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14 Comments

Where to start with B2B leads.

Hey👋,

I am the Founder of Mist. Mist is a chrome extension that reminds you to practice mindfulness. Our main value prop is that Calm or Headspace require an extra step. You have to open the app, while Mist is always on your browser.

I thought that my product would be a great candidate for companies as an employee benefit. The problem is that I have never done anything close to B2B marketing and I don't know where to start. I've read that cold emailing works quite well. What else can I do?

  1. 9

    B2B sales tend to be time consuming initially. One of the reasons for this is that the customer (who pays) is different than the user (who uses).

    Cold emailing solves for the customer, but if the employer offers your product as a benefit to their employees and the employees have never heard of your product, then they won’t perceive it as much of a benefit.

    I would target employees with a pared down version of the app for free and then reach out to the employers whose people are already using the app for the sale of an upgraded version.

    Just my 2 cents

    1. 1

      This is a good insight. I think Slack did something similar

      1. 2

        @saq7 gave great advice. You could also do LinkedIn campaigns targeting HR managers of small startups (<50 employees). He could also do channel marketing for medium sized ones.
        B2B requires a lot more effort because you're not persuading consumers, you're persuading an employer to invest their revenue in your product, in hopes of them getting some substantial return (revenue increase, expense reduction or boost in employee morale), so ensure you practice your sales skills.

  2. 1

    The number of resources and tools that have come up in the marketplace to find targeted email leads in any industry/niche in any country have grown significantly. The most web-recommended tool that is also affordable for almost anyone for this is Aeroleads. It allows you to gain access to the contact information of anyone through sites like LinkedIn, Crunch Base, and Agellist. These sites contain information on businesses, business people, and other working professionals as well as individuals which makes it the perfect tool for B2B firms for finding prospects and also has a data verification system in place that makes sure that the contact information extracted is correct.

    It will help you access the personal email, business email, and phone number of your targets and will even build a list containing their contact information for you automatically, you can drop cold emails or get in touch with them on call and fix meetings to convey the benefits of your tool to them. Of all the tools in the market, it is the only one that gives verified information at a more affordable price. They also provide free credits to the new users to test out the product for themselves and see if it provides verified information or not. I’m linking it here so that you can check it out, it is NOT an affiliate link.
    https://aeroleads.com/

  3. 1

    That's a lovely & noble Idea.

    B2B Lead generation is one of the most easiest things ever!

    It's a bit lengthy process but I've helped many companies to drive over $500,000 in sales.

    Happy to help you in both Lead Gen + Sales.

    Please do connect with me on [email protected] or even on Twitter.com/DASirur

    1. 0

      Just DMed you on Twitter.

  4. 1

    There are a bunch of strategies you could use, each with varying levels of 'smartness', scale and targetedness. But let me simplify and make some assumptions about your use case:

    • You don't quite know which job titles/companies will be your target customers
    • You're not looking for scale right now, just to get the first few conversations going to you cant get product feedback and hopefully a sale or two from that.

    This is what I would do if these apply:

    1. Start with your own network of friends or acquantainces on LinkedIn. See if you can get them using the product and see if you can get them to refer you in to whoever is in charge of employee benefits at their company.

    2. Use Soleadify.com to pull 100 free leads - you can refine based on a load of parameters on the company and the indivdiual. Then send 3 or 4 emails with gaps of a few days pitching your product. You can try both - emailing employees directly to use it themselves or HR/management roles to buy it for their team. I think the former is more likely to succeed at this stage. You can use something like Lemlist for emailing - it makes it very easy and there is a free trial.

    Good luck!

  5. 1

    As B2B outside sales warrior I can say that it's hard to close only via email.
    It's the best way to buy the prospect's time.

    Jump on a 20 minutes zoom call. Then close.

    As a founder it's your responsibility to drive first 100 paying customers.

    Simply numbers game.
    Statistically it takes 6 follow ups to start a conversation.
    If you don't have time check snov.io Find the name, direct email (on free plan). Then strike. Good luck mate!

    P.S. LinkedIn only good for finding prospect's name. That's it. No-one cares about your pitch after the connection. This is literally action flaking.

  6. 1

    The easiest place to start is LinkedIn. Run a basic search of your 'target' audience and start doing research. Take the time to find people who are active with their profiles, they may be more receptive to your contact.

    The difficulty I see here is that it's trying to convince B2B people to download, install and use it which could be tricky.

    Start with LinkedIn, casual conversation is a great way to build some opportunities. Write LinkedIn posts to grab some visitors to the website who might be curious.

  7. 1

    Employee benefits!
    I worked for a meal coupon company where I have generated quality B2B leads using the below channels. You can explore those channels for your product as well.

    1. LinkedIn organic & paid
    2. Content Campaigns & SEO for product awareness and education
    3. Google Ads for the strong buying intent keywords.
    4. Quora Marketing for awareness and great if you optimize your answers for conversion.
    5. Youtube Marketing for awareness with the landing page url.

    I hope this will help you kick start your lead gen campaign.

    Let me know if you have any queries or concerns with regards to this. Would love to add value.

    Thanks & Regards,
    Suresh
    https://suresh.tech/

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