Since B2B customers don’t often waltz through your doors and throw a checkbook down like the glove of a medieval duel, it is essential to have an effective and highly organized lead program that doesn’t just bring you leads, but informs you of their needs, nurtures them throughout the journey, and puts them in the right hands for a proposal and close.

Many factors could introduce inefficiencies into your lead program, and unfortunately, these will impact your overall sales. The buyer journey is like a chain—the weakest link is often what costs you.

Understanding what makes a poor-quality lead and the systems that create them is the first step in arming your closers with the nurtured and eager prospects that offer the cleanest sales. This blog will outline what often costs a B2B business their leads and offer a few strategies for improving your pipeline.

We hope that this format will offer you the necessary relief to craft a more effective team and overall marketing strategy.

There Is Insufficient Information About The Lead

Our metrics to potential clients can be far deeper than many salespeople expect. While the essential information would be nothing more than a name and a contact, a more robust collection of information about leads reduces your pitch’s overall sales time and effectiveness in several ways.

Firstly, it allows you to provide proactive solutions without speaking over the client. For instance, if you know that the lead comes from a large organization, you can speak to the CRM integration of your product. Without them needing to articulate the need for enterprise-level results, you can answer a condition that comes along with almost all large clients.

Coming into meetings with a baseline of relevant information also shows a degree of care and understanding. While you will still ask questions about their unique position, you can avoid time-wasting in meetings by eliminating the groundwork about their job, the field of work, and income level.

Outside of SDR and B2B prospecting, there are simple ways of introducing more effective information gathering into your pipeline. Your funnels and landing pages may contain questionnaires, or your newsletter signup may have a dropdown menu to allow users to indicate what they would most like to hear about.

In short, more effective information systems lead to more fruitful meetings.

Poorly Nurtured

A lead isn’t like a date—you don’t want to leave them hanging too long. It’s not going to create any urgency, only frustration.

A nurturing process helps the lead see your product’s value without a direct pitch. They can be encouraged by email reminders, sharing resources, or value offers that may bring them closer to your product. Vouchers, reduced rates, or case studies are all means of nurturing your leads before they meet with your sales leaders.‍

The consequences of a poorly nurtured lead could range from aloofness if they have not fully realized the scope of your offering or frustration at having been put off for too long. Nurturing your leads leaves them “warm” when they call you in for a meeting.

Without returning to our date metaphor, let’s simply say it’s for the best that your leads are sufficiently warmed.

They Have Been Rushed To Sale

Even if a lead has submitted their information to your pipeline, it is rarely an invitation to pitch in full force. Many are shopping for options in the digital age or are in the process of articulating their pain before they seek external solutions.

Moving a lead gently between the intake, nurturing, and sales process ensures not only that they are comfortable with the sale but that all parties have assessed the impact and potential outcome of your partnership. Without this crucial consideration, you may be missing out on critical understandings that will lead to mission success or potentially doom it from the start.

A lead that has been rushed to sale will be more apprehensive and of lower quality overall. Take your time, and all parties will appreciate the outcome to a greater degree. Remember, their bottom line is your bottom line—not the other way around.

Put simply, improving the quality of your leads equates to better sales and more effective strategies. But how to get there?

Radial Path offers digital marketing consultation, design, and implementation for technology and telco—especially in telecom, CDN, cloud computing, and tech startups.

Get ahead of the competition and grow your inbound with Radial Path. Attract, convert, and activate your potential customers with us. Get in touch or book a consultation with the team to get started.