In fact, according to the Ruler Analytics report, 37.1% of marketers feel generating inbound leads is “tough-nut-to-crack.” Furthermore, a Pipedrive survey, the State of Sales, found that 51% of sales reps find lead generation extremely difficult.
Low conversions and poor-quality leads are common challenges in the B2B lead generation process. Ignoring such challenges can make your sales pipeline dry, resulting in decreased revenue and diminished ROI. If you’re curious to know about the top challenges of B2B lead generation in the current market, then you’re at the right place!
In this article, you’ll explore what B2B lead generation is, the biggest challenges in the B2B lead generation process, and actionable fixes that you need.
Let’s get started!
B2B lead generation is a process of identifying and attracting potential customers who can buy your company’s products or services. By regularly nurturing content that aligns with their interests, addresses their pain points, and provides valuable solutions, businesses convince these prospects to purchase their offerings.
In B2B lead generation, the target customers are typically key decision makers and procurement authorities within organizations. Conventionally, the B2B marketing and sales team uses email marketing to attract the right leads into their sales funnel.
However, the majority of B2B businesses use a mixture of:
Now that we have covered the basics of B2B lead generation, it’s time to take a deep dive into the top challenges and effective steps to address them.
Without further delay, let’s begin!
In the B2B business ecosystem, you don’t sell your products/services to one but to a company with multiple decision makers and key stakeholders. Therefore, it is a highly challenging task for the marketing team to decide on directing their promotional ads.
Lacking knowledge of your target audience, you may end up reaching the wrong buyers with your marketing content or messages. This will result in wasted effort, lost qualified leads, and missed sales opportunities—the #1 reason for B2B lead generation challenges.
Actionable Steps:
Converting Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) into Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) is a “mundane task.” You’re in the world of “delulu” if you think all the MQLs that you generate are sales-ready.
Identifying the right leads that are truly interested in purchasing your products/services isn’t a “piece of cake.”
MQLs are those leads that show interest in your business by filling out the forms, requesting a demo, or downloading resources. However, showing interest and being ready to purchase are entirely two different things. The real chaos erupts when the marketing team pushes these “half-baked” leads to sales.
As a result, these leads will decay in the sales funnel for months or be termed as “unqualified” for direct sales interaction. This also emphasizes the issue that a misaligned marketing and sales team within the lead qualification system can fail to convert MQLs into SQLs.
Actionable Steps:
Even though your sales pipeline looks good, with a steady flow of leads, it is important to assess whether these leads are a good fit for your business. Otherwise, the sales reps will find it overwhelming to convert these leads into long-term customers.
As we mentioned in the previous challenge, filling your sales pipeline with low-quality B2B leads will create “unwanted disputes” between the marketing and sales teams. This will make room for massive challenges in your lead generation process.
Actionable Steps:
In the cutthroat business environment, there is a thin line between closing and losing a sale. i.e., regular lead follow-ups. Consistent lead follow-ups are a very important factor in B2B lead generation. Even the most responsive lead will become cold when it is unheard of or unnoticed.
Especially in the B2B lead generation, where the prospects are high-ranking authorities, late replies to their queries will make you seem unprofessional or even ignorant. On the other hand, generic or “hurry-burry” responses will drive them away from your brand. A lack of structured lead follow-ups may result in the loss of valuable deals.
Actionable Steps:
An effective lead nurturing strategy enables you to not only generate sales-ready leads but also build a loyal customer base.
Forester Research reveals that businesses with an excellent lead nurturing strategy produce 55% more sales-qualified leads (SQLs). At times, sales reps fail to understand a borderline difference between lead nurturing and lead engagement. Both are two faces of the same coin!
Lead engagement is a direct sales interaction between the prospects and your brand. At the same time, lead nurturing is a slow and steady process that involves establishing trust and credibility for your brand, educating them about your products/services, and drawing their attention towards the purchasing decision.
Companies that are very focused on capturing high-quality leads often fail to nurture them. This leads to missed opportunities and leakage in your sales pipeline.
Actionable Steps:
Using poor-quality prospect data in the B2B lead generation can mess up your sales funnel; marketing reaches the wrong audiences, and the sales team engages with cold leads.
As a result, there is not only an increase in marketing expenses, but also a severe crash in your company’s ROI.
Actionable Steps:
A disjointed or inconsistent brand message across your marketing channels may erode your brand's credibility.
An unstable brand voice can create confusion and chaos within your target niche. As a result, you may experience a significant decline in your brand value and conversions.
Actionable Steps:
Relying on only one channel can create a monotone in your B2B lead generation efforts. This can severely impact business reach and make your sales funnel dry.
As the world of businesses is moving more into the digital age. B2B audiences are open to receiving your promotional messages or ads.
If you’re still depending on those cold calls or emails for prospecting, then you’re most probably going to stay behind in this fierce competition.
Actionable Steps:
Inconsistent posting, failing to adapt to the latest trends, and a lack of optimizing your content according to the changing algorithms may damage your brand’s visibility. This, in turn, results in loss of audience interest, slow conversions, and stagnant lead flow.
Actionable Steps:
Typically, it takes months to close B2B deals. This is due to the involvement of multiple hierarchies, high-value transactions, and delayed approvals, among other factors.
Companies that fail to develop a strategy to enhance their prospects’ decision-making often end up in an endless follow-up loop.
Consequently, leads stall in the sales funnel, there is no guarantee of ROI, and the possibilities become uncertain.
Actionable Steps:
To sum it up, the B2B lead generation process isn’t about only pointing out the challenges. It is about identifying and solving the difficulties. Even big companies sometimes face challenges, such as failing to convert MQLs to SQLs, poor lead nurturing, generating poor-quality leads, and a lack of high-quality prospect data.
However, what sets them apart is their ability to detect these roadblocks early and resolve them with actionable steps. With high-quality data, an aligned marketing and sales team, consistent brand messaging, omnichannel marketing, etc., as mentioned in this article.
You can build a pipeline of high-quality, responsive B2B leads that your sales team can use to win deals without any hassle.