Using BANT Methodology to Identify Potential Leads

 

In the world of B2B lead generation services, a qualified lead is a potential client who can aid and determine the quality of a company’s product or services. But how do we check upon qualifying a company’s sales leads? One of the most widely-used lead-qualification techniques is the BANT methodology.

BANT methodology is an old-school, go-to sales and lead qualification method that helps identify leads who are most likely to make a purchase. BANT stands for Budget, Authority, Needs, and Timeline and is a sales qualification framework designed to identify leads worth pursuing.

When a demand generation company uses BANT methodology, the salesperson needs to consider the following –

·         Budget – Does the prospect stand capable enough to purchase the product?

·         Authority – Who is actually involved with the purchase, and who is responsible for the final decision?

·         Need - Does the prospect genuinely needs the product? Or is it a universal need of the team?

·         Timeline – How much time does a particular prospect require for purchasing decision?

The sales team considers the prospect qualified only when it replies positively to three of the above-defined criteria.

The BANT methodology aims to collect information, qualify leads, and focus on the customer’s pain points. Sales representatives should provide value and have real conservations based on active listening instead of asking prospects a series of scripted questions.

BANT methodology VS account-based marketing solutions

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a significant technique in which organizations consider and communicate with a group of stakeholders rather than a single person. The method of seeing the group and compiling them into a record enables firms to recognize more significant income by totally understanding their demands and sharing successful material that causes them to go through the buyer’s journey.

BANT focuses on getting to know the business while dropping into the business channel, whereas ABM solutions examine and sort this out before going on to the prospects. Although both strategies’ procedure cycles are fundamentally dependent on data from or about the prospect, the path to acquiring this data differs in both techniques.

ABM focuses on a group of organizations looking forward to ensuring their requirements and accounts. BANT assembles its goals while making the main move toward the client.

B2B ABM and PBM company use BANT methodology to attract customers, ensuring top-tier success. Also, B2B HQL solutions company is known to meet BANT and sales requirements.

Account-based marketing solutions are a common and effective strategy for B2B lead generation services companies. With ABM solutions, it is possible to have a direct marketing campaign for certain target accounts.

Using intent-driven marketing in ABM solutions

Using intent-driven marketing in ABM solutions can be a powerful idea. How beneficial it will be to know exactly what topics target accounts are researching!

It is also possible to direct extremely targeted marketing campaigns to the targeted account. Thus, turning messages are highly relevant to their current research questions. Also, the chances of generating leads and converting them are much higher than broad-based messages.

Intent-driven marketing data also helps to understand the business challenges any target account is facing. While reaching out to these accounts, sales can provide a solution in the initial conversation.

Combining intent-based marketing and other digital marketing campaigns can help cater to the attention of highly intended B2B lead generation services companies.

Amplify Your Inbox with Quality Leads by Investing in Best Demand Generation Strategy

 Demand generation is not everybody’s cup of tea. This article talks about the various techniques companies can sign up for with a professional demand generation company to enjoy a competitive edge and expand its ROI. 

Here is an interesting story that I recollect about IFP (Indiana Fluid Power) closing a USD 500K deal in just 90 days by outsourcing lead generation.

Sounds interesting. Isn’t it?

Every marketer desires a sales funnel that is filled with quality leads. However, factors such as target industry, size of marketing and sales teams, technical resources, and complexity of sales cycle determine the fate of a company’s lead generation efforts.

This is the primary reason why businesses turn to third parties to ensure an uninterrupted flow of prospects.

IFP, a company involved in motion control and automation systems for the industrial and mobile OEM marketplace, turned to a third-party B2B demand generation services company. Three months later, IFP successfully closed a USD 500,000 deal and had several other opportunities lined up in the sales funnel.

Suppose IFP, a company with a specific vertical target and several other complexities, could do it. In that case, a high quality lead generation services company can make it happen for any other business.

Decoding the secret to amplifying your inbox with quality leads

As people think twice before spending a dollar, lengthy buying decisions delay the B2B sales cycle and transform it into a prolonged process.

Poor leads, incorrect target audience, failure to obtain commitments, different subsets of customers are a few reasons for a slow and lengthy sales cycle.

Can this be fixed?

Heading toward the perfect sales strategy

As suitably coined by Liz Lange, renowned fashion designer and entrepreneur, “Every brand isn’t for everybody, and everybody isn’t for every brand.”

This beautifully explains the importance of wisely selecting your audience and building sales strategies that actually work.

There are several alternatives that third-party lead generation service providers offer. A business should thoughtfully select the permutation and combination that displays the potential to fulfill the company’s demand based on its requirements and the end goal.

Below is an assortment of lead generation services that businesses can mix and match to get sales in green and make profits.

Let’s check out what these options look like,

The power of data

In this digital era, data is an inevitable element in the marketing arsenal.

A B2B data solutions company with a range of solutions aids businesses to meet business objectives and scale up sales by focusing on targeted customer acquisition campaigns. They also deliver high-quality emails and data appending services that lead to higher efficiency.

High quality leads (HQL) in the sales funnel

A sales funnel is meaningful if it is sourced with high quality leads that have high chances of conversion in the near future.

But how to ensure the quality of leads?

HQL service providers are the answer.

Involved in delivering campaigns to discover qualified customer lists for a business, these services also help initiate initial communication between the brand and the lead.

Good quality leads don’t come easy. HQLservice providers often perform a combination of the following activities,

·         SEO (Search engine optimization)

·         Paid search

·         Lead nurturing

·         Email marketing

·         Whitepaper

·         Appointment setting

·         Lead follow-up

Importance of marketing qualified leads

Marketing qualified leads are a level up. They are leads that fulfill SLA (service level agreement) between the marketing and sales teams. They most often are achieved when the marketing qualified leads services company follows one or more of the following techniques,

·         Outbound content promotion

·         Contentsyndication marketing

·         Content syndication program

·         Inbound marketing and outbound sales development

Conclusion

We now live in the information world where people are well informed about their buying choices. However, it isn’t easy to find potential customers by deploying outdated, in-house, or traditional marketing and lead generation techniques. Only an end-to-end professional demand generation services company can cater to this.

Tip of the day: Say no to frivolous moves and yes to solid strategies backed with the right lead generation services deal.

The Wild World of B2B Lead Generation Strategies

 

The truth about B2B lead generation – what really works!

Want to know the greatest challenge in B2B marketing? And I swear it has nothing to do with what color dress one should wear in a presentation. The answer is “leads.”

Lead is a universe where it all begins. Without leads, there is no revenue, no clients, no raison d’être, no nothing. Without leads, you are a black hole in the universe.

And there arises a question – how do I get leads?

To produce B2B leads, marketing departments need to take a multi-channel approach.

Following are the lead generation strategies and channels for B2B businesses:

·         Social media marketing

·         Website optimization

·         Content marketing

·         Paid advertising

·         Email marketing

·         Referral traffic

Lead generation is an essential component of a well-oiled B2B sales and marketing operation. To attract more clients, it is necessary to do marketing of products and services first. A B2B lead generation company is the one that is interested in finding ideal consumers for your service or products. Also, content syndication plays a vital role in promoting thought leadership and create an effective relationship with a target audience.

Content syndication marketing – expand reach and win trust!

Content syndication marketing plays an essential role in lead generation. It helps tap a new audience or existing consumer, develops a positive perception of the brand, and adds visibility and authority that leads to qualified business inquiries.

The questions you must think upon

Is your website driving leads for your business? Is your website generating high-quality leads that your sales team can close?

Nowadays, buying journey is getting more complicated as we spend more time learning independently online than anywhere else. But the real success of a marketing leader is proven when the sales enablement services manage to convert, generate, and manage business leads and unlock new growth opportunities.

Concentrating on B2B demand generation and sales enablement services could help marketers develop a strategy to support lead management, enhance sales partnership, and develop strategic account-based marketing programs that could help buyers buy. Also, marketers must ensure that buyer enablement is available to all consumers across seller and digital channels.

Brent Adamson, Distinguished VP, Advisory at Gartner, said: “The hardest part of B2B solutions isn’t selling them‚ but buying them. Today’s buying journey has effectively reached a tipping point where it’s become nearly unnavigable without a significant amount of help.”

Demand generation marketing has so many things in common with lead generation. It acts like an umbrella covering marketing and sales initiatives from every touchpoint in the consumer’s journey – from initial prospect interest to upselling consumers.

Strategies used by demand generation agencies

·         Creating awareness amongst the target audience

·         Monetizing and converting the present in-market demand

·         Connecting sales and marketing teams for better results

Do you know?

Where do online leads come from?

The answer is your website. Here is the basic flow of how B2B website leads are produced online:

·         Traffic (visitors)

·         Website

·         Leads

Once a lead is generated and the consumer is in the target market, the lead becomes a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL). The digital marketing team will then begin promoting the lead via marketing campaigns.

Sales enablement – a key to unlock Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

Usually, lead generation models, sales, and marketing teams work together as a relay team. Marketing increases the number of produced leads, nurtures them, and hands them off to sales.

Account-based marketing transforms this process and links inbound and outbound marketing with sales to create demand in targeted accounts. Further, these coordinated account-based marketing campaigns engage and convert target accounts at every purchase journey stage.

A sales representative with a combination of account-based marketing and sales enablement becomes a social seller, engages targeted clients, and delivers insightful and powerful content that helps in the decision journey.

Takeaway

Today’s world of information overload has radically changed consumer behaviors and how they want to connect with brands. Gone are the days where marketers could rely on their product, brand, or service to attract and retain consumers.

“At the end of the day, consumers don’t just want you to show them that you know them; they want you to help them get something done,” added Adamson. “Proving you know the customer in the absence of helping them can do immense damage.”

All in all, a lead generation strategy leverages quality of content and thought leadership.

Avoid Marketing Pitfalls with Exceptional B2B Lead Generation Solutions

 

“A big business starts small.” – Richard Branson

I am sure we all unanimously agree with what the English business magnate (Mr. Branson) has quoted. Founder of the Virgin Group, he aspired to become an entrepreneur at a very young age. He commenced the Virgin Group empire at the age of 16, with a magazine called “Student,” and he never looked back since then.   

“Big success does not come without big challenges.” Unknown.

This is a quote that reveals the reality behind making it big and tasting success.

Small businesses indeed are the best as they,

·         Promote healthier communities

·         Drive innovation

·         Contribute to employment

·         And have a bright future

Interesting, isn’t it?

Despite an elaborate bright side, small and medium-sized businesses come with a bunch of marketing challenges that need to be dealt with expertise.

So, without any further ado, let’s find out how small businesses can overcome marketing pitfalls and generate B2B leads to erase that line between success and triumph.

1.     Finding customers

Finding customers is a big challenge faced by small businesses. Professional B2B lead generation services work as a reliable solution to this problem. We tell you how.

Lead generation is not an easy task. It is not just about calling or emailing any random person to crack the deal. In reality, marketers need to align several elements to hit that sale.

Here is how lead generation services help find customers,

·         They first determine your target audience

·         Set campaign goals

·         Revisit closed/lost opportunities

·         Actively engage with new leads

·         Optimize social media platforms to appeal to potential buyers

2.     Lack of resources

Challenge number two, faced by small businesses, is a lack of resources and a tight budget. Therefore, to make the most of every dollar spent, businesses should bet on customized B2B marketing solutions for a profitable outcome.

Here is how B2B marketing solutions make a difference.

Not every business is the same, so what works for you might not work for someone else. So then, why waste money and resources on generic ideas. This is where getting involved with a B2B demand generation company works wonders. And customizing what you need based on expert suggestions has the potential to drive maximum results even with the lack of resources and a tight budget.

3.     Production and delivery of content

In professional terms, we call this “content syndication marketing,” an activity involved in republishing content on other sites and platforms to reach a wider audience. Technically, content syndication marketing not just widens the reach but also builds links that help drive more traffic to the website.

Opting for professional content syndication services can do the job right.

4.     Keeping up with trends and technology

Another marketing pitfall small and medium-sized businesses face is keeping up with trends and technology. To make this easy, a data solutions agency has a plethora of options to offer.

Working in line with trends and technology is a daunting task for businesses that do not have enough resources. But a comprehensive set of B2B data solutions help you to zero-in prospects based on unmatched accuracy that aligns with the current market trends and turns data-driven-marketing into a strategic advantage.

5.     The ultimate checklist: BANT

B – Budget

A – Authority

N – Need

T – Timeline

Finding a good fit for sales reps to interact with and expecting a higher conversion rate can happen only when BANT is considered. A framework deployed to determine how qualified a lead is in investing efforts of the sales teams.

To get accurate answers to these questions, you need to tick all the checkboxes present in BANT.

Takeaway

"Si vous voulez vraiment voler, apprenez à vous lier d'amitié avec les vents."
~Curtis Tyrone Jones.

This means, “If you really want to fly, learn to befriend the winds.”

So, no matter what challenges you face, to make your small business big, it is time to build strategies and work in coordination with professionals and experts that can bring high qualified leads to your business.

Marketing is not just a one-time activity but a process. Remember, marketers at well-known businesses like Apple and Toyota don’t just sit around and wait for leads to come, even they make new efforts every single day. 

Lead Generation Solutions That Market Your Business

 The internet will continue to grow and so will competition. So, what is the element that will differentiate your business from the rest?

The answer is marketing.

As aptly coined by Winston Churchill, “Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

Associating the motivational quote to the world of business, it is time businesses courageously invest in the best marketing qualified leads company to taste success and keep the mechanism going.

Therefore, it is extremely necessary to put in the right efforts at the right time to gain something meaningful.

Create opportunities for business

The word opportunity is just like a Zen philosophy ‘koan’ that has different dimensions. If something is right for you, it might not necessarily be the same for someone else. Therefore, personalization is the key, even while selecting the best marketing solution.

More leads, please

The expected end of every marketing solution is quality leads. Businesses invest bank-breaking amounts in B2B lead generation services to maintain a healthy sales funnel that can guarantee business continuity and success.

But the million-dollar question is- How is it done?

Definitely not by blindly copying your competitor, but by evaluating and analyzing your business needs. Remember, business success is directly proportional to quality leads. Therefore, choose the best solution for unbelievable results.

Whether launching a start-up or running a well-established business, in either case, don’t wait for your leads to contact you.

The action plan

Outsource B2B demand generation services

Every business wants sales qualified leads that effortlessly move throughout the sales cycle. But the challenge lies in the preparation.

Outsourcing the task to specialized B2B lead generation companies is an excellent way to maintain a healthy sales funnel.

The success kit

Content syndication marketing

The web is becoming noisier every day. And if you believe the content that you posted on your website will be read by a large number of people, then I am afraid you are wrong.

Content syndication is a way to republish content in such a way that it reaches the masses. Well, you know websites such as The Huffington Post and The New York Times feature syndicated content that adds to their credibility.

Syndicate article does not stop at creating brand awareness; it also helps the network and drives more traffic to the original article, letting more people know about your products and services.

Benefits of content syndication

·         Boosts SEO

·         Enables lead generation

·         Increases brand reputation

·         Cost-effective

PBM/persona-based marketing solutions

Persona-based marketing is a concept that designs buyer journeys for business prospects assuming they can be grouped into a variety of individual types. Basically, it is a technique that allows businesses to better connect with their buyers and deliver well-tuned marketing information.

With the help of PBM, organizations get an opportunity to know their buyers better and understand their preferences and the preferred means of communication. As it answers questions like, who is the customer? How do they make their buying decisions and more?

Benefits of persona-based marketing

·         Deeper understanding of buyers

·         Enhanced sales and marketing results

·         Improved ROI

Account-based marketing

Are you looking for a more desirable ROI from your marketing campaigns? If yes, change the way you acquire, retain, and grow important accounts.

Many B2B marketers are adopting the fundamental of account-based marketing (ABM) as a vital element for their overall marketing efforts. ABM perfectly blends traditional short-term marketing goals and aims to drive long-term revenue growth.

Benefits of account-based marketing

·         Personalized approach

·         Higher chances of acquiring targeted clients

·         Promotes USP of the business

·         Builds relationships through networking

·         Offers large return on investment

Conclusion

Lead generation is not as easy as it sounds. It does not have a fixed formula that can be applied universally. It is a very subjective concept that requires homework, research, expertise, and the right tools.

Apart from the ones mentioned in the article, demand generation can also be done through install base marketing, B2B appointment setting services, and market intelligence system.

All that you need to do is select the perfect assortment.

Why “Demand Generation” and “Lead Generation” Cannot Be Used Interchangeably?

 Digital Marketing is a broad category with several branches. If you wander around the world of marketing, you must have heard all the related terms like Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing, and Pay-Per-Click. But very few know that these two buzz terms – Demand Generation and Lead Generation are also a part of digital marketing. 

As technology advances, terms like these help in meticulous tracking and increased accountability. You probably might’ve heard these terms quite a few times every day in your office. But people often get confused as both have many same tools and tactics. In simple words, demand generation shapes audience perspective while lead is inclined toward capturing their information. 

On the surface, many other terms talk about building a relationship with a prospect and bringing them through the sales cycle, such as account-based marketing and persona-based marketing. Considering the popularity of demand generation and lead generation, we will discuss the difference between them today. 

Demand Generation 

Demand generation is one of the branches of marketing that is designed to build awareness and drive interest in the products and services. It brings together various marketing approaches intending to reach customers through multiple touchpoints. A B2B Demand Generation Company implements a strategy in a way that the prospects feel the need to buy the product or service. 

It brings together multiple marketing practices such as PR (public relations), social media, advertising, and email marketing to pave the way toward the customers. It is for the online as well as offline customers. And all these practices are implemented to create the demand for a product or service. Every Demand Generation Company would enlist these as their core services as these can be defined as the best examples of demand generation activities. 

Examples: 

• Resource guides

• Whitepapers

• Blogs

• Email campaigns

• Exhibiting at tradeshows

• Press releases

• SlideShare

• Case studies

• Social media posts

• Free tools

The above might sound like a description to lead generation. Except it is not. Lead generation is a personalized way of marketing by converting potential customers into qualified leads. 

Learn here in the next section. 

Lead Generation

While demand generation is the need for a  product or service, lead generation is then qualifying the people you’ve attracted, taking them to the level of purchase. In simple words, it is about creating content or marketing campaigns designed to capture the contact information of the prospects. The process of capturing information is done through surveys, questionnaires, lead forms, and newsletter signups. 

For the answer to how it is performed, a lead generation company or a lead generation activity focuses on creating the value out of something and giving it as an incentive to give you the contact information in return. Also, they create a unique piece of content—in the form of Google AdWords or Landing Page—which will further help in attracting a targeted audience. According to the top marketing qualified leads provider, you can give the prospects a teaser or a hint of valuable content to receive their personal information via form filling or downloads. Be it a B2B lead generation company or a demand generation solution agency, they perform a few common activities to attract leads. 

Examples: 

• Form on the pay-per-click landing page

• Webinar

• Form to download

• Whitepaper/Ebook

• Courses

• Free trials

• Product demos

• Email subscription

• Contests

What do you want to pick for your organization?

For people putting one above the other can go wrong. Both lead generation and demand generation have their designated place and significance in the world of marketing. Demand generation has a long tail, and it can take years to reach the ROI as it is about stimulating the demand, and not delivering sales-qualified leads. 

So, how you go about putting them together in your organization? Firstly, let your efforts go in the direction to generate traffic by making people aware of a product or service. Create social media pages and publish PR(s) (press releases) to maintain and build an online presence. It is a part of demand generation. Now, the next step is to direct the visitors to leave their footprint on the website/landing page. Sounds like a tough job, but it is the best way to convert visitors into customers. 

If your organization is not able to decide what value you can offer in exchange for a customer’s contact information. And how will you use the contact information to build a relationship as you nurture that customer for sale? Contact a B2B Lead Generation Company or Demand Generation Company to set a strategy, maximize your ROI, and optimize your results. 

Lastly, never use these two terms interchangeably, but put them together at the right time and right place within your customized marketing strategies to enjoy the advantages of each of them.

Understand Marketing Nuances to Generate Highly Qualified Leads (HQLs)

The world of marketing is tangled and full of puzzles. Agree or not!

Since 19-something, when the concept of marketing incepted, till today, there has been a drastic change in the way people market their products and services. More so, methods and techniques that marketers practiced a few years back might not be ineffect today.

To be precise, there was a monopoly of manufacturers, and the marketing fundamental was simple – the product will sell automatically if the consumer really needs it. In fact, they used to sell at higher prices since the customers had very little choice.

To now, when you can find thousands of vendors for a single product type. With an advanced mindset and awareness, where people emphasize utility, quality, value for money items, the competition is tough. The theory is if the product is manufactured, keeping in mind the quality, environment, and social concerns, it is more likely to sell.

In addition to it, the efforts have to be in multiple directions today. It is only possible to reach the customers easily if the marketers ensure to lure the customers with marketing tactics such as install base campaigns, sales enablement services, HQL sales campaigns, content syndication marketing, and PBM solutions. However, the similarity is thatmarketers can still identify the potential leads and make strategies based on the target audience. They can still find out what entices the audience and strategize the marketing tactics revolving around it, which is more or less the same to the early years of marketing.

So, one thing is clear – the marketing hustle becomes easy when you have access to quality leads or highly qualified leads. The experts of this domain are demand generation and marketing qualified leads companies.

What are highly qualified leads for your business?

Do you work at or run a business that lives or dies by the number of qualified leads that come in. For those in the services business, especially B2B businesses, know the struggle. The b2b businesses are about getting more leads than they close into contracts. The second answer is “converting more leads into sales,” this happens after the business has figured top-of-the-funnel lead generation processes.

“The sales team owns the sales funnel. But as a B2B marketer, you feed the top of their funnel.” – Doug Kessler, Co-founder and Creative Director of Velocity

Meaning, the duties lie in the hands of B2B marketer to fill the top layer with qualified leads, including marketing qualified leads (MQL), sales qualified leads (SQL), and highly qualified leads (HQL).

These are the leaders that fulfillthe service level agreement (SLA) between marketing and sales. Someone who meets the ideal customer profile, has an interest in learning about the company, can answer some basic qualifying questions, expressed interest in talking to one of the sales executives can be termed as a highly qualified lead.

How to generate qualified leads?

Lead generation is a broad term consisting of various methods & techniques. Marketers either prefer the below techniquesof lead generation:

·         Content syndication

·         Outbound content promotion by phone or email

·         B2B appointment setting services

·         B2B demand generation services

·         Website chat

·         Event leads

OR

Ensure the inclusion of these steps in their marketing strategy:

Understand what makes a qualified lead

Whatmakes it look like a quality lead is when they find that lead sees a lot of value in your solution. Also, it is required for them to know your business purpose, credibility (years in business or success story), and solutions that define your business idea. It gets easier to convince someone to purchase if they have a good idea aboutyour business.

Establish buyer’s persona

It is also required to get inside the brain of the buyer as it provides a deeper level of insight like none other. Customer surveys, focus groups,and install base campaigns are all the tools for learning how to build the trust of target buyers and influencers.

Use the right data

After identifying the potential buyers for your business, you can find the tangible aspects of their desires and behaviors. It is not only the generation of data but also making the right use of the data to communicate with the buyers and develop methodologies for converting them. So, ensure that your plan has room for data solutions services too.

Building revenue model

HQL lead generation is about talking to the right people at the right time in their business stage. As quality comes into focus, it is required for you to emphasize less on more number of prospects but more on sales-ready leads. Though you will get a limited number of leads with marketing services such as PBM solutions and BANT campaign, all of those are sales qualified leads thathave a higher chance of a conversion.

Moreover, your efforts can also revolve around using long-tail keywords, referring to social media to build a relationship with customers, creating landing pages in the form of product demos, advanced webinars, and software trials. All of these practices will create a path toward sales qualified leads or highly qualified leads for a business.

And,

You might be doing this last practice, but, if not, give it a go. Actively connect with prospects in professional networks such as LinkedIn, AngelList, and F6S. These platforms help professionals, start-up founders, and decision-makers connect, which is ultimately positive for building a marketing base.

To sum up

In a business environment, where buyers are making decisions about what companies to engage with using interactive tools, the quality of leads has become an essential thing to consider. A key feature of the change is that there will be concentration toward fewer but more profitable deals.

Fortunately, there is a clear roadmap for HQL lead generation now. It is not a single factor or method that leads to highly qualified leads ready to convert. Several techniques and marketing strategiescome together in the right manner for final conversion. The above article involves a list of methods and techniques, when implemented,will draw positive sales results.

Note: These are not all in all tactics for the generation of highly qualified leads; you might come across several other ways.

Understand what works best for your business and put it into practice!