Generating leads in B2B sales is a challenge for businesses of all sizes. While there are many conventional ways to generate leads, such as cold calling, email marketing, and advertising, these methods are becoming less effective due to increased competition and changing customer behavior.
As a result, businesses are looking for new and unconventional ways to generate qualified leads (Sales qualified or marketing qualified) and build relationships with potential customers.
In this blog, we will explore some strategies on how to generate leads in B2B sales that you may not have considered before. These methods include hosting webinars, creating referral programs, leveraging social media, LinkedIn Marketing, attending industry conferences, using influencer marketing, offering free trials, creating a podcast, conducting surveys, and creating interactive content.
By exploring these unconventional methods, you can tap into new audiences, build trust and credibility with potential customers, and generate a steady stream of qualified leads that can help your business thrive.
Each of these methods requires a unique approach and strategy, but they all have the potential to help you reach new customers and grow your business.
In the following sections of this blog, we will explore each of these methods in detail, providing tips and best practices for implementing them effectively.
Ultimately, the key to success is to be creative, strategic, and willing to try new things. With the right approach, you can generate a steady stream of qualified leads that will help your business grow and thrive in the long term.
Here are Some Ways to Generate Leads in B2B Sales
Table of Contents
Host webinars and workshops
Hosting webinars and workshops is a great way to generate qualified B2B sales leads. These events allow you to showcase your expertise and educate your target audience about your product or service.
By providing valuable information, you can attract potential customers who are interested in your product or service.
You can also use webinars and workshops to build relationships with your audience, answer their questions, and address their concerns.
This will help you establish yourself as a trusted authority in your field and increase your chances of converting leads into customers. Read this insightful article to know more about MQL to SQL conversion rate.
Social media is a powerful tool for generating qualified B2B sales leads. You can use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to reach out to your target audience and promote your product or service. Understanding the difference between MQLs and SQLs (Sales Qualified Leads) is crucial for nurturing leads and closing deals.
By sharing valuable content, engaging with your audience, and building relationships with influencers in your industry, you can attract potential customers who are interested in what you have to offer.
Offer free trials and demos
In addition to understanding how to generate leads for B2B sales, offering free trials and demos is an effective way to attract qualified leads. By giving your potential customers a taste of what you have to offer, you can convince them to try your product or service.
This will help you build trust with your audience and increase your chances of converting leads into customers. You can also use free trials and demos to collect feedback from your audience, which can help you improve your product or service.
Use referral marketing
By incentivizing your existing customers to refer new customers to you, you can tap into their networks and reach a wider audience, ultimately generating qualified B2B sales leads.
You can offer discounts, freebies, or other incentives to your existing customers for each new customer they refer to you. This will not only help you generate qualified leads but also increase customer loyalty and retention.
Must Read: What is Sales Qualified Lead?
Create valuable content
By providing valuable information that addresses the pain points of your target audience, you can attract potential customers who are interested in your product or service.
This content creation strategy plays a crucial role in how to generate leads for B2B sales.
You can use various formats such as blog posts, videos, infographics, whitepapers, and case studies to deliver your content. You can also optimize your content for search engines to increase your visibility and generate more B2B leads.
Attend niche events and conferences
While attending general events and conferences can be overwhelming, attending niche events and conferences can be a great way to generate B2B sales leads without cold calling.
These events allow you to connect with your target audience in a more intimate setting and establish relationships with potential customers.
You can also use these events to showcase your expertise, promote your product or service, and learn about the latest trends in your industry.
Participate in online forums and communities
Participating in online forums and communities is a great way to generate more qualified sales leads. By joining relevant groups on platforms like LinkedIn, Quora, and Reddit, you can connect with your target audience and establish yourself as a trusted authority in your field.
You can also use these platforms to answer questions, share valuable information, and promote your product or service.
Create a Podcast
Creating a podcast is a unique way to generate leads for B2B sales. By hosting a podcast, you can share valuable insights and expertise with your target audience, establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry, and attract potential customers who are interested in your products or services. Incorporating sales storytelling into your episodes can further captivate and engage listeners, turning them into potential leads.
The content you provide should cater to listeners at various stages of the buyer’s journey, nurturing leads and helping them progress from MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) to HQLs (Highly Qualified Leads) by demonstrating the value you can offer. To further incentivize engagement and capture leads, you can require listeners to provide their contact information to access bonus content or exclusive offers.
Conduct Surveys
Conducting surveys is an effective way to generate leads in B2B sales. By gathering information from potential customers about their needs, pain points, and preferences, you can tailor your offerings to better meet their needs and provide more value to your audience.
This deeper understanding can ultimately improve your lead to MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) conversion rate, ensuring you’re focusing your sales efforts on the most promising prospects.
To generate leads from surveys, you can require participants to provide their contact information in exchange for access to the survey results or other valuable resources.
Conclusion
Generating leads for B2B sales requires a creative and strategic approach. While conventional methods may still be effective, it’s important to explore new and unconventional ways to reach potential customers and build relationships with them over time. Implementing sales cadence best practices can help streamline these efforts and enhance the overall effectiveness of your sales strategy.
By hosting webinars, creating referral programs, leveraging social media, attending industry conferences, using influencer marketing, offering free trials, creating a podcast, conducting surveys, and creating interactive content, you can generate qualified B2B sales leads and grow your business.
Experiment with different methods to find what works best for your business and audience, and don’t be afraid to try something new. With the right approach, you can generate a steady stream of qualified leads that will help your business thrive.
Watch this video for the tips to make your sales funnel work.
If you’re struggling to generate qualified B2B sales leads, we’re here to help. Our team of experts has extensive experience in helping businesses of all sizes generate leads through unconventional methods.
To learn more about ONLY B2B’s lead generation services, and how we can help you generate more qualified B2B sales leads, please contact us today. We’re excited to learn more about your business and help you achieve your sales goals.
Must Read: How To Generate Sales Leads Without Cold Calling?
Vikas Bhatt is the Co-Founder of ONLY B2B, a premium B2B lead generation company that specializes in helping businesses achieve their growth objectives through targeted marketing & sales campaigns. With 10+ years of experience in the industry, Vikas has a deep understanding of the challenges faced by businesses today and has developed a unique approach to lead generation that has helped clients across a range of industries around the globe. As a thought leader in the B2B marketing community, ONLY B2B specializes in demand generation, content syndication, database services and more.