I want more leads. But how many and when?

When I talk to B2B startup founders that want to scale faster usually one of the first things I hear is “I want more leads”.

But leads can be worthless distractions and time wasters unless there is a clear strategy to engage, prioritise and convert them into sales. Some of the tactical don'ts I usually mention during the first conversations:

?? Don’t waste money on random acts of marketing by:

• Duplicating big corporate strategies/replicating what worked ten years ago?
• Investing too much in marketing and sales before:?(1)You have enough proof that there is a decent product market fit; ?(2) Your organisation is ready to convert big volumes of leads into customers and delight them after they sign the contract (during and after delivery); (3) Your sales team is well equipped to sell?(4) You have the minimal martech infrastructure and some basic data governance principles in place ?
• Buying leads lists or content syndication on third party aggregators - this will bring you contacts with no engagement, you will also waste a lot of the SDRs' time cleansing data and chasing irrelevant cold leads
• Paid media without a clear strategy and messaging pillars - Paid media leads are increasingly expensive. If you have limited budgets, you shouldn’t spend 100 EUR+ for an exec to download your ebook or join your webinar. However, it can be a good channel to generate and convert relevant leads if used right. It is recommended to test new "paid" approached - eg: carefully selected award submissions (with a small entry fee) in relevant communities/trade associations for your industry. Some of them generate quite a big hype. I've seen this work and convert much better, but not in all cases/industries. And yes, some founders still perceive that a nice website + paid media + Linkedin page + random blogging equals "the" marketing strategy
• (Too many) sponsored events if your purpose is lead generation. Recommendations: 1. Do you own boutique industry event and get some partners to join forces and share costs. 2. Properly plan your attendance at one major statement industry event (speak and wow them) 3. Use some fighter jets to get relevant leads - niched, regional, trade association events with clear matchmaking/lead generation packages included?
• Standalone ebook download campaigns - this will bring you some decent contacts, but nothing more unless you have a clear plan of engaging, scoring and advancing them through the funnel.?

?? Don’t waste time:

• Trying too many growth hacks in the same time and random acts of marketing. Always test what works for you but stick with some high level hypothesis for what needs more effort to validate/invalidate (eg: priority target markets, solutions you sell first, etc)
• Struggling with the lead attribution war or focusing on vanity KPIs. In B2B the qualitative empirical analysis is also important. Start and find the best way to measure it as you move along
• Blogging for the sake of it. Blogging does not equal content strategy. It helps with SEO/organic traffic but doesn’t convert that often into good sales leads, especially in B2B sales. What works decently? Identify a problem, research (check big guys research), contextualise your solution and explain how do you solve the problem?
• Cold calling prospects and sending sales emails too early. However, you could cold call them in the beginning to understand the market, gain intelligence for surveys or understand your prospects needs and pains. Wait until there are enough intent or engagement signals to do any sales pitch on a cold call.?

?? Don’t underestimate the value of:

• Doing a proper product market fit analysis?
• Clean CRM data, a CRM driven culture and the minimal martech infrastructure. This will be your strategic main source of truth on the long run.?Garbage in garbage out
• Matching the sales team structure and capacity to properly work the leads you need to achieve revenue goals
• Marketing and sales alignment, with clear accountability on both sides
• Product marketing’s role in leads conversion and sales enablement - don’t put sales in front of your strategic accounts before they are trained well enough to sell and before they have good enough sales collaterals to share. There is no second chance to make a good first impression??

Young tech companies don't just need more leads. In order to win new clients and avoid wasting marketing efforts and budgets they need:?

• A proper product-market fit analysis - regardless of how much money you put into your sales and marketing function, unless you have a “good enough” product, your leads won’t move beyond the marketing or BANT lead phase?
• A clear strategy for long term, multitouch engagement - it already takes more than 30 touches (across sales and marketing) to convert leads into sales. I will address this in a future dedicated article since it is a complex topic. Large companies (and even some of the smaller ones) can afford to do this better and better. The old marketing mix doesn’t work well enough anymore
• A less is more marketing approach -?Start from some solid hypothesis and put enough effort into it to ensure you test it right before you disqualify it and try something else. Too many customer segments, target markets, messaging pillars, growth hacks,?and “strategies” do more harm than good, don’t allow you to focus and dilute the efforts
• Tech tools to score and prioritise leads based on behaviour, demographics and intent data to avoid wasting time chasing irrelevant contacts/cold leads. Not all MQLs and SQLs are created equal ?
• Clear SLAs and interlock with sales. Sometimes leads, once generated, are treated superficially by both marketing (by not doing enough nurturing activities) and by sales (by not doing enough follow up activities)?
• Marketing goals that match the sales team's realistic capacity. Simply put, you need enough sales people to properly work the volume of leads you need to generate to achieve your revenue goals (including inbound, outbound prospecting, channel, etc). Make sure you have enough fuel in the sales engine to work them right. Or readjust the marketing strategy and objectives to match the sales team's capacity
• Sales enablement - sales often still need to do some heavy lifting after good leads are generated. They need to have a consultative sales approach early in the buying process, earn prospects trust and be consistent enough for 6-12 months before they close a deal. They need to thoroughly understand the industry, your product and your competitors' products, the prospect pains and needs and have good enough sales and marketing collaterals to be used throughout the sales process. Today more than ever sales can be perceived as another, very important, marketing channel. Or micro influencers, brand ambassadors at individual account level.?

This requires a pragmatic strategy, focus, seamless execution and clear accountability across departments.

#growth?#b2bmarketing?#b2bmarketingstrategy?#lessismore

Cover image from LeadG2 website