Leads are crucial if you want your company to succeed, but many B2B companies are losing leads regularly without even realizing it. The problem is never crystal clear because lead generation relies on so many moving parts.
Your marketing team, sales team, and account reps need to work together to produce the best results. Any hole in your process can cause big losses. Here are some signs to look for if you're losing qualified leads.
You and your competitors are too similar
Or at least your approach to marketing is. How many times have you deleted an obvious sales email before even reading it? How did you know it was safe to send it straight to the inbox graveyard? Because they all look the same! If you have a really, really cool tech product or service, and if you don’t have a monopoly on the market, chances are your competitors are also using email marketing, gated content, and trade show tactics.
Get creative (and conversational!) with your approach. One of our clients recently developed a customer referral program with a branded bluetooth speaker and thoughtfully designed packaging to encourage referrals. Another client launched a series of friendly videos (both organic and paid) to boost traffic to their new site. So, track your competitors and whatever they’re doing…do something different.
Your CRM is stale
This is two-fold.
Some leads are just sitting, waiting for your miracle SaaS product to make their lives easier and more efficient. The reason you may not have been successful in the past is that you hit them with the wrong message or at the wrong time. If you simply chalk that up as a loss and let them sit in your CRM to rot, you are missing huge opportunity. Until a lead unsubscribes or asks to be removed from your database (hey GDPR), it is safe to assume that you can still contact them and attempt to bring value into their lives.
The second form of stale leads are the ones who are no longer leads you want to have in your database…they have “expired” on the shelf, so to speak. In this case, it’s time to dust them off and remove them from your CRM. You can give them one last shot with a breakup email offering them resources, should they [finally] be ready to speak up. Otherwise, start scrubbing.
Technical problems on your website
Ain’t nobody got time for slow load times, weird redirects or treasure-hunt style hidden information. Prospects are looking for quick answers and easy to follow interfaces. When was the last time you did an audit on your site speeds? SEMRush also offers a free trial, so if you’re not already using an SEO tool, you can give your site a good check-up. Also make sure everything is pointing to where it’s supposed to!
If you trust that the problem may be bigger than slow page loads and broken links, and if you think it may be time for an overhaul…consider making bigger modifications to your website and to your brand.
The market has changed and you haven’t noticed
It is vital to the health and wealth of your revenue streams to make sure you’re speaking to the market needs. We’re not saying change your whole business and service offerings! Heck no. But we are encouraging you to optimize and modify your language as it pertains to the demand of the market.
Do a quick and dirty search on competitors and see if any have encroached on your market share. Does their website open with nearly the exact same message as yours? Be honest with yourself and make a plan on how to differentiate. If you need help getting creative, book a time to chat with us about your business specifically.
You come on too strong
It’s exciting when someone is interested in what you have to offer, but nothing is more frightening than an overly eager salesperson. Maybe your team is only 2-3 people, or maybe you have a roster of seasoned, but hungry, salespeople. Whatever the case is, remember that the transition from marketing to sales is a delicate art, and the most IMPORTANT factor is that you treat prospects like people and not dollar signs. This means you figure out what their needs are before you start selling or push them onto the next representative in your funnel flywheel.
Conversational marketing is the key to marketing and sales success at B2B tech companies. Start a conversation with Sales Qualified Leads versus spamming them with non-personalized marketing tactics.
