Outreach Tools to Make B2B Lead Generation Process Easier

Table of contents:

• What is the Role of Lead Generation Outreach in B2B
• How Lead Gen Outreach Tools Can Help
• 5 Outreach Tools to Make B2B Lead Generation Process Easier
• Conclusion

Lead generation is an agonising endeavour for most marketers — no thanks to the ever-rising competition from rival brands online.

B2B marketers don’t find it easy either. In fact, a MarketingProfs survey conducted in May 2021 revealed that 60% of B2B marketers say that lead generation challenges resulted in a significant waste of time and resources. The survey also revealed that 59% of these marketers missed opportunities due to these lead generation challenges.

One of the biggest challenges in lead generation is that it demands tons of time and relentless effort to study the ideal customer profile, craft the perfect LinkedIn message, write an email, and follow up with the customer. Thankfully, the tools in this article will help you smoothen your future sales cycle! Continue reading.

What is the Role of Lead Generation Outreach in B2B

Businesses need customers to survive. In a B2B setting, these customers are other businesses and decision-makers in the same industry.

Outreach in B2B is a way to reach out to other professionals in your industry, thought leaders, and influencers, regardless of whether you have a prior relationship with them. Like other lead generation campaigns, lead generation outreach in B2B is inherently tied to the product or service.

Here’s a brief overview of the core functions of lead generation outreach in a B2B environment:

• To identify the ideal customer for your product or service, you need to identify an individual with a genuine interest in your product/service and intent to buy at present or in the future.
• To create interest in your product or service—Lead generation outreach is a process of sparking interest in your products and services. Sometimes, customers do not know their needs because “It is not the customer’s job to know what they want” (Steve Jobs). Often, marketers unveil hidden customer needs and bring them to the prospect’s attention. 
• To nurture leads into a sale: Eventually, all your outreach efforts will narrow in on a shared goal—converting into sales. This can be achieved by educating potential customers with high-value content, e-books, case studies, articles, blogs, and other resources.
• To build a strong relationship with your customers – Happy customers are loyal customers – a quality vital in modern business. Fortifying customer relationships with excellent service and quality offerings motivates them to stay longer. Keeping a customer around longer is a sure way to save more – it costs 6-7 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one.

Ideally, lead generation outreach aims to fill your sales pipeline with high-value, qualified leads.

How Lead Gen Outreach Tools Can Help

Lead generation is a time—and resource-intensive task. The overwhelming nature of the dynamic variables in the sales cycle can wear down even the most qualified sales expert.

For instance, hot leads that have been qualified by sales can cancel at the last minute. Or pouring time and resources into a lead generation campaign only to discover that your leads are not the right fit for your business. Although some factors cannot be controlled, a lead generation outreach tool can help sand down any barriers that hinder the campaign’s success.

Here are some roles of lead generation outreach tools in your campaign:

• Reducing the manual workload for your sales team—Lead generation tools minimise workloads by automating repetitive manual tasks such as creating email templates for the campaign. Several automation tools come with pre-built templates, while others require you to create a reusable template manually. Either way, it saves time and money.
• Lead capture – Automated lead generation tools capture prospect information, including their contact information (email and phone numbers), demographics, location, and so much more on behalf of your sales team. This way, you can access customer information to follow up with them later in the campaign.
• Automated follow-up – about half of salespeople follow up with customers only once before giving up. A lead generation outreach tool can help follow-up by sending automated emails at set intervals without being too pushy, as salespeople often fear.

Of course, lead generation outreach tools can do much more for the company, provided that you have a clearly laid-out strategy.