Ever wondered how to generate more leads for B2B? Of course you have. We all do. I’m not going to give you that one killer tactic that you’ve never heard of, because you’ve heard of them all. What I will give you is the best way to build ALL the leads you’ll ever need.
And how do I know? We’ve got 2000 go-to-market plans in our database, 500 of which we hand built with our clients.
5 Steps to generate leads in B2B
- Load up your Funnel Plan with tactics to move buyers from ‘gap acknowledged’ to ‘decision made’;
- Think about all of the possible segments or conditions for which you’ll need unique tactics;
- Choose the 5 highest priorities to be your new campaigns;
- Build a campaign for each of these segments or conditions, and;
- Adjust your gap acknowledged tactics for any of these new campaigns.
The first thing I want you to acknowledge is that it’s not about the tactics, it’s about the buyer. It’s not “Should I use social media?”, or “Where should I use social media?”, or even “How should I use social media?” Instead, you should be asking: “What would the best way be to…”, and then consider the progression you’re trying to achieve.
What would the best way be to, say, position with buyers who are looking, but don’t know about me? What would be the best way to get those buyers to accept that they’ve got a problem, and I know how to solve it? Consider the outcome you want to achieve, and then think about each of the stages in the buyer’s journey.
The buyer’s journey
In the beginning, if I’m the buyer, I know who you are. Then I’m interested. Then I accept that there’s some problem, either now or in the future, that I need to fix or avoid. Then I agree what I need. Then I’m clear what you can do to meet that need. Then I prefer it, and then I buy it.
In the end there’s a decision, and to make a decision I need to prefer your solution. But before I prefer yours, I need to know what it is, together with the other options as well. Before that, I have a need. Before that, there’s some problem I’m trying to fix or avoid. Before that, I might be interested but I’m really not yet acknowledging that there might be a problem to fix. Before that, I know who you are but I just don’t care. Before that, I don’t even know who you are, let alone care.
The point I want to make is that we need to have tactics good enough to get each of the buyer types through that journey. Some of the progressions in the journey are going to be common for all buyers under all circumstances. But, think about some of these. Here’s a list of typical buyer types:
- Some buyers actually aren’t looking, but they’re ideal. They’re really a good prospect for you, and you should be outbounding to them in some fashion. They’re definitely going to be one of the moments, or conditions, or circumstances that you will need to get buyers up to that gap acknowledge stage.
- Consider buyers who are looking. Who you don’t necessarily know. But they’re looking and they need to find you. Obviously you’ll think about search in that situation. Paid and organic.
- Think about somebody who’s just moved. They’ve just taken a role in a right kind of company, whether that’s the right industry, or even the right exact company. Think about all of the conditions.
So again, there are five steps:
- Load up your Funnel Plan with tactics to move buyers from ‘gap acknowledged’ to ‘decision made’.
Because at the 90% level, they’re going to be common for all campaigns.
- Think about all of the possible segments or conditions for which you’ll need unique tactics.
Or maybe the conditions or the triggers for which you will need unique tactics. If you’re going to the use the same tactics for each of your segments, then you don’t need to cover segments. However, if your segments are so different that you’re going to need different ways to get them up to the gap acknowledge stage, then segments would be a good use of this idea.
- Choose the 5 highest priorities to be your new campaigns.
Why five? Because we need a granular plan, not a plan that nobody can actually understand. Five’s really a working maximum.
- Build a campaign for each of these segments or conditions.
Start at ‘positioned in category’ for inbound tactics, because you don’t need to know their name. They’re going to find you. But for your outbound tactics, think again about people who meet the ideal client profile and aren’t yet looking, but should be. For outbound tactics, we’ll start at new names found. The earlier stage, or the earliest stage even.
- Adjust your gap acknowledged tactics for any of these new campaigns.
Make any adjustments to the gap acknowledge tactics onwards for these new campaigns. That is, you built a generic set of tactics to get people troubled, but do any of those five campaigns need additional tactics because of the campaign shape?
If you don’t already have a funnel plan, you can start off with a free one, which will give you the whole end-to-end set of tactics, including our most popular campaigns.
If you’re planning requires more options and power, try our paid Funnel Plan for full access to the app, including the ability to switch campaigns in and out, edit the tactics, etc.
Go to funnelplan.com, get yourself a plan, and start planning for all of the lead types and campaigns.
Our thanks
- Mike Stelzner and Marcus Sheridan, ‘Why answering questions sells’, for reminding me that the most valuable blogs answer questions, rather than share unasked ideas.
- Kirra Draper for production
- Hugh Macfarlane for scripting and presenting this week’s show
