The seven under-leveraged sources of high-quality and high-value B2B leads

First of all, it can take a long time to build a successful inbound marketing funnel. Secondly, the model of some businesses doesn’t always fit well with an automated lead generation. When you’re selling a highly specialist product, outreach is key. 

At Upsales we combine inbound marketing with a disciplined approach to prospecting and micro-engagement to generate leads. 

The key point is that cold calling also helps to build up your marketing database and to be frank, probably stands for the largest part of our qualified leads. These contacts will become leads in the long term with good nurturing, re-engagement, and recycling of leads. 

It also creates a synergy between marketing and sales efforts and provides an alternative method of finding leads that have a better chance of responding to outreach strategies and vice versa. 

This alternative method of finding leads does not require a degree in Growth Hacking or endless Marketing resources.  For most businesses, a myriad of untapped lead opportunities is sitting right under their noses. 

In this post, you’ll learn about seven under-leveraged sources of high-quality B2B leads. 

The myth of hot vs cold leads 

Most sales reps think in black-and-white terms when it comes to lead temperature - either a prospect is red hot or ice cold. But this dichotomy is invariably false. And it has a variety of negative ramifications on pipeline velocity.

The reality is that most leads sit somewhere between these two extremes. And the first step towards an effective lead-sourcing strategy is recognizing this fact. 

How to recognize a spectrum of lead temperatures

The big problem with traditional “hot” vs “cold” categories is that they lead to entrenched discovery and nurturing processes. These categories cause sales teams to see only hot leads (and the places they can be found) and only cold leads, with no room for flexibility in the middle. 

Once you understand that prospects exist on a “temperature spectrum”, however, previously invisible or ignored sources of leads become available. What’s more, you can tailor your lead-generation and nurturing campaigns to take advantage of the most promising opportunities.

7 ways to find high-value leads

Here’s the simple reality: you already have existing leads that you’re not aware of. They’re hidden in your data. And with the right processes, you can draw them out. 

Here are seven strategies you can use straight away:

1. Group Sales

“Group sales” is a straightforward idea. 

Many of your top clients will be part of larger corporate groups. By working backward, sales reps can build a “family tree” with the holding or umbrella company at the top. Each individual entry represents a lead. 

What makes this strategy so effective is the fact that you already have a great reference in the form of your existing client. Many will be happy to make direct referrals.

2. “Unconverted” website visitors

Lots of companies assume that a website visitor is lost if they don’t complete an online form. But this isn’t true.

By tracking IP addresses on your website, allows you to identify corporate visitors to your site even if they don’t pass on their details. 

A website visit from a company is a strong indicator of interest. And once you’ve matched traffic to corporate details, you can reach out. The chance is big that you will reach out to them just in time during their evaluation process, and a call might just be enough to book in the first sales meeting. 

4. Twins

The “twins strategy” involves building an ideal customer profile based on the shared traits of your top clients.  

Start by asking questions like the following:

  • What industries do they belong to?
  • What is the average revenue?
  • What are their average employee numbers?
  • Which are the most common sales challenges?
  • Which features do you offer that solve the above challenges?   
  • Which is the most common toolset? 

Use these details to find similar companies and to adapt your outreach into a detailed personalized cold call. This approach works better than a traditional ICP (ideal customer profile) because it’s based on data about high-value leads that are highly specific to your company. 

4. Win-backs

It’s uncommon for companies to utilize tested processes to win back previous clients. 

Yet research shows that “win back strategies” have a range of benefits. Past customers have already demonstrated an interest in your product or service, you have behavioral data for use in crafting an attractive offer, and they’re already aware of your brand, removing the need to build awareness. 

A customer might have churned a while ago since a feature was missing that you today offer. Or your lost customer might have made new recruitments, changed something in their offer, or have new processes and needs that will make your service more attractive again. 

A win-back strategy can quickly create a ripple effect.  Another positive effect is that it also might provide you with customer feedback and input to your product team. 

5. Lost opportunities

When’s the last time you revisited promising leads (from six to twelve months ago) that didn’t convert?

This strategy is similar to win-backs but involves ranking and re-engaging former prospects. There are many reasons why past leads may be open to a new solution, from dissatisfaction with their current provider to an absence of previous financial constraints. 

You also have the opportunity to describe any new features and improvements to your offering, which might not have been available last time the lead engaged with you. 

6. Seminar visitors

Running webinars and seminars is a very common sales tactic. But many companies let webinar visitors fall through the cracks if they don’t express immediate interest.

It’s essential to have a multi-faceted nurturing process for seminar visitors and connect with them across a variety of touchpoints.

Crucially, ensure that you have a single list of attendees that are ranked according to interest and value. You can then allocate resources to the most promising leads accordingly, and adapt content and inbound strategy accordingly. 

7. People who change jobs

People change jobs all the time. Knowing when employees of your current clients move to new companies enables you to reach out to them. 

These individuals have likely already worked with your product and may exercise control over purchase decisions. 

Use a tool like Sales Navigator by LinkedIn to search for former employees of your corporate accounts and connect with them. 

Conclusion

For many marketers, the primary focus (and concern) is delivering hot leads to sales. The problem with solely being dependent on hot leads is that it is hard to predict the success of an inbound strategy, and a lead score might say little about a prospect's true intentions.  

Therefore, it is also important to look for alternative methods to find leads that are not necessarily super hot or cold. Most companies have thousands of leads, contacts, and accounts sitting idling in their database. In this blog post we have summarized seven strategies to find high-value leads:

  • Group Sales
  • “Unconverted” website visitors
  • Twins
  • Win-Backs
  • Lost Opportunities
  • Seminar visitors
  • People who change jobs

We will run a webinar on June 26th on how to put these tactics into practice. You can sign up here (in Swedish)