5 successful strategies for strengthening your dealer relationships
By Two Rivers Marketing
Want to boost your lead generation game? If you’re an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) with a channel marketing program, a B2B lead generation program is an important way to expand your sales platform’s reach and growth.
The goal is to connect with decision-makers early in the buying process, earn their trust, and build a relationship so when they’re ready to make a purchase, they buy from your sales network. However, this can be easier said than done!
Check out these four tips and be on your way to creating a winning B2B lead gen strategy.
1. Understand Your Audience
The foundation of a successful B2B lead generation program is a deep understanding of your target audience. Work with key channel partners to research and analyze the demographics, behaviors, and preferences of your potential customers. Create comprehensive buyer personas and insights into what resonates with the audience.
Simple surveys, data analysis tools, and customer feedback can provide valuable insights. This information helps tailor marketing messages and strategies to the needs and interests of potential leads. By aligning your efforts with the audience's preferences, you increase the chances of engaging and converting leads effectively.
2. Use Lead-Scoring Methodology
Avoid having your channel partners chase every lead that you help generate. Instead, maximize efficiency by helping them sort leads according to their value and interest through a customized lead-scoring model.
Lead scoring is a method of evaluating and ranking leads based on their likelihood to convert into customers. It assigns numerical values to leads based on criteria such as known data points or engagement with marketing content. This enables your channel’s sales and marketing teams to focus their efforts on leads that are more likely to convert and increase chances of a conversion for greater ROI.
The foundation of a successful B2B lead generation program is a deep understanding of your target audience.
Lead classifications range from information-qualified Lead (IQL) to marketing-qualified lead (MQL) and sales-qualified lead (SQL). Leads transition from colder (IQL) to warmer (SQL), enabling you to prioritize efforts on leads that meet specific goals. In order to facilitate seamless alignment between marketing and sales teams, it is important to establish a shared understanding and agreement on the criteria and values associated with lead classifications. This shared framework enables a more effective transition of leads from colder (IQL) to warmer (SQL), allowing you to prioritize your efforts by targets and goals.
3. Develop the Right Content Mix
Help your partners attract more quality leads with a solid content strategy. This will target the right prospective customers at the right times depending on where they are in the buying journey. Determine the mix of paid, earned, shared, and owned content to draw prospective buyers toward your brand.
Offer valuable content or incentives to help move potential prospects from demand to lead generation. This could be in the form of downloadable resources, access to exclusive content, or special offers that prompt users to provide their contact information. It’s also helpful to create personalized landing pages optimized for conversion that promote your overall brand messaging.
4. Create a Lead Nurturing Program
As an OEM, you likely have a long purchasing cycle, and a lead nurturing program can help cultivate leads that are not yet ready to buy. To build trust and recall, offer personalized content on how your brand’s products can remedy prospective customers’ pain points. Keeping them informed and engaged will likely strengthen trust and enhance recall for the next time.
The bottom line to creating a successful lead generation program is to speak your target audience’s language and meet them where they are in their purchase journey. Building a strong lead generation strategy that aids your channel network will not only foster collaboration between you and their sales and marketing teams, but will grow everyone's sales pipeline for the future.
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