ABM TacticsSales Enablement

How Can You Improve B2B Lead Qualification for Demand Generation?

Ways to Improve B2B Lead Qualification for Demand Generation

How can marketers aiming to boost their sales pipelines and drive revenue growth be any more certain that the demand they are creating is worth the effort? In today’s extremely competitive B2B scene, lead qualification is absolutely pivotal.

Understanding the Importance of Lead Qualification

Identifying which leads are likely to become paying customers is what lead qualification is all about. When HubSpot studied the issue, it found that businesses that prioritize lead qualification experience a 20% increase in conversion rates compared to those that do not. However, many organizations are not good at this aspect of their sales process. Consequently, they waste a lot of resources and miss a lot of opportunities.

In addition, effective lead qualification conserves time. Sales teams can zero in on leads that resonate with their ideal customer profile (ICP) instead of chasing down every single lead thrown their way. This approach drastically reduces the risk of burnout and ensures that all sales professionals can concentrate on nurturing only those accounts with burgeoning potential.

Common Challenges in Lead Qualification

Even though it is very important, many companies have trouble qualifying leads. They face some pretty common obstacles, such as the following:

Misalignment: The sales and marketing teams usually do not agree on what constitutes a good lead.
Data Overload: The many channels through which we receive data make it nearly impossible to see for sure what the truly valuable leads are. It’s a lot of data to wade through.
Teams may differ in their assessment of the quality of leads if there is no clear lead-scoring system.

Furthermore, not tackling these obstacles can greatly restrict the drive toward demand generation. Consequently, companies can find it difficult to produce adequate numbers of qualified leads, and lead-producing activities seem to have a better chance of contributing to growth if they exist in a context where demand is already present. In other words, these activities seem to contribute to a “virtuous cycle” of growth.

How Can You Improve B2B Lead Qualification for Demand Generation?

A systematic approach is required to enhance lead qualification. Here are several strategies that can be considered as actions:

Define ideal customer profiles (ICPs).
Create a lead scoring system.
Use the right tools.
Enforce a follow-up framework for unqualified leads.

Each of these can be explored further.

1. Develop a Clear Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

A robust ideal customer profile is fundamental to effective lead qualification. An actual ideal customer profile defines the characteristics of actual customers most likely to achieve the kind of results that you sell to and for. (Key metrics that you should consider when constructing your actual ideal customer profile include:)

The realm of manufacturing and production.
Size of the company
Location

“Budgeting starts with setting a budgetary goal, which is a certain value to be achieved that is in accordance with the precision time distances of the overall project being worked out. The following are elements that need to be part of budgetary considerations:

items that are to be included in the budget
itemized values of everything included in the budget
accounting for all revenues and sources of funding
actual expenditures
estimates of projected expenditures
amounts allocatable to unanticipated future expenses.

Budgetary considerations become more complex with larger projects involving more stakeholders and requiring greater amounts of money. The same budgeting principles apply, but with greater levels of detail and precision required across budgeting dimensions.

As reported by Salesforce, businesses that spell out their ideal customer profile experience lead quality that is markedly better. And when companies periodically update that profile using the voice of the customer and data as guides, they tend to have an even sharper focus on the kinds of companies that make for good leads.

2. Implement a Lead Scoring System

Lead scoring gauges each lead’s potential worth. You designate scores by using criteria like the amount and quality of engagement, the kind of demographic data you hold, and how well the lead fits with your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). This allows you to prioritize the leads that are most likely to convert—and to do so with a kind of ease that you won’t find in manual prioritization.

A high level of engagement with web content could result in a higher score.

Position within the target company may impact scoring as well.

According to research by DemandGen, businesses that implement lead scoring witness a 77% increase in the quality of their leads. This means that they are identifying potential customers who are more likely to be interested in buying their products or services.

3. Utilize Technology and Automation

Current marketing automation tools have taken the lead qualification process to the next level. They can now collect and handle layers of data that far exceed the old tracking and pushing systems. When a prospect enters your funnel, your marketing automation tool not only knows it, but can slice and dice all the engagement information and passed signals in real time.

In addition, AI and machine learning can make the prediction models for converting leads much more efficient, allowing teams to center their attention on the “leads” that are most likely to pay off. As a Gartner report says, for example, the AI-driven tools that companies have at their disposal can improve lead qualification effectiveness by an estimated half.

4. Train Your Sales and Marketing Teams

It is very important to train regularly on the techniques of lead qualification. Make sure that your sales and marketing teams understand the qualified-lead criteria. This alignment creates a smooth approach to lead management and nurturing.

In addition, sharing knowledge can encourage collaboration and help teams to continuously improve their methods for qualifying leads.

Measuring the Impact of Improved Lead Qualification

Assessing how well your lead qualification strategies are performing is vital. It’s not enough to just have a qualification strategy; you need to know how effective it is. To this end, there are a few key performance indicators (KPIs) that you should monitor to get a clear picture of your strategy’s effectiveness. They include:

Lead-to-customer conversion rates
Average deal size
Sales cycle duration
ROI for activities that generate leads

For example, organizations that put in place effective lead qualification strategies may enjoy a 30% reduction in sales cycle length, owing to deeper engagement with qualified leads. This statistic serves to represent the not-so-distant benefits companies can realize from enhancing their lead qualification processes.

Conclusion

What can be done to make B2B demand generation lead qualification better? This is definitely a two-part answer. Part one—be clear about whom you want to approach. Part two—when you have leads, you must make sure that they are all leads you actually want to deal with. Lingering on either part of this answer makes your demand generation lead qualification worse. In fact, it probably makes your lead qualification worse too if you start going off into the weeds.