5 Ways to Lose a B2B Lead Straight Away

It’s time to convert a sales lead to a customer, or a potential customer, so your initial approach is critical. Get this wrong and the lead, along with the business, is gone. Here are five ways you can lose a B2B sales lead very quickly.

• Lack of research One of the fastest ways to lose a good quality lead is failing to understand, or even uncover, the needs of the potential customer. Your business may well have the products or services they need, but failing to take on board a prospect’s business situation and pains will strike a fatal blow to the sales process. Read their website, search Google, set up Google Alerts for mentions of that company, read their annual reports and above all, ask business questions.

• No qualification Asking questions is also the key to good qualification. Here, it’s all about using the right questions at the right time. For example, if you’re just starting to get the prospect excited about your product, this may not be the time to ask them if they have budget. You must establish value before any discussion of cost. If you desperately need BANT qualification (maybe because your boss insists on it) be clever about how you approach it. At this early stage, try not to be perceived as confrontational (e.g. if you must ask an early stage prospect about budget, try asking about the process for acquiring budget, rather than the actual amount available. This is a more gentle question that can easily lead to the same information).

• Contact time You have the lead and you put it on the back burner while another task takes precedence. Interest wains quickly so urgency is of paramount importance if you wish to impress a business with your products and services. Research has shown that the optimum time to respond to a lead in the first instance is about one hour. Try to make contact within that time frame if you can. If not, 24 hours should be your outside limit.

• Sound like you mean it Many B2B pitches fail quickly due to poor delivery. What is familiar to you, is new to your prospective customer, so engage them with the excitement and vitality that you felt when the product was launched.

• Who would be involved in a decision? It sounds simple and should be the basis of all B2B sales but is often missed and is a more or less guaranteed way to fail in a sales pitch. As always, qualify who you are talking to and ensure that they are either a decision maker or an influencer.

Building a sales lead into a positive business outcome is about understanding the prospect’s business pains, and creating confidence in you and your company. It makes sense to ensure that the basics are correct as if they are not, the sale will fail.

So:

• Do the research
• Uncover the pains
• Qualify the lead carefully and appropriately
• Make initial contact as quickly as possible
• Maintain the excitement
• Qualify your contact and know the next steps

B2B lead generation is difficult, but you can make it easier by following these simple steps.