Whenever I speak at seminars or conference one of the first things that businesses ask about is how to generate more sales leads or get better ROI from their B2B lead generation. This is what we do as a company, but I’ve been on the other end recently as a buyer. I was shocked by the experience.
I’ve been looking around for a new provider for our telephone system over the last couple of months. I did what most business owners do – contacted some friends to ask for recommendations, went online to request calls and further information and there were a number of companies who had contacted me recently who I told when the project would start and to call me back then.
Now you have to remember that I have the money available now, I know roughly what I want, I have a realistic budget and I am ready to make a decision now. In terms of B2B sales leads it doesn’t get much better than this.
From the responses from potential suppliers you’d think that we are in the middle of a boom and companies don’t need the work. The responses I got from the different lead generation methods were:
From the 6 friends I asked for recommendations only 2 of these could recommend their existing supplier, the other 4 would move away if they hadn’t invested so much money. Of these 2 companies that were recommended, only one of them got somebody in sales to talk to me after I had called them.
I did a Google search and requested information on about 6 companies. Of these 3 were very responsive, 1 took a week to send information and 2 didn’t bother. Of the 3 that were very responsive to my initial request only 2 followed it up to arrange a sales call.
Of the 3 companies that I had told when the project would be starting only 1 of these actually called me back in the time frame I gave.
Now all 15 companies promoted that I was in their target market and they had sold to similar companies to mine, but only 4 of them moved the initial enquiry to sales which is woeful.
I’m sure in each of these suppliers there are meetings about generating more leads and needing more new sales and yet the transition from marketing/lead generation to sales was a disgrace. There was certainly money spent on websites, SEO, telemarketing, lead generation etc which has been wasted.
Even if they didn’t want to sell to me then at least have the decency to tell me and retain a positive relationship in case I am in a position in the future to buy from them.
I was going to contact the MD’s of each company to tell them of my disappointment but then I thought if they can’t sort the basics out for their business then I’m not going to be the one to tell them when I am busy running my own business.
So please ensure that you aren’t one of these companies that annoys your target market before the sales process even begins. By being responsive in your B2B lead generation you are giving the impression of how you will treat me as a customer.
We keep getting told that companies aren’t spending money, so when you find one that is make sure you look after them.