B2B marketplaces are an essential tool for succeeding in business these days! B2B marketplaces act as a very effective platform to help businesses come together and pursue potentially profitable endeavors with one another. This is why B2B marketplaces are one of the best places to generate leads for your business.
As opposed to marketing your business to anyone on the entire World Wide Web,
who may or may not be interested in your products and services, B2B marketplaces allow you to target your audience and market your business to those who are actually interested in them. However, if you want to achieve your goal of generating new leads for your business, you need to be ‘play your cards’ right in using online marketplaces.
Here are some tips that can help you to generate leads successfully:
Don't Spam... Do Speak
Legitimate B2B marketplaces have no tolerance of spamming activities on their website. Good marketplaces usually have a strong team of moderators that keeptab on all ongoing blog and forum posts, conversations and activities on their website and take strict actions against anyone who attempts to post spam or blatant advertisements. Accordingly, make sure your discussion posts on B2B marketplaces are legitimate and sensible. Certaintly take part in conversations and create new posts, but be sure to offer some valuable information. This will create a positive impression of your business for other businesses and establish a good relationship with them. In turn, whenever other businesses are in need of products or services of the sort that you offer, they will contact You!
Align the Sales & Marketing Procedures
One of the most important features of a successful business is the coordination between the Sales and Marketing departments. All your marketing endeavors should echo your sales pitch. That is, when you audience receives the right message about your business, you will have a more empowered sales lead strategy. Accordingly, when using B2B marketplaces be sure that your Sales and Marketing departments have reviewed and provided comments on the profile and other information you include on the B2B marketplace about your business. Good marketing means more sales!
Create Customer Profiles
In addition to creating your own business profile, you should also think about creating a ‘customer profile’ to help with your B2B marketing. In order to acquire new leads for your business, you need to know what kind of leads you are looking for. Creating an ideal customer will force you to list all the ideal attributes of your customers to help pre-screen potential opportunities. When you define the characteristics of an 'ideal customer profile' you are then able to pin-point prospective companies with the greatest likelihood of becoming your most beneficial customers. The types of things you can include in your ‘customer profile’ are, for example, the minimum annual revenue of the customer, number of employees, regulatory licenses etc.
Focus on Acquiring Global Leads
With most industries becoming increasingly globalised, many businesses would agree that the aim of having global or universal sales leads and customers fit squarely within their description of an 'ideal customer.' On B2B marketplaces, where appropriate for your business, you should aim to market and sell to such universal leads.The wider your marketing efforts, the better for your business.
Draft an Effective Lead Management Process
Prepare a lead management strategy. An effective lead management strategy helps you to implement and enforce internal policies within your business to chase leads. In addition, a clear strategy can also help define a clear process to handle customer inquiries, such as dealing with all such inquiries centrally for pre-qualification.
Sustain the Leads
After generating leads, the next critical step is to successfully nurture them. The goal is to ensure your leads are sustained for the long term. In order to nurture your leads, effective communication is key – keep in touch with your leads, email them, invite them to contact you, show them ‘value’ – ultimately, this will help you build powerful relationships with them.
Disclaimer : Sabra Easterday is the owner and founder of MatchB2B (matchb2b.net). Sabra is also a lawyer with a special interest in business issues and e-marketplaces. Notwithstanding that Sabra Easterday is a lawyer, nothing in this article and no services of MatchB2B or its website are legal services and no attorney-client relationship exists between any reader of this article or user, customer or potential customer of MatchB2B, and MatchB2B, its website or Sabra Easterday.
