For B2B companies today, filling your sales pipeline is less about selling and more about making authentic connections. Here are 7 tips to start filling your pipeline today:
1. Be talkative and get contact information when you are part of a group or casually “networking”.
Often times a perfect candidate for your sale is someone sitting next to you at dinner or playing pick-up soccer with you. You never know unless you start a conversation and ask.
2. Don’t forget to put that data in your database.
Sure you got an email or business card, but make sure that gets into your CRM so you can add follow-up and include them in your campaigns and prospect nurturing.
3. Rent a list and start calling.
There are plenty of vendors out there who have targeted lists that you can rent and start calling potential prospects to help fill your sales pipeline. You can drill down to very specific data points, including company size, revenue, title, position and more to find the perfect match to your existing buyer personas.
4. Optimize landing pages for lead conversion.
Creating landing pages based on each segment of your target audience can be a great way to put leads in the sales pipeline. For instance, if you are selling a B2B technology solution, you may want to make one landing page for IT people and one for management. By speaking to the specific concerns and needs of each customer segment, your customers feel more comfortable taking the next step.
5. Improve targeting of decision makers (do the work upfront).
Before you start making calls and sending emails, it is important to take the time to understand your ideal customer profile. By understanding that demographics of the people you are targeting (title, geography, company size, etc.), you can craft more personal messages to improve conversion.
6. Craft an educational content offer.
When you send out your first piece of marketing content, send something that is purely educational. If a prospect feels like they are immediately trying to be sold, they are not going to go into your pipe. They might even end up going to your competition who does not try to pressure them before they were ready to buy.
7. Make opening intro free of sales and marketing lingo.
When crafting the messaging and scripts for your sales and marketing campaigns, try to keep the words “sales” and “marketing” out of it. When it comes to filling your pipeline, you should be focused on education to create awareness and desire, not selling.
For more B2B sales tips to fill your sales pipeline, you can read more educational content here. Please feel free to contact us with any questions.
