Top 2 Lead Generation Facts B2B Companies Must Know

Fact 1 - Marketing qualified leads are baselines to measure marketing efficiency.

The Marketing funnel is a measure of investment versus return and defines the stages and processes involved in this journey of translating effort to results. The Sales Funnel shows how large volumes of leads entering the system get narrowed down as time goes on.

In the traditional Sales Funnel, which is basic and is focused on showing the transformation of leads to customers, a company drives various marketing campaigns to bring in interested Leads. Then, Sales takes over to find opportunities (purchase intent). The Leads which show interest are sent proposals and quotes and if the offerings meet their needs, the prospects, who have so far traversed the funnel, become the new customers for the company.

Websites started playing a crucial role in lead generation when Internet marketing became popular. Determining the source of the visitors, their level of engagement with the content on the site, their reaction to different calls to action on the site and their interaction with the company (via form fill or request form before the sale is made) became qualifiers which decide if a Lead is worthy of entering the Sales Funnel.
Marketing until now has always been considered as a cost centre, not playing an active role in primary lead generation efforts.  However, the entry of Marketing Automation platforms have ensured that companies are able to measure the ROI for their marketing activities, and marketing can stake a claim on part of the revenue.  ‘Marketing Qualified lead Rate’ will become a relevant measure for marketing efficiency and success, both from a marketing initiative perspective and from marketing’s ability to effectively screen out low potential contacts.

Fact 2 – Lead Generation is a Marathon; Marketing Automation makes it a Sprint.

A key reason for the Sales-Marketing disconnect is that companies are losing huge amounts of money because of a misalignment within their organizations. Today, there is a huge increase in the number of channels marketing uses for creating brand awareness and for generating leads.  Despite this, there is a visible shortfall in the number of quality leads generated by the marketing team. A difference in perceptions is where the divide between Sales and Marketing starts.

The Sales and Marketing disconnect largely reduces the effectiveness of the marketing campaigns and the efficiency of Sales’ efforts to pursue and close deals. Therefore, Marketing Automation makes lead management a real-time collaborative process. Here, the communication process is two-way where Sales provides input to help Marketing optimize its campaigns and, Marketing runs targeted campaigns to drive quality leads.

Marketing automation software platforms provide a solution for resolving the sales and marketing split and keeps both happy by ensuring a sales funnel full with qualified leads.

Used optimally, marketing automation can actually deliver extraordinary results in a short time-frame. Also, it significantly shortens the time between lead generation and lead closure because it recognizes the buying process as a group activity and hence takes into account all activities by an enterprise at different times before qualifying them as a ‘sales ready lead’.

Also read on - Lead nurturing software

Using Free Trials for Effective B2B Marketing

The popular ‘Call to Actions’ is mostly associated with free trials and offers and, is widely used in both the B2C and B2B industries. It is a universal rule followed by most customers around the world in any industry; that if they want to get the maximum returns for their investments, they allow the customer to test it in his own environment.

Here are some important considerations for B2B clients before using “Free Trials” on your webpage.


Placement effectiveness of ‘Free Trial’
Free trial generally is the primary call to action and gets the top billing in terms of placement – above fold along with the key value proposition or image. Sometimes it is even repeated twice in a smaller print below the fold or on the top along with the login.


Give away for ‘Free Trials’  
Free trial remains most comprehensive form of evaluation for any product or offering.


Ideal time for a ‘Free Trial’ offer
From a sales perspective, it ideal to offer the shortest time and then on an individual case to case basis, make exceptions where required.


Urgency around ‘Free Trial’
By indicating the free trial is available for a limited time in a subscript, one can create a sense of urgency around the call to action. You can also mention “No credit card data required” in the subscript which would emphasise – “no obligations for taking the trial”.


Information around ‘Free Trial’ tabs
Providing links to video, demo, tutorials or other resources may result in more click-through for these links as prospects would like to read more about the product and the value proposition before engaging in a trial.


Is dummy data in a sandbox better than ‘Free Trial’?
Using dummy data in a sandbox depends on whether the product produces data in a free trial which can show the prospects true value and new perspectives which they would find difficult to associate otherwise.

Overall, offering free trials is a practical proposition and works wonders from a prospect’s perspective, because it is an opportunity to go beyond the marketing automation collateral and jargon and check if the product or service being marketed matches the claims made.


Free trial is great option for B2B companies, if data produced during the trial period highlights the value of the product and provides with a strong motivation to buy.
The free product trial experience goes a step further than making available dummy data in a sandbox environment, as it shows how valuable the product is in the prospect’s own environment, thus reinforcing the value proposition.


Free trials help a prospect gain familiarity with the product, its features; not just in a sandbox environment, but right in the production environment. If the prospect does not like something in the promo run, he can voice his opinion and feedback, which can find its way back to the vendor company, who may just be able to accommodate the suggestions in the paid version.


Since most B2B decisions are taken by a group of individuals, going with a certain vendor becomes easier if there is data to showcase the merits of the solution offered by them. Free trials help put together such convincing data.


Also, a free trial allows you to make your first contact with the buyer, it allows you to present your case and build a relationship with the decision makers, which can affect the final purchase decision. So, ultimately it serves the purpose for effective Lead generation and lead nurturing.

How to Deal with Not-Yet-Sales-Ready Leads

Till recently B2B marketers focused all their lead generation efforts only on those who have shown interest – companies who have been qualified ‘prospect’, ‘sales-ready’ or ‘marketing-qualified-lead’. However, there is a segment that has been left unattended and ignoring them means that more than three-fourths of the carefully collected lead information is going down the drain.

Ignoring not-yet-sales qualified leads is like having ammunition but not knowing how to shoot. It is the responsibility of the Marketing team to keep in touch with such people to develop a ‘relationship’ first. Also, Marketing will end up spending more time and money to capture lead information on the unqualified ones if they are let off without any action.

Mostly, it is during the interest building stage that these un-qualified ones leak out of the Sales funnel. A simple lack of communication will prevent Sales from working on un-qualified leads because their focus does not deviate from the qualified ones at all. 

Continual communication programs specifically designed for the unqualified ones can be executed to keep them informed, irrespective of whether they are responding.Another main reason for not adequately addressing the not-yet-qualified leads is because of the age old divide between Sales and Marketing.

So, most of the time no action is taken on these leads because there are not enough marketing campaigns targeted by Marketing, and Sales refuses to pick them because they are unqualified.

Keeping a process in place within the lead management system to address such leads will surely go a long way in bringing in more leads for the company.

Since lead generation is a process oriented effort requires to be measured consistently so that process improvements can be implemented at every milestone. Here, milestones of lead generation would ideally mean the transition points of prospects.

The following analytics can be drawn from lead generation efforts.

• Number of Indentified Leads vs. Total Visited
• Number of Qualified Leads vs. Total Identified Leads
• Number of Sale-ready vs. Number of Qualified Leads
• Cost of campaign per lead
• Success rate of Lead Conversion to Customer

Apart from this, companies need to constantly monitor metrics, using robust lead management software, related to the geographical background of leads, behavioral aspects, visitor intent identification parameters, etc. Simultaneously, it is vital to regularly follow-up with leads, whether they have been qualified or not.

Know more -  marketing automation software & lead generation software

Choose the Best Process for Success in Lead Management

The secret to any B2B success lies in the process. In marketing automation, it’s not about creativity or conducting a better lead generation campaign. Leveraging the conversions of inquiries into qualified leads and leads into qualified sales is what is important. Prospective leads originate in a wide range of different ways, and there needs be a process in place to manage all those leads. And Lead Management begins with the ability to hit revenue targets in your sales pipeline.

The intent of lead management software is to build a relationship with each prospective customer in a way that their interest develops into opportunities for sales. It is therefore important to choose the best process to ensure success. For example, a marketer places certain ads with the intention that readers will respond and perhaps make a purchase. There may be many inquiries resulting from paid ads, which carry calls to action including  a web site or toll-free number. For this there needs to be a process in place to handle all enquiries. Without investing much, a company can create a great inquiry management process by optimizing each step in the inquiry management chain.

• Plan a response

In the campaign development process, it is important to plan a response. It is necessary to have a specific code to identify the responses from all outbound communication. Offer multiple response media, like phone, Web, BRC, fax, e-mail, etc. This way there is a wide set of options for a prospective customer to get back to you.

• Efficient response capture

It is necessary to put together a cross-functional team as the response capture process will work well if it is designed by the people who manage the inbound responses. By considering the best strategy you can ensure that the enquiries do not get mixed up with daily business communications.

• Fulfilling enquiries

The secret to inquiry fulfillment is speed. Most B2B companies make enquiries asking for more information, and the faster they get that information, the faster they will respond. Matching the fulfillment material to the need and the value of the prospect quickly indicates the value the best companies put on fast delivery.

• Lead nurturing

Move a lead into the lead nurturing process when the prospect is not yet ready to see a sales person, but may be ready soon. You can use a number of lead nurturing methods like catalogs, newsletters, surveys, white papers and/or birthday cards. With a series of ongoing communications, you can build awareness and maintain trust and contact until the prospect is ready to buy.

By choosing the best practice in your lead management process you can optimize your inquiry management process and greatly increase your revenue from lead generation campaigns.

Know More - lead management system ,  b2b lead scoring