Finding new contacts might be easy sometimes, but finding useful leads for your business takes more work. Checking in with rel8ed.to's Diligence Product Lead (and Bolivian national tennis star) Andres Avila this week to see how he helps guide customers on their journey to better data...
We all know that every dollar counts at the end of the month. This is particularly true when we talk about small and mid-size businesses that have a Business-to-Business (B2B) model. While Business-to-Customer (B2C) models are fairly intuitive, B2Bs confront different challenges that we often do not think about. Today we will talk about one of those challenges and how we solve it with custom platforms like the World Trade Center's Trade Data Connect program.
What is the best way to find and target organizations for your business?
In the past, some of the ways B2Bs have attempted to approach this challenge included: hiring a well-rounded sales person in the industry, knocking doors in an office building, hiring an intern to google search for leads, and so on. All of these options, while reasonable, may not be the perfect fit for your business.
What we have observed here at rel8ed.to is that usually there tends to be a positive correlation between the how much time and money you spend on lead generation and sales conversion rates. Yet, we must not assume that "the more you spend on lead generation, the more revenue".
Such an assumption can potentially be true for particular types of businesses, say a multinational corporation that can afford to hire sales individuals with 20+ years of experience or purchase contact lists with thousands of low-quality records. These entities can usually take the hit, but what about the little guy? What happens when you are on a budget and closing your next deal is the most important thing?
Here are a couple of things that rel8ed.to Analytics believes you should consider moving forward:
Cheap is expensive
When we talk about lead generation it is all about return on investment. For example, purchasing a 2005 contact list with one million contacts for 50$ and securing 5 sales is most likely not the best solution. Quantity does not translate into success and this is something to take into account when you are looking for a better return on investment.
Scale-up or shrink
Another way to obtain leads can come through the internet. It's out there, it's practically free and you can use it yourself or hire someone to google search companies per/hour. The question is, is this sustainable? Most likely than not the answer to that question is "no".
There are two main problems with this approach: a) scalability is not possible as it is limited both by the individual's research skills and time, b) the information gathered is available to everyone in the same way, there is no individual advantage from using this method. Therefore, google searching one-by-one will have you lagging behind in a world of big data and machine learning.
Unique insights lead to unique sales
When information is free and readily available, it all comes down to how you organize and utilize it in a way no one has before. One particular lead may not be your next sale, but it might guide you one step closer. The way in which lead generation is leveraged to generate more value will have a direct impact on the return of your investment. For such a thing, the right tools are required and traditional lead generation solutions tend not to be enough.
It all comes down to understanding your own business and selecting the right approach. In this day and age, technology should be leveraged to obtain reliable and strategic information at an accessible cost. At rel8ed.to we specialize on gathering unique insights and connecting the dots in a way that no one else can through our Diligence Platform and custom implementations like the World Trade Center's Trade Data Connect program. If you would like to find out more, engage with us.
This post was written by Andres Avila