In B2B marketing, the pursuit of lead generation often takes centre stage, leaving the post-handoff phase in the shadows. This article explores the challenges faced during post-handoff marketing, highlighting common pitfalls, and emphasising the shift towards a more effective approach. Get ready to redirect your efforts towards deal-closing mastery in the world of B2B marketing.
Striking a Balance Between Lead Generation & Deal-Closing
In the dynamic world of B2B marketing, take a moment to reflect on your current approach. How does your team balance the pursuit of leads with the critical activities that unfold after the lead handoff?
If you’re primarily focused on casting a wide net in pursuit of leads, and filling the top of your sales funnel, you’re not alone. Lead generation is a foundational pillar of B2B marketing. It’s the stage where strategies like content marketing, SEO, and social media engagement reign supreme. It’s all about capturing the attention of potential clients, piquing their interest, and initiating conversations. But the question remains – once the handoff happens, what’s next?
The traditional enthusiasm for lead generation often leaves a gap in resource allocation and attention between the pre- and post-handoff phases. Without finding this balance, and without the right nurturing, valuable prospects may escape your grasp, and your B2B marketing efforts might fall short of their full potential.
Pitfalls of the Post-Handoff Phase
While lead generation is important, the post-handoff phase is where the rubber meets the road. It’s here that many businesses stumble and fall due to a number of common pitfalls:
- Neglecting personalisation and adaptation
The transition from leads to prospects in the post-handoff phase requires a shift in approach. Personalisation is crucial, as generic messages can make prospects feel like just another number. Nurturing with personalised content is essential for engagement and showing an understanding of their needs. Monitoring prospects’ interactions and analysing their behaviour is also crucial for understanding how their interests are changing. This data should set the stage for the way you communicate with them. By adapting your approach to cater to evolving needs, you increase the chances of closing deals.
- Lack of Sales and Marketing Alignment
When marketing and sales operate independently, in isolated silos, it can result in several issues that hinder the successful conversion of prospects into customers. Without effective communication between the two departments, marketing will be unaware of the precise needs and interactions of the prospects. Therefore, marketing often fails to support sales in nurturing prospects effectively by not engaging them enough to progress further down the sales funnel. Fostering a culture of collaboration and open communication between sales and marketing can ensure that valuable insights and prospect interactions are shared effectively. If done right, this collaborative approach will ultimately accelerate the entire sales process all the way down to landing new customers.
- Relying solely on existing prospects
Not processing the unknown stakeholders can result in a competitive disadvantage. New stakeholders are continually emerging as roles change – especially in complex B2B sales. Solely relying on existing prospects is therefore limiting and ignoring these unknown stakeholders means you’re not capitalising on the full range of opportunities available. So, what’s the best way to avoid these pitfalls, transforming your post-handoff marketing efforts into a well-oiled revenue-generating machine?
Accelerating Sales with ABM
Account Based Marketing (ABM) is the strategic accelerator in B2B marketing. Going beyond lead generation, it excels in personalised engagement with known stakeholders while actively identifying and engaging potential unknown stakeholders.
By aligning marketing and sales efforts, ABM ensures hyper-relevant interactions that build trust throughout the customer journey, ensuring no valuable opportunities are missed. Tailored content accelerates known and unknown prospects through the sales funnel, expediting deal closures.
Incorporating ABM, enhanced by technology, bridges the gap between lead generation and successful deal-closing while ensuring you connect with all stakeholders.
Want to know more? Contact us or read some of our other blog posts to continue your journey towards deal-closing mastery.
