The Science and Art Required for B2B Lead Generation

As we evaluate the world of B2B lead generation, we see two prevailing schools of thought - science-based verse art-based lead generation.

Science-Based Lead Generation

The first school of thought revolves around lead generation being very scientific. Proponents of this theory focus strictly on the numbers - if you need this many leads, you get this many contacts, you'll convert this many people into X and Y responses, and then be able to calculate the pipeline value.

It's very systemic, sterile, and quantified and does an excellent job of pointing out that it's critical to have a great set of numbers to understand how your campaigns will play out. Everything is a controlled experiment so the process is significantly more important than the person.

Art-Based Lead Generation

The other version nearly goes to the complete opposite end of the spectrum.  This group focuses on the art and skill of the lead generator - that they have this intangible characteristic and charisma that just can't be quantified, but “you know it when you see it”. These artists can generate leads in a way that others don't have the ability to and their skill seems impossible to replicate exactly. 

We have these two opposite beliefs and they tend to attract like-minded people, polarized at the two ends of the lead generation spectrum. While these two beliefs compete, lead generation firms tend to attract those that feel strongly about one end or the other. The problem with this is that what we see every day from our lead generators is that the most successful campaigns use nearly an equal combination of both science and art.

How Can We Bring the Two Together?

Like most things in life, success comes with balance and we see the most successful campaigns are derived when there's a combination of quantitative goals and a really controlled environment coupled with some special, charismatic people that have the soft skills to really make it work.

For us, it's not a focus on science versus art, it's the combination of the two that makes our lead generation campaigns so successful. To do that, we build our campaigns to use a combination of scientists and artists in the places their skills are the most needed. 

When setting up a new campaign, we really need the scientist to control the experiment.  The project management, campaign setup, the script development, and execution plan are held to very tight controls. Because of this, we use somebody who can maintain this plan and make sure everybody's following all the right steps. It really is somewhat more sterile in the fact that we must make sure that all of those things are being evaluated for what they are at the very beginning.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the person that is delivering the calls, we believe really does have to be more of an artist. They need tools so that they know how they're performing, they need dashboards so that they see where their success is, but for most of their role, if given the right set of tools, they need to just be the executor. They can focus on having some freedom and really delivering whatever the prospect needs at the other end.

In short, successful lead generation campaigns need both the skills of a scientist and artist, as long as both are asked to execute only on the items that map directly to their greatest strengths.

Where do you fall on the lead generation spectrum? Do you think the most successful lead generators are scientists, artists, or some combination of both?

5 Tips on How to Coach Yourself as a Lead Generation Specialist

There are a lot of articles from a manager’s perspective when it comes to coaching & training. What if you wanted to take initiative yourself to further your skill set? We can’t always have an expert over our shoulder 24/7 critiquing what we’re doing right or wrong. Here are a handful of tips to help you become the best lead generation specialist at your company.

1. Find a Mentor

Take note of the best performers on your sales team. What about their approach yields consistent results? You don’t have to pull them away from their job for the day, just be a fly on the wall and observe.

How do they prepare? Sit next to your mentor and you’ll begin to understand why they’re so good at overcoming objections and specific conversational transitions that keep the prospect engaged. After listening for a while you’ll begin finding ways to implement these techniques into your own strategy.

2. Listen To Your Recordings

This was something I picked up in my college public speaking and sales classes. We’d had to record ourselves giving speeches or mock negotiations/sales calls and re-watch them. It’s amazing all the quirks you might not necessarily notice in the moment. Once you can see yourself on film or hear through a recording you’ll begin to pick up on a lot of these things. All the “um’s”, fidgeting, or bad eye contact tendencies are brought to light & can be adjusted accordingly.   

3. Write Down Every Objection

Don’t be caught off guard. Make a running list of all possible objections you can think of as well as corresponding rebuttals. Just like anything else, being smooth takes practice. By having a bank of every reason anyone has ever said no to you it will lessen the learning curve of the project you’re working on. The next time you’re in that same situation you’ll know how to handle it immediately.

4. Conduct Mock Calls

In most instances, I’m sure your manager would be happy to help you out with this one. Sit down face to face and have them play the role of the prospect while you go through your cadence or script. They’ll throw different scenarios at you in a no pressure environment and this will help you adapt to unexpected dialogue on the fly.

5. Identify Industry Thought Leaders

Start learning who the industry thought leaders in your field are and follow them on social media. YouTube especially is a gold mine for short 1-2 minute training videos. Don’t be afraid to engage back, either. Others are watching those videos for the same exact reason you are so it makes for excellent learning & networking opportunities as well.

#RelationshipsMatter | Employee Spotlight: Dave Walter

Incept is a place where relationships matter. We're a creative, diverse, and engaging community uniting more than 200 team members with Fortune 500 companies, blood centers, and B2B sales teams across the United States and we want to share some of the stories from the people that make this team great every day.

Today we bring you Dave Walter, Incept's Vice President of Operations.

TRANSCRIPT:

My name is Dave Walter. I am the Vice President of Operations, and I manage the operations of our Results Division, Saves Division, and Grows Division.

What I enjoy most about working in the lead generation industry is knowing that we're doing something that is going to help keep salespeople in the field doing sales. I love knowing that we're arming them with qualified leads and saving them that time in the office or on the phone generating the leads themselves and allowing them to be experts and just get out there and sell.

 What I enjoy most about working at Incept is the culture and the people here. I've been here since the company started, so I've been a big part of developing that culture and I've had a ton of fun with it. And over the course of the years, really developed some incredible relationships with amazing people.

The reason why relationships matter so much to me here at work is because that's what makes this place so different. That's what separates us from everybody else. In the absence of those relationships, it's just a job and you can get that anywhere. I just have never had any interest in that.

The thing that I've done that I would say was probably the most fun I've had in the past year was a camping trip with my family. We like to do primitive camping, literally off the grid, no electricity, stay in a tent, cook over a fire, that type of thing.  We went out, the whole family for an entire week, tent camping and just spent a ton of time not being plugged in. No television, no internet, no cell phones, literally just off the grid, spending time with one another fishing, being outside, swimming and just spending time together as a family uninterrupted. It was awesome.

Again, my name is Dave Walter, the Vice President of Operations here at Incept, where relationships matter.

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE

Want to get to know Dave a little more? See if you can spot which one is the lie in a game of Two Truths and a Lie:

Think you know the answer? Find out here. 

What Is A Marketing & Sales Service Level Agreement?

A service level agreement is a contract between two parties that defines the expected level of service. It holds each team accountable to specific, agreed-upon expectations that align to the same goal.

We recommend that you create a service level agreement between sales and marketing teams that details both marketing goals (like number of leads or pipeline revenue) and the sales activities that will follow and support them (like following up on leads qualified by marketing). Both teams use this document as a commitment to support each other, based on concrete, numerical goals.

Why Is A Service Level Agreement Important?

According to the 2017 State of Inbound report by Hubspot, fewer than half of all marketers would describe their respective companies' Sales and Marketing teams as "generally aligned."

Marketers are tired of their lead opportunities being wasted by sales. Why should we spend all this time and money just to generate leads that aren’t effectively being nurtured through the buyer’s journey?

But it’s not just the marketers that are frustrated.  Sales representatives consistently complain that the leads marketers generate aren’t qualified enough. 

Can’t we find a way to get along?

We’re extremely lucky here at Incept to not only have a strong sales and marketing relationship, but also a bunch of experience coaching other organizations to create a more cohesive approach for their sales and marketing departments.

3 Things You Need to Know When Preparing a Lead Generation Campaign

In a lot of cases, clients will come to us having little to no material on the campaign they want to launch aside from the desired end-result whether that be a survey, appointment, registrations, etc. Part of our job as the lead generation experts is being able to work with the client to help them realize the resources we need to help them reach their goals. Here’s a quick guide of a few things to lock down to ensure a smooth launch of your lead generation campaign.  

Your Target Market

First and foremost, you’re going to need to have your target market nailed down as specific as possible. Think to yourself, “Who is our ideal customer & where do we find this person?” Knowing things like industry, job title, & company size can help you skip a lot of steps when making initial contact. Even if your product or service can theoretically be applied to multiple markets – it’s best to streamline your focus on only one at a time.

Call Objectives

Establish benchmarks. What’s the most optimistic outcome that can happen from each call? Perhaps it’s an actual sale if you’re reaching out to either a customer or lapsed customer list. Maybe even a sales appointment if your approach is cold.

Now that you've established your optimistic call objective, what’s the minimum you want to get out of each attempt? This will probably start with confirming that the name of the person you have on your list is, in fact, the decision-maker you’re looking for. This can look like the following:

“Before you send me to voicemail, Mike still heads up your IT department right?”

If the operator or receptionist is friendly, take advantage and acquire an email address. Make each dial count.

Lead Follow-Up Plan

You’ve established interest from a prospect! Now what? In some cases, you’ll have a 'closer' dedicated to only follow-up activity. If you don’t have that luxury, you need an organized plan of attack as to who will be handling this crucial step. You would be surprised how often leads slip through the cracks because companies don’t appropriately follow up in a timely manner.

You can learn more about our ideal lead follow-up process here.