Lead generation on B2B

Posted: May 2007 C: Business Intelligence Posted by: K. Panayotakis

I have recently read a book on B2B lead generation by Brian Caroll. Being in the business of information management consulting, I had an aim to enrich my understanding of information needed to build the business customer profile and support the complex B2B sale: what sort of info is needed specifically for the Business Customer.

Some interesting points I noted while reading this book: • Understanding the business activity of the customers and their needs • Monitoring & understanding the Customer’s buying process, in order to align selling efforts (act based on the stage, the Customer is). How can this be achieved ? Communication with the Customer’s key roles as well as following relevant published news, is important. • Understanding the roles within the Organization who influence the buying process and the selection of provider (the ‘spheres of influence’). • The need to develop a value proposition which is customized to the needs of the Business Customer. • The importance of efficient lead qualification: understanding the actual opportunity, assessing the level of understanding of the customer’s need, the maturity of the customer’s need, the available budget and the planned procurement timeframe • The importance of collaboration between marketing and sales in developing and using efficiently leads • Multimodal lead generation and how this can be optimized

Even though an effort is made to capture certain classes of information which are important, my feeling is that information needs differ per industry sector. This differentiation is very important, given that common information needs are trivial and commonly known. For example, in the case of telecom providers which sell business customers data communications services, the features of the installed base of ‘network components’ serving the various customer sites, are very important in order to identify needs, current service levels, and opportunities to sell additional services.

On the other hand, business customers are commonly handled by Account managers who gradually develop detailed in depth knowledge on the Customer, his current position and potential needs. They develop a Customer’s profile in their mind which does not follow a specific or unified info structure.

Structured BI expressed with the development of DWH infrastructures started from retailing and non-business customers, where the sheer volume of customers has been overwhelming. Customer Intelligence on business customers is still handled in many cases by the Account managers and their tacit model of the business and the customers.