How to Generate Leads for Sales: A B2B Tech Marketer’s Guide

How to Generate Leads for Sales: A B2B Tech Marketer’s Guide

Here at Headley Media, we get asked to provide sales-ready leads, or sales qualified leads, regularly. Why is this a problem? Because it underestimates the importance of one of the most fundamental aspects of successful B2B marketing. And this lack of understanding is a major reason why so many tech marketing campaigns fail when it comes to B2B sales lead generation. Let me explain. 

How to Generate Leads for Sales 

Picture the scene. Your friends have set you up on a blind date. They’ve told you about this person. They’re sure you’ll like them. But you haven’t met them yet. Still, your friends have nice things to say about them. Maybe it’s a good idea. Maybe this blind date will be someone you can get on with.  

Would You Propose Marriage on a Blind Date? 

This is the position your prospective clients are in when they’re passed on to you as a lead. They may have heard of your brand. They may know you may have a solution they’re looking for that could really help them in their business.  

But then… your date arrives at the restaurant. They talk to you about themselves for hours, never once asking any questions about you. At the end of the evening, they get down on one knee with a wedding ring and propose.  

Now, ask yourself, how likely are you to say yes? 

This may seem ludicrous. But transfer this scenario to your sales funnel and that’s what you’re doing to the leads you’re buying if you don’t take the time to build their trust and nurture their belief in your ability to solve their business challenges. Going straight for a sale after they’ve just met you isn’t only off putting – it’s downright weird. 

They’re probably not even sure you know what their business challenges are, because you haven’t taken the time to prove that you know them. Is it any wonder they don’t convert to a sale right away? 

Yet despite intuitively knowing this is the wrong approach, too many tech businesses still fall into this trap.  

How to Generate More Qualified Leads 

There are three ways to create more qualified leads ready for further nurturing: 

• Single Touch. With this approach, prospects download one piece of your content, provide their full business card information, fit your target criteria and are fully validated to qualify as a lead. 

• Double Touch. As the name suggests, prospects are exposed to your brand twice. Readers who download your content in return for their full business contact information then receive a second resource from your brand, qualifying them further. 

• Nurture Track. A more sophisticated approach, this process involves getting prospects to populate a minimum of two forms with their business contact information, download at least two content assets, and explicitly consent to hear from your business directly.  

These are just the basic approaches to B2B technology lead generation. There are then even more ways to enhance the process and generate even more qualified leads who are closer to being sales ready. 

Using Intent Data   

While demographic information can give you a broad overview of who your leads are, intent data shows you what topics they’re researching, what products they’re looking at, and indicates what they’re about to spend money on. 

It’s no wonder intent data has grown in popularity, because it offers a ton of information about prospects’ behavior and buying signals. This is particularly important because all buyers today want to self-serve all or part of the buying journey. 

Getting valuable intent data can be challenging if you struggle to generate traffic to your own websites or content. This is why so many companies work with specialist intent data providers – and why it’s important to work with reputable ones that can be transparent about how they comply with data privacy legislation.  

A good provider will also be able to offer valuable feedback about the customer journey of your ideal prospect and where they are in the funnel based on the intent data collected. But intent data is not the only way you can enhance the quality of your B2B sales leads.  

The Best Way to Generate Leads for IT Sales 

IT and tech purchases are large ticket items. They can take time to implement too, and this – combined with the relatively high cost of investment – is why multiple stakeholders tend to get involved, from Finance, IT, Operations, and more.  

And because the information and technology industry is constantly evolving, professionals are continuously looking for the latest information to help them make decisions. That’s why B2B lead generation today is all about finding ways to engage professionals, connect with the right people, and encourage them into your marketing funnel. 

This is about getting these prospects to notice you and then building relationships with them over time, initially by offering them engaging and useful content relevant to their business and technology challenges. As Headley Media’s VP of Sales, DACH Christian Hoelscher puts it: “The best IT lead generation ideas involve giving away useful content for free – in exchange for business card information.” 

The business information is what allows you as a company to contact that prospect. They’ve downloaded a piece of useful content from your business. In return, you’ve got their information and their consent to hear more from you. But you must give real value to the right individuals at the right time.  

This is difficult, which is why so many technology companies opt to work with reputable content syndication suppliers who can put their valuable content in front of the right people, generating marketing qualified leads who are interested in what you have to say and who are ready for nurturing.  

When to Hand Technology Leads Over to Sales 

Now we come to the hardest part of generating technology sales leads – knowing when your MQLs have become SQLs and are ready to be handed over to Sales. Although many companies continue to get this wrong, it’s not due to lack of data on the topic. On the contrary, years of experience have show us several ways that B2B technology companies can do this effectively.  

Lead scoring is one very common method many B2B brands use for this. As you probably know, lead scoring is a way to identify and focus on those leads that are most likely to convert first. You do this by tracking how your lead has engaged with you, whether by opening an email, liking a social media post, reading a web page, or downloading a piece of syndicated content. 

By attaching a points value to each potential interaction, you then create a score which, when a prospect hits it – say, by opening a certain number of emails, plus downloading more than two pieces of content – means they are qualified.  

You can also use a checklist to help ensure you get the best B2B sales leads. After all, the higher quality your leads, the more likely they are to be a good fit for your products and services and to hit your lead score sooner. 

Lastly, it’s also important to stay aligned and in touch with your sales team to get their feedback. A good sales team knows which leads are most likely to be a good fit for your business and which are more or less likely to convert. Their feedback can be a great way to keep reviewing and revising your lead scoring accuracy, as well as getting a sense of when they think a lead is ready to talk to.  

Where some technology sales teams can be too keen to access leads too early, a team of more experienced B2B salespeople that’s properly aligned with Marketing will be a great source of insight and advice. This is another reason why alignment between Sales and Marketing is so vital for success.