Check out the chart from MarketingSherpa below. The lack of high quality leads is THE biggest problem facing BtoB sellers. What’s more…it’s getting worse!
While 7 out of 10 companies said “Generating high quality leads” was a problem in 2009, in 2010, it’s grown to 8 out of 10! As a direct result, less than 1/2 of salespeople make quota today!
Lengthening sales cycles, creating value and marketing to larger groups are also concerns. Lead generation must deliver quality and not quantity.
In his upcoming book, The Truth About Leads, (with a quote from the Fearless Competitor on the cover.) Dan McDade of PointClear argues that salespeople need FEWER leads. Certainly, 75 very high quality leads beats 300 names on a list. And Find New Customers client OneSource had the same problem – tons of low quality leads, so salespeople have no trust in them.
To answer these challenges, B2B sellers MUST develop
- strong value propositions
- create buyer personas
- engage in content marketing
- gently nurture leads over time, and
- score those leads to identify those ready to talk to sales.
One key point — marketing automation software makes it possible, but without great content and strategy, marketing automation will NOT fix the lead quality problem. Content Marketing is a critical element and most companies should look for outside help from demand generation companies like Find New Customers.
