This blog was edited and updated on 18.07.2023.
Originally this article appears as a LinkedIn article by Rolands Ozolins.
If salespeople struggle to find enough sales leads, a precious resource is wasted and you cannot grow your technology business to its potential.
Unfortunately, the recent research by Pipedrive confirms exactly that. When asked if they struggle to find enough sales leads, 54% of salespeople confirmed that at least sometimes they are struggling to find enough leads.
Companies should not let that happen!
It just doesn’t make sense to have a full-time salesperson at all, if she doesn’t get enough leads.
Sorry – aggressive waiting for customers to call just doesn’t cut it. Leave that to competitors!
Companies sometimes mistakingly try to solve this by hiring more salespeople following the logic that more salespeople equal more sales.
Cold calling is not always a solution, either.
Anyone likes to receive cold calls from people and companies you don’t know?
Moreover, cold calling is illegal in a number of European countries.
So what’s the solution?
Use high-quality marketing content to build awareness, trust and generate leads.
Get the e-book written!
Record an on-demand webinar related to your area of expertise.
Demonstrate your competence with blogs, short videos, and social posts.
But what type of content do tech buyers in B2B find most useful?
Below is a graph of Forrester’s study asking B2B technology buyers what content they find useful. Case studies are the most useful content, followed by whitepapers that are supported by data.
Marketing content changes everything in B2B.
This is because buying in B2B is not an easy or pleasant process. In many cases, buyers are making a risky decision with possibly dire consequences for their careers.
Nobody wants to take the blame for a failed solution or implementation.
As a result, buyers are desperate for high-quality information that can help them make better decisions, and (this is important!) argue for the solution they prefer.
Content that helps to solve a certain problem is the best way to identify potential buyers and grow your technology business.
So it is a good idea to plan a customer journey and provide your buyers with marketing content to help them buy and help them argue on your behalf.
What’s more, leads that are generated with high-quality content are happy to talk with your sales representative about your solution.
Why?
Because your company has already proved itself to be helpful in helping to understand how to deal with problems that prospects have. It has explained a challenging topic and proven its competence.
How marketing content impacts 2b2 technology buyers?
What do salespeople say about working with content-generated leads? Here is what we often hear on review calls with our clients:
- ‘I am getting very high-quality leads’
- ‘I get directly to the decision-maker. No more wasted effort to get past gatekeepers.’
- ‘I have really good conversations. They treat me with respect. It normally never happens on the first call’
- ‘Call success rate has significantly increased
- ‘They may not be ready to buy now, but I have established a strong relationship and allowing me to follow up’
- ‘It feels they treat me much better than usual’
Prospects are not getting calls from a no-name company trying to push through. Instead, they perceive that a representative from a competent, authoritative, and caring company is calling prospects who are interested in solving a specific problem. It’s a win-win.
A competitor with the best content gets more of customers’ time, can shape customer requirements and ultimately, is more likely to win the business.
Lead generation with quality content (we at IBD Consulting call it Digital Sales Engine) is the most potent demand generation tool for tech companies in Europe. We see success every day.
How Digital Sales Engine helps grow your tech business?
Prospects interested in your solution are identified with the use of marketing content. Marketing automation and analytics then allow to figure out which prospects are qualified leads. Qualified leads are then forwarded to your sales team.
Just like in this super short video below.
Some of our clients without internal marketing are able to generate qualified leads and start selling, others are able with minimum resources to build up a strong pipeline in international markets, yet others are able to open doors to senior executives, have a quality sales conversations and grow their technology business as a result.
From what I have seen in the last years, almost every tech company serving B2B markets would greatly benefit from quality marketing content.
If a company can only do as little as 2 things, I would recommend starting with case studies and a product video.
If you want to learn more about setting up your own Digital Sales Engine, read our Guide to Lead Generation.
