offer? Of course, you can’t.

Believe it or not, buyers are just the same. In fact, they are not aware of the new types of products or services on the market. Moreover, they are not aware of the impact they can have on their business. It’s your job as an outbound prospector to do the research and the analysis for your potential buyers explaining to them the benefits of the purchase. Here at BizzBee Solutions, we use an email marketing strategy to educate our future buyers. We create the most relevant content structured in several sequential messages that speak directly to the recipient. Furthermore, we respond on the company’s behalf according to the previously made frequently asked questions.

Conclusion

In conclusion, besides the previously mentioned 5 myths about lead generation, there are many more myths about lead generation. It is crucial to arm your sales team with the information and tools necessary to make the most of every interaction, providing value at every touchpoint. This will help your leads warm-up to your product or service and move along the lead generation funnel as well.

In fact, one thing rings true for all businesses: investing in learning how you can best reach to your key audience will definitely help you convert more leads.

Do you need assistance in generating more qualified leads? Or maybe you want to change the way you collect data about potential customers? We can help.

This article was originally published on BizzBee Blog.