Proven B2B Leads Follow-Up Strategies To Help You Close More Deals

Companies make several efforts for B2B lead generation. They use a host of marketing strategies and sometimes harvest leads from lead providers, thinking enough leads will get more sales opportunities. But here’s the bitter truth. If you don’t follow up with the leads, all you end up with most of the time is – radio silence.

It’s because half of the leads generated aren’t prepared to buy. The percentage can go up to a whopping 73% in B2B businesses.

b2b sales leads

To get them ready, it’s important to engage with them and move them down the sales funnel.

So how do you follow up with your leads in the best way possible and close more deals? Below are some tips to get the success you have been looking for.

Follow-up when the prospects are ready

Your follow-up strategies should never be based on guesswork. You have to engage with the prospects when they are ready to listen. Sending them irrelevant messages when they aren’t ready will only repulse them. So don’t leave this major opportunity to chance. Below are some ways to know when your prospects engage with your brand the most.

  • Scour their website.
  • Research them on Google.
  • Look through their social media.

Timing can make or break your deal

When we talk of timing, it doesn’t mean you’ll wait around till your prospect is ready. No, we don’t have so much time to spare. “Perfect Timing” here means setting up strategies for follow-up and automating the process. Businesses that follow-up within 5 minutes are 9x more likely to convert leads into customers. That’s why so many businesses are using AI-powered chatbots and CRMs capable of automatically responding to customers.

Besides, how often do you follow up also matters. 22% of B2B businesses reach out to their prospects once every week. But nothing is set in stone. Every business and client is unique, do your research and find out the schedule that works the best for you.

Know Your Prospects Communication Preferences

When it comes to communicating with prospects, one size doesn’t fit all. Not everyone will want to speak on the phone or have time to communicate using texts.

Try different approaches, such as – emails, a note on social media, or simple texts. In a study, it was found that millennials prefer texts over phone calls as they find them less intrusive. 53% of the millennials studied cited texts as their preferred medium of communication.

Send Interesting Content via Emails

We get bombarded with emails every day asking us to sign-up for something or buy something, but how many of those emails get our attention? Only the ones that have interesting content to share. That being said, stories are a perfect way to spice up your email content.

People are more likely to remember stories than statistics. In a study, the subjects were made to listen to speeches containing stories and statistics. 63% of listeners remembered stories, and only 5% of them could recall one stat. Tell stories that your prospects find relatable and add interesting elements to pique their interest. Finally, add a CTA so that they may know where to go if they feel inspired to take some action.

Make Your Prospects Feel Special

Personalization is a very potent strategy for making your prospects feel special and ultimately turning them into loyal customers. The more relevant and personalized your follow-up to the prospect’s specific needs, the higher your conversion rates will be. When you target your prospects with relevant content, you can witness 73% higher conversion rates.

Below are some ways to personalize your content and make it more relevant to the customers.

  • Conduct thorough research.
  • Define your consumers buying patterns.
  • Use merge tags.
  • Ask prospects specific questions in your follow-ups.
  • Use analytics to understand how buyers go about engaging with your product.

Persist, But Don’t Be Pushy

Do not ever try to force the conversation. If you do that, it will do more harm than good to your business. A good approach is to find common ground with your prospects and adapt your follow-up communication based on the prospects behavior.

Don’t exaggerate your solutions, be authentic and genuinely try to help your prospects. When you show genuine intent to help your prospects, they will be more open to sharing their opinions and problems with you.

Focus on Educating Your Prospects Using Informative Content

A common mistake that most B2B companies make when following up with leads is assuming that prospects will find all the information resources on their own. Here’s an important thing to keep in mind.

When leads are in their educational stage, they try to familiarize themselves with your solutions and features. If you don’t help them in their journey by offering the relevant content, they are more likely to go to someone who does.

So, create highly informative, well-researched materials, like white papers, case studies, and blog posts, and use those materials as often as possible to help the prospects get more knowledge about your solutions.

A good way to do so is to include one piece of content in each follow-up email. The content should be relevant to the prospects and pertain to the lead’s specific needs or questions.

Use A/B Testing For Follow-Ups

Use the power of analytics, psychology, and research to fine-tune your follow-up strategies. See what works the best for your prospects and focus on big differences that bring in significant results.

If you are using different B2B email marketing strategies, see what types of emails work the best for you. With this approach, you can easily attain the results you want by investing lesser money and effort.

Wrap Up

Following up with leads is a delicate process that involves the right mix of effectively promoting your solutions and not being too pushy. These strategies are just a few examples of what you can do when you have the right opportunities in hand. But ultimately, it’s a matter of being creative and finding ways to set yourself apart from your competitors that will help you become successful in your endeavors.