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Generating Quality B2B Leads Ain't Shakespeare,
but it's how to boost Sales in 2010

2B or not to B2B, that is the leading lead generation question in 2010. As they say about the lottery, you got to be innit to winnit.

B2B appointments are the lifeblood of a professional business, however it's also a challenge for most. "If I can get my foot in the door I can get the business," says the enthusiastic sales person. But what they may not realize is that if the sales appointment hasn't been well qualified, they'll lose their foot as the door slams down on it and they fall on their face.

With recessionary clouds threatening to lift and a bit of blue sky poking through, a marketing strategy created around developing B2B leads is the first step to a brighter future.

So how do we do it?

Well, from our experience, Achieving Quality Leads has found that on their own, letters aren't read these days and emails are binned unopened. A dynamic prospecting-by-phone campaign can be the answer. If carried out correctly, it is direct marketing at its most effective. If you decide this is the say to go for the development of B2B leads then consider the following:

Accept that you hired your sales people to be in front of customers closing business, not spending their valuable and expensive time trying to arrange B2B appointments from what is usually an out of date and uncleansed database. So either train people within your company to be effective at B2B lead generation, or find a professional outsource you can trust to do it for you.

Those developing B2B appointments will need to have highly developed listening and questioning skills and be comfortable speaking with decision makers. If they don't have strong business acumen they won't be able to recognize and develop opportunities. They need to know how to control calls through open questioning techniques. They will understand gatekeepers, so they are the 3% of callers permitted through to the boss.

Regardless of who is doing the B2B lead generation, there must be a system in place that combines call management software that tracks the current status of the data and record notes, with a telephone system that permits monitoring and recording of calls. If you don't know what is being said to prospects, you won't know if the B2B appointments are the result of quality or arm-twisting. Qualified appointments end up as cash in the bank. Those who go on unqualified appointments end up without a foot, or the deal. The game is the same, when it comes to big or small business lead generation, it's down to 4 words: Qualify, Qualify, Qualify, Quality.

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