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It is important that organizations find other companies to do business with. Business-to-business sales, abbreviated as B2B sales, are vital to many companies’ profit margins and to their standing within their industry.

There are many examples of the importance of good business-to-business lead generation. Many manufacturing businesses need companies to supply them with a variety of parts. It is important that the makers of the parts establish themselves with compatible manufacturers in order to benefit both companies. Another example would be a financial firm that needs computers. Business-to-business lead generation will help them choose the best computer vendor to suit their needs.

Business-to-business lead generation is the process of helping compatible companies find each other. The business-to-business lead generation market is larger now than ever before. B2B lead generation can be done in a number of ways. Traditional lead generation techniques like direct mailing and telemarketing are used in a limited capacity, whereas strategies like trade show presentations and advertisements in trade publications are more common.

Trade shows exist for the express purpose of helping businesses find other compatible businesses. It is vital that a company put on a stellar presentation if they expect to reap any benefit from a trade show. A professional, entertaining, and informative presentation is perfect for generating leads. It is also important that the right people attend the presentation. A great presentation can be wasted at an under attended or poorly organized trade show.

Trade publication advertisements are one of the most cost effective B2B lead generation strategies. These ads are aimed directly at people in the industry reading the publication. This is much better than advertising on the radio or in a major city newspaper.

B2B lead generation is vital to businesses. A company must be respected within its industry in order to survive and make a profit. B2B lead generation benefits all organizations involved.

Lead Generation Info provides detailed information about sales, mortage, MLM, business-to-business, internet, and insurance lead generation, lead generation telemarketing, and more. Lead Generation Info is the sister site of MLM Leads Web.

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Meet Bill, he’s the owner and CEO of a growing, mid-sized manufacturing company. Bill is in his early 40s, wears glasses and tries his best to squeeze in an early-morning workout whenever he can. He prefers to wear golf shirts and khakis, donning a suit only when he has to. Bill drives a late model SUV with a booster seat in the back seat for his four-year-old daughter. He’s harried, and worries about managing his company’s growth. He wants to leverage technology to increase operational efficiency and customer satisfaction, and to offset the rising costs of doing business, but doesn’t know where to start.

Helen is his director of sales. She’s 32, single, a competitive runner, and is partial to 80s rock. She drives a new BMW convertible. She struggles with managing a dozen salespeople, many who are 10 to 15 years older then her. Helen wants the company to invest in a new CRM system to replace the contact management they long ago outgrew, but wonders how she’ll convince Bill and the company’s CFO to spend the money.

Bill and Helen are not real people, but they’re examples of one of the most powerful tools you can use to better connect with prospects and customers: persona-based marketing.

Persona-based marketing is part Hollywood characterization and part business analytics. It involves constructing a fictional customerbased on real-life data and intelligenceand then using that character as the touchstone for promotional and selling decisions.

Persona-based marketing goes beyond simple demographic data

Persona-based marketing describes who a prospect or customer is, by also answering questions about their behavior such as: what keeps this person awake at night? How does he spend his time? How does she like to be sold to?

This concept can help you, as a business-to-business marketer by creating a vivid, tangible picture of your best prospects or customers, and then sculpting a marketing message that’s pertinent to their concerns, and move them to inquire and buy.

Let’s get back to the example of Bill and Helen. Say you’re a systems integrator who is targeting mid-sized companies like Bill’s. Using what you know about Bill as a representative of the typical business owner, you can make some tactical marketing decisions.

Because Bill is pressed for time, he probably won’t attend an all-day seminar, or an evening dinner meetinghe’s got family responsibilities after work. But he would be interested in a 45-minute, executive-level Web seminar he could attend from his desk. He might also say yes to an executive breakfast briefing with his peers from other local mid-sized firms.

This fictional CEO can even help guide decisions about minute matters such as brochure or Web site design. Because you know that Bill is over 40 and wears glasses, you’ll make sure that the font is big enough for him to read easily. And because you know he’s time-pressed, you’ll break down key messages into bullet points he can scan quickly.

Helen, your customer’s sales director surrogate, meanwhile, will respond to an offer that speaks to her needs. She might raise her hand to a half-day seminar on “convincing your CEO and CFO to invest in CRM.” She might also request a white paper on “How to get salespeople to use your new CRM system.” Because she’s younger and has upscale tastes, she’d probably attend a lunch seminar at the hot new bistro in town. She’s also more likely to notice an ad or seminar invitation or other promotional materials that are designed in a modern and colorful manner.

Granted, Bill and Helen are composite characters, not real people. But referring to them as you formulate and execute your messages can make your marketing more effective. And it can prevent your promotions from becoming too generic to be noticed. Performed correctly, your persona-based decisions will stop being about “I think” and start being about “what would our customer or prospect think?”

How do you get started?

1. Convene a group of employees who interact with your customers and prospects. Bring in lunch and a white board and ask them to help you build a persona for each of your target customers.

2. Start by describing the customer’s role in their company: CEO, CIO, CFO, COO, sales manager, purchasing agent, user, and any other important influencers.

3. Next describe the kind of company they work for. What industry is it in? How big is it? How up-to-date is it? Does it have a lot of competition?

4. Then describe the person and their behavior: Give each persona a name, a title, an age, and describe how he or she looks. How does he dress? What kind of car does she drive? What does he do in his free time? What kind of educational background does she have?

5. Flesh out as many attributes as you need to give a full, rounded picture of who this person is. Then, turn to your persona’s problems and goals.

6. Think about what does this person’s daily calendar look like? What are his or her most pressing concerns? What product or service attributes would be most helpful in solving this person’s problems? Is he or she looking to roll up 20 databases into one, getting ready for an IPO, dealing with a new competitor who has just entered the market?

7. Then, when formulating your marketing messages, think about what path this prospect or customer might pursue to solve this problem. Will he or she turn to white papers or articles in trade publications or Web sites? Would this customer or prospect seek input from a speaker at a networking group of their peers? Let the personas steer the route, which you can pave with information that can help your prospect and customers move forward in their consideration and buying process.

If you’ve never used person-based marketing before, give it a try. It can be a powerful way to focus your business-to-business marketing messages and offers, driving more leads and sales.

M. H. “Mac” McIntosh is a business-to-business marketing consultant and an expert on the subject of sales leads. He is president of Mac McIntosh Incorporated, a sales and marketing consulting firm specializing in helping companies generate qualified sales leads and turn them into sales. For more information, or to request a free subscription to his newsletter, Sales Lead Report, please visit http://www.sales-lead-experts.com

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Billions of dollars from business-to-business marketing budgets are spent each year on sales lead generation. Billions more dollars are spent to fulfill and follow up on marketing responses, and to determine which sales leads are qualified and ready for sales attention. Unfortunately, much of this investment in B2B sales lead generation is wasted. Why? Because many sales lead generation programs and lead qualification efforts are not in harmony with the needs of sales.

With this in mind, have you optimized your company’s sales lead generation programs to be in harmony with the needs of your salespeople, reps, resellers or distributors? Here are some questions to ask yourself:

1. Have you built consensus with sales management on the definition of a qualified sales lead? Has this definition been clearly communicated to all parties?

Typical definitions include criteria such as:

• Does the prospect have a need or an application for your product or service?
• What is the prospect’s role in the decision-making process?
• What is the prospect’s timing for purchase or implementation?
• What is the status of the prospect’s budget?
• What is the size of the opportunity?

2. Have you calculated how many qualified sales leads are needed in the sales pipeline in order to meet or exceed the company’s sales revenue goals? Have you broken that number down into how many qualified sales leads are needed each month and each quarter? Have you built your company’s sales lead generation programs with those target numbers in mind?

3. Have you put in place programs specifically designed to weed out the non-prospects and nurture the longer-term, not-yet-qualified opportunities-only forwarding the truly qualified sales leads to salespeople, reps, resellers or distributors for follow-up? Have you budgeted appropriately for this important sales lead development function?

If you answered “yes” to these questions, the good news is that you are not guilty of wasting your company’s sales lead generation investments. Instead, you are probably well-respected by the people in sales and corporate management.

M. H. “Mac” McIntosh is one of America’s leading B2B marketing and sales consultants and an expert on sales leads. Put Mac to work for you as a marketing speaker or for business-to-business marketing consulting. SIGN UP NOW FOR A FREE: Business Marketing Newsletter

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