It is tough out there. Prospects don’t pick up the phone, the website doesn’t generate enough leads and, in Canada, we cannot buy or rent lists anymore. Still, your sales team needs fresh leads to make your business grow.
If your company is like most industrial manufacturing, technology and scientific companies, you are probably developing solutions that are meant to solve particular problems of very specific market segments, or focused niches.
True, your solutions can solve not one but a variety of applications. Your company has many products in line, each of them solving a particular market need. However, does your organization have enough resources to reach each of the prospects that could use your all your solutions? The budget for marketing and the hours your team can dedicate to market your products and services are always the first big challenges.
Today’s business environment has dramatically changed. It’s not the 1990s anymore. Some questions remain the same (“How do I invest my marketing dollars? What business line would be more profitable? Do we invest on the most profitable now or on the less profitable to give it a boost? What market segment is better to focus our marketing efforts?”), and many questions are new. Specially those related to new (or not so new) ways potential customers connect with companies, technologies and the Internet.
In today’s business environment, you can connect with everybody through a sea of options. How do you know which tools you should use? How to know what channels are most effective to connect with your audience? Traditional marketing tools (website, trade shows, advertising) combined with digital tools (SEO, webinars, native ads, landing pages, pay-per-click, social media, etc., etc., etc.) make very hard to decide how to reach your target market in an effective way. I mean, at the end of the day you want to see sales out of all that.
That brings us to the point. How do B2B companies find the high quality leads they need to grow? What marketing channel(s) should you use? Well, that shouldn’t be the first question.
First question should be: who do you want to reach? Exactly who? How about focusing on one application at the time?
Narrow down the options. Find a market segment where your solution has best chances to succeed. That’s where you need the market segment focus.
Go out and find where your specific audience is. Forget mass media and even your own niche as a business. Browse around and find out where, exactly, your exact potential customers are – not your competitors. Be generous sharing your knowledge. Offer answers and solutions. Provide information.
While your customer and potential leads surf the net to find the exact solution to their problems, they need to find you. If you offer value, especially knowledge that it is not easy to find around, they will appreciate it.
The opportunity is there: get them interested in what you do, and position as the expert. Once you are the expert, you are the go-to specialist.
The fresh leads are out there.
How is your company planning on reaching them?
