30 Actionable Methods for B2B Sales Lead Generation in 2024

Generating leads constantly is not just the foremost priority but a headache for most businesses. It becomes more difficult with B2B companies. 

In fact, 91 out of 100 B2B marketers say that lead generation is the most important goal for them. 

However, it's easier said than done (especially for B2B spaces). Fret not, we’ve listed down 30 actionable tips to generate money-making B2B sales leads for your business. 

Let’s get started.

Watch our YouTube video on B2B Lead Generation Secrets - How To Find Untapped Warm Leads. Watch Now!‍

B2B Lead Generation: Definition, Benefits, and Types

B2B lead generation is the process of identifying, attracting, and converting potential customers into qualified leads for a business's products or services. Unlike B2C lead generation, which focuses on individual consumers, B2B lead generation targets other businesses and organizations.

Benefits of B2B Lead Generation:

1. Increased Sales Revenue: Successful lead generation efforts can result in a steady stream of qualified leads, which, when converted, can lead to increased sales revenue for the business. Businesses that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost.
2. Improved ROI: B2B lead generation can help businesses improve their return on investment (ROI) by targeting their marketing efforts towards high-quality leads that are more likely to convert. According to HubSpot, companies that automate lead management see a 10% or more increase in revenue in 6-9 months.
3. Better Customer Relationships: By focusing on generating leads that are a good fit for their products or services, businesses can build stronger relationships with their customers. This can lead to increased customer loyalty and repeat business.
4. Increased Brand Awareness: Lead generation activities, such as content marketing and social media engagement, can help businesses increase their brand awareness and visibility in the marketplace. According to Content Marketing Institute, 80% of business decision-makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement.
5. Competitive Advantage: Effective lead generation can give businesses a competitive advantage by helping them stand out in a crowded marketplace. 89% of B2B marketers say that generating more leads is their top priority.
6. Data-Driven Decision Making: B2B lead generation relies on data and analytics to identify trends and make informed decisions. This data-driven approach can help businesses optimize their lead generation efforts for better results.

Types of B2B Leads

Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs)

‍These are leads that have shown interest in a business's products or services but are not yet ready to make a purchase. MQLs are typically identified through lead scoring, which assigns points based on the lead's behavior, such as visiting the website, downloading content, or engaging with email campaigns. For example, a software company may consider a lead who has downloaded a whitepaper about their software as an MQL

‍Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)

‍These are leads that have been identified as being ready to engage with the sales team. SQLs have typically been nurtured by the marketing team and have shown a strong interest in making a purchase. For example, a marketing agency may consider a lead who has requested a demo of their services as an SQL.

Product Qualified Leads (PQLs)

‍These are leads that have already used or interacted with a company's product or service and have shown a strong interest in purchasing. PQLs are often identified through in-app usage data or customer feedback. For example, a SaaS company may consider a trial user who has completed certain key actions within the software as a PQL.

Also, there are other three lead types:

1. Service Qualified Leads (SQLs): These are leads that have expressed interest in a company's services and have been qualified by the sales team as a potential customer. For example, a consulting firm may consider a lead who has requested a proposal for their services as an SQL.
2. Cold Leads: These are leads that have shown some interest in a company's products or services but have not been qualified as MQLs or SQLs. Cold leads may require further nurturing before they are ready to engage with the sales team. For example, a lead who has signed up for a company's newsletter but has not interacted further may be considered a cold lead.
3. Warm Leads: These are leads that have shown a higher level of interest or engagement compared to cold leads but are not yet ready to be passed on to the sales team. Warm leads may require additional nurturing to move them further down the sales funnel. For example, a lead who has attended a webinar or engaged with multiple pieces of content may be considered a warm lead.

What are the Key Challenges of B2B Lead Generation?

B2B lead generation is a complex process that requires a deep understanding of the target market and effective strategies to engage potential clients. Some of the key challenges in B2B lead generation include:‍

Longer Decision-Making Cycles‍

B2B purchases often involve complex products or services that require careful consideration. According to a study, the average B2B sales cycle has increased by 22% over the past five years. This longer decision-making process can be attributed to the need for extensive research, consultations with various stakeholders, and budget considerations.

Multiple Stakeholders Involved‍

B2B buying decisions typically involve multiple stakeholders, including decision-makers, influencers, and gatekeepers. Each of these stakeholders has their own set of priorities, concerns, and preferences. Research shows that the average number of stakeholders involved in a B2B purchase is 6.8. Aligning your messaging to resonate with each stakeholder group can be challenging but is crucial for successful lead generation.‍

Identifying the Right Decision-Makers‍

In many B2B organizations, the decision-making process is complex and involves multiple layers of hierarchy. It can be challenging to identify the individuals who have the authority to make purchasing decisions, especially in large enterprises. As per data, 90% of B2B decision-makers do not respond to cold outreach. Building relationships and establishing trust with key decision-makers is essential for successful lead generation.

Increasing Competition‍

The B2B landscape is becoming increasingly competitive, with businesses vying for the attention of the same pool of potential clients. According to HubSpot, 61% of marketers say that generating traffic and leads is their top challenge. To stand out in a crowded market, businesses need to develop unique value propositions and tailor their messaging to address the specific needs and pain points of their target audience.

Digital Transformation‍

The digital transformation of businesses has changed the way B2B buyers research and make purchasing decisions. 68% of B2B buyers prefer to research online on their own, without speaking to a sales representative. This shift towards self-directed research requires businesses to create informative and engaging content that educates potential clients and establishes their expertise in the industry.

Adapting to Changing Buyer Behavior‍

B2B buyer behavior is constantly evolving, driven by factors such as technological advancements, market trends, and economic conditions. Businesses need to stay abreast of these changes and adapt their lead generation strategies accordingly. According to Salesforce, 82% of B2B buyers expect the same level of personalization as B2C customers.

Tailoring Strategies

To overcome these challenges, B2B companies need to tailor their lead generation strategies to the unique characteristics of their target audience. For example:

• Targeting Enterprise vs. Small Businesses: The strategies for generating leads in enterprise-level organizations may differ significantly from those for small businesses. Enterprise sales often require a more consultative approach and may involve longer sales cycles, while small businesses may respond better to more direct and concise messaging.
• Personalization: Personalizing your outreach efforts based on the specific needs and pain points of your target audience can significantly improve engagement and conversion rates. This can include customizing email content, offering targeted solutions, and providing relevant case studies or testimonials.

Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing is a critical aspect of B2B lead generation. It involves building relationships with leads who are not yet ready to make a purchase but may become customers in the future. Some common tactics used in lead nurturing include:

• Email Drip Campaigns: Sending a series of targeted emails to leads over time to keep them engaged and informed about your products or services.
• Educational Content: Providing valuable content such as whitepapers, eBooks, or webinars that address the challenges and pain points of your target audience.

Conversion Aspects

Generating leads is just the first step in the B2B sales process. Once you have identified and engaged leads, you need to focus on converting them into paying customers. This involves:

• Lead Qualification: Determining which leads are most likely to convert based on their level of interest and fit with your product or service.
• Discovery/Needs Analysis: Understanding the specific needs and requirements of each lead and how your offering can address them.
• Proposal/Demo: Presenting a tailored proposal or demonstration of your product or service that highlights its value and benefits to the lead.
• Closing the Deal: Converting the lead into a paying customer by addressing any remaining objections and finalizing the terms of the sale.

30 Actionable Methods to Generate and Convert B2B Sales Leads 2024

Here are 30 actionable methods to generate B2B sales leads in 2024-

1. Send Cold Emails

According to a HubSpot research, 64% of B2B marketers prefer cold emails as their primary lead generation channel. It's such an effective mode of lead generation that 80% consumers prefer to be contacted via emails. 

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Cold email outreach can be the primary B2B sales lead generation medium if done right. For starters, research your prospects and personalize your cold email with merge tags in Smartlead. 

Besides that, make sure you comply with internet laws (CAN-SPAM act, GDPR, etc.), write compelling subject lines & interest-based CTAs, and follow up at least 5 times. 

And do not forget to A/B test your emails to find out which variations work best for your company. 

2. Setup Sales Chat/Chatbot on Your Website

Setting up a sales chat or a chatbot in your website significantly reduces bounce rates and converts website visitors into warm leads. 

If set up and implemented correctly with a trained support team backing up, sales chat can offer personalized content to website visitors, helping them to understand your product/service better. 

This helps in converting site visitors into leads and help them make positive decisions in favor of your business. 

3. Make Warm Calls

Contrary to cold calling, warm calling is when a sales rep calls a prospect who has already shown interest in your service/product. Warm calls can be extremely effective in sales lead generation as they face fewer objections than cold calls, especially for the B2B sector where the consumer is knowledgeable. 

Practice active listening and answer objections with the solutions you can offer, and do not call your warm leads repeatedly. Most importantly, follow-up with value added information. 

4. Indulge in Conversations (As Much as Possible) 

We’ve practiced this before preaching. At Smartlead, whenever a lead asks about a solution, we just don’t throw a link to an article their way, we try to answer their query and offer to jump on a quick call to walk through the offered solution. 

And this has been working great for us. Lead generation and sales is all about building meaningful connections. If you can build trust among your prospects, you will generate more leads for sure. 

5. Join Industry-Specific Social Media Groups

LinkedIn is the biggest social media platform for professionals. So it's a no brainer to join relevant LinkedIn groups; posting content regularly and engaging with conversations will generate leads for your business. Similarly, engaging in Facebook groups can be helpful for your B2B sales lead generation as well. 

6. List Your Business on Online Directories

This is especially helpful for SaaS and B2B companies selling services or products. It helps you build a positive online presence and positive reviews can help you garner new leads. 

Some of the online directories are: 

• G2
• Capterra
• Software Advice
• TrustRadius 
• Saasworthy
• GetApp

7. Embed Promotions in Your Email Signature

While sending cold emails, you have to add your email signature to comply with internet laws. So, why not add a promotional link to it? 

Include a relevant link (website link, landing page, YouTube channel, podcast, etc.) in your email signature. This will further promote your service/product and generate more sales leads to your landing pages. 

Create your free personalized email signature today. 

8. Leverage Online Forums

Online industry forums help businesses know their existing consumers better and connect with new leads. This is a great way of showcasing expertise, building authority in your industry, and increasing brand awareness. 

9. Engage in Q&A Websites

B2B audiences are more knowledgeable about what they are buying and are more likely to do extensive research before making a purchase decision. 

It means that B2B sales reps face more resistance from their prospects. Quite naturally, many B2B buyers tae refuge in Q&A sites such as Quora and Reddit to seek solutions to their problems. So you can reach a much larger pool of potential customers by finding such questions and answering them. However, do not try to sell your product aggressively; simply focus on providing solutions to their pain points. 

10. Get More and More Online Reviews

Online reviews – you literally can’t get enough of them. In fact, 87% B2B buyers go online to look for honest reviews. So, if your customers are leaving positive reviews about your service/product online, it will help you generate leads faster. 

You can encourage your pre-existing satisfied customers to share their feedback online. 

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11. Run Lead Gen Ads on facebook and Twitter

This is a paid but effective B2B sales lead gen method nonetheless. Twitter and facebook lets you run lead gen ads to generate email addresses of your prospects. 

Make sure you are targeting specific keywords and make the ad interesting to drive more attention towards it. Redirect your Facebook and Twitter crowd to a landing page with an opt-in form or a newsletter so you can collect email addresses. 

12. Generate Referrals from Existing Customers

Building a trusted relationship with your customer is very important. Try to engage with them with relevant content, industry updates, and offer quick support to solve their problems. 

And once you build a solid relationship with your existing customer, ask for referrals. You can request them to introduce you to new vendors, companies, decision-makers, etc. 

13. Use LinkedIn to Find New Leads

A recent study has shown that a staggering 89% of B2B marketers leverage LinkedIn for lead generation. LinkedIn is the largest social media for professionals. So, go to LinkedIn, search for your contacts and existing customers, and check their connections to find potential customers. 

You can send InMail to your prospects, which has a 300% higher reply rate than email.

14.  Find Out Your Competitor’s Unsatisfied Customers

Your competitor’s folly can be your fortune. 

Search for competitors who are offering a similar service/product. Check whether they are priced higher, lack any features, or simply downerforms than yours. Now go to social media platforms, review and Q&A websites and find out unsatisfied customers to reach out to them. 

15. Nurture Leads with marketing Automation

After collecting email addresses of your prospective customers, use a marketing automation platform or a cold emailing tool like Smartlead to send personalized and targeted messages for conversions. 

Sales teams can also leverage the leads in a marketing funnel and turn them into sales qualified leads (SQLs). Again, an outbound automation tool can help you send customized emails and nurture these leads at scale. 

Using technology will also help your marketing team to save time and focus on what they do best, marketing. 

16. Introduce Live Chat Support 

An interesting study on customer behavior shows that 42% of customers choose live chat support for their questions. Live chat support tools like Drift lets you communicate with customers within the website and helps in lead nurturing to generate more B2B sales leads. 

17. Increase Website Traffic with Google Ads

Running Google ads to drive more traffic to your website seems pretty simple, but it can be expensive and a bit tricky based on your business type and competition. If you don’t target the right keywords, you might not see the desired result. So, pick keywords carefully by looking at their search volume and intent. 

18. Leverage SEO to Increase Website Traffic

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the practice of increasing organic traffic to a website or a web page. In your blog or landing pages, make sure you are targeting the right keywords to promote your product/service. 

Focus on offering value to your prospects, write high-quality long-form content, and maintain SEO best practices to rank on top of SERP. Increased SEO ranking can do wonders to your web traffic and fast-track lead generation. 

Tools like Google Analytics, Moz, Ahrefs, Semrush, or Ubersuggest can help you do your keyword research.  And focus on long-tail keywords to rank faster. 

19. Optimize Your landing Pages

A click from a Google ad or specific keyword search should redirect to a landing page on your website. Based on the keyword and search intent, your landing page should offer the exact solution a prospect is looking for. 

CTAs play a crucial role in landing pages; so craft a strong interest-based CTA to increase B2B sales lead generation. Offer your visitors a case study or an eBook in exchange for their email address and phone number. You can use double opt-in forms as well. 

20. Use Newsletters 

According to a study by Content Marketing Institute, 81% of B2B marketers named newsletters as their most used form of content. If you have an active blog, you can generate backlinks (for higher domain authority), organic traffic and leads. Newsletters also help you stay connected with your existing customers. 

21. Create a Highly-Targeted List of B2B Contacts

Creating a targeted list of business contacts is very crucial for generating sales leads. However, make sure you don’t buy email lists from third-party data providers as these lists can be filled with outdated information and false email addresses. 

Use a lead gen software to create your own lead database. 

22. Host Webinars for Lead Generation

Webinars, especially after the pandemic, have become a great source of lead generation and promotion of a business. These are online conventions where industry experts talk about relevant topics to the target audience. 

Host webinars to generate warm leads and also build brand authority. 

23. Send eBooks

eBooks help B2B sales leads to acquire useful data and solve their pain points. As eBooks and PDFs are great sources of lead gen, offer free eBooks in exchange of email addresses. 

24. Interview Industry Leaders and Influencers

B2B prospects are always in the lookout for information to solve their pain points. And as the world is relying more on ideo content, leverage it for your B2B sales lead generation strategy. 

You can start a YouTube channel and interview industry leaders and influencers related to your industry. 

This will help you build a solid network and generate way more leads than written content. 

25. Use White Papers to Attract Leads

Creating white papers is a smart way of attracting visitors to your company website. Create reports, guides, case studies, and testimonials on industry-specific subjects to attract a large number of prospects to your website. 

26. Publish Guest Posts

Leveraging someone else’s traffic to generate more leads for your business seems smart, right? By writing guest posts on your competitors’ or industry-related websites, you can drive their organic traffic to your site. 

It helps you build site dominance and establish your authority. Guest posting regularly will help your blog posts rank better on SERP and generate more leads. 

27. Press Release

Issuing press releases for important announcements and industry news will help you drive more traffic to your website and generate B2B sales leads.

Top online press release websites include: 

• Cision
• NewsWire
• PR NewsWire

28. Start an Advisory Board

Starting an advisory board has been proven fruitful for startups and small businesses. It is an informal group of advisors who act as influencers to target Tier 1 target accounts for introduction on a personal level. 

Thai way you can generate high-value leads. 

29. Attend Industry Events

Events are a great place to meet prospects and decision-makers. So, attend and speak in industry events to attract new leads. 

Here are some guidelines: 

• Make sure you gather lead contact information. 
• Try and converse with decision makers in your prospect companies. 

30. Launch Partnership Programs

This is easily understandable with a simple example. If you are running a law farm, an accounting farm might also have the same customer base. 

So, you can collaborate with non-competing companies for partnership programs and generate fresh leads. For example, if you have a cold emailing tool, you can collaborate with a meeting booking SaaS tool. 

Understanding the Team Roles in B2B Lead Generation

Marketing Team:

1. Lead Generation Strategy: The marketing team is responsible for developing and implementing lead generation strategies to attract potential customers. This includes creating targeted campaigns, producing valuable content, and managing social media channels.
2. Content Creation: Marketing teams create content that is relevant and valuable to the target audience, such as blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, and videos, to attract leads and nurture them through the sales funnel.
3. Lead Nurturing: Marketing teams nurture leads through automated email campaigns, personalized messaging, and targeted content to move them closer to making a purchase decision.
4. Analytics and Reporting: Marketing teams use data and analytics to track the effectiveness of their lead generation efforts, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions to optimize their strategies.

Sales Team:

1. Lead Qualification: The sales team is responsible for qualifying leads generated by the marketing team to determine their readiness to make a purchase. They evaluate the lead's fit with the company's products or services, their budget, timeline, and authority to make a decision.
2. Relationship Building: Sales teams build relationships with qualified leads through personalized outreach, product demonstrations, and consultations to understand their specific needs and provide tailored solutions.
3. Closing Deals: The sales team works to convert qualified leads into paying customers by presenting proposals, negotiating terms, and closing deals.
4. Feedback Loop: Sales teams provide feedback to the marketing team on the quality of leads generated, the effectiveness of lead nurturing efforts, and suggestions for improving the lead generation process.

Collaboration between Sales and Marketing

• Alignment: Sales and marketing teams must align their goals, strategies, and tactics to ensure a seamless lead generation process. This includes regular communication, shared metrics, and joint planning.
• Lead Handoff: There should be a clear process for handing off leads from marketing to sales, including criteria for lead qualification and timing of handoff.
• Continuous Improvement: Both teams should regularly review and analyze the results of their efforts to identify areas for improvement and implement changes to optimize the lead generation process.
• Shared Tools and Technology: Sales and marketing teams should use shared tools and technology, such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems, to track leads, monitor interactions, and ensure a unified approach to lead generation.

Conclusion

Gathering high-quality B2B sales leads is the most important task of every B2B business. SDRs can apply these effective strategies to produce more B2B sales leads. Improving your sales performance and by redefining outbound strategies with sales techniques and adapting with new trends to generate the best quality leads for your business. Move your leads faster through the sales funnel to skyrocket your sales and revenue. 

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