At Humanlinker, our sales team has spent the past year carefully studying the lead-generation strategies of hundreds of our clients. One of the key findings we discovered is that when it comes to B2B lead generation, quality is more important than quantity. The top performers in this area focus on finding leads that are more likely to convert rather than simply trying to generate as many leads as possible.
We know that finding highly qualified leads can be challenging for any business. That's why we've put together this article to share 9 strategies to help you find leads that are more likely to convert in 2023.
Even if you're already familiar with B2B lead generation basics, we encourage you to read on. These tactics can help you take your lead-generation efforts to the next level. Feel free to skip ahead to any of the nine strategies we've outlined below!
What is B2B lead generation strategy ?
B2B lead generation is the foundation of any successful outbound sales process. It's the process of identifying and acquiring new customers by using multiple sources.
Regarding lead generation, focusing on the right people for your product or service is essential. You don't want to waste your team's resources trying to sell something that isn't a good fit for your target audience. Even if you can convince a few people, they will likely realize that your product or service isn't useful.
Why is B2B lead generation so important?
For both sales and marketing teams, B2B lead generation is crucial. However, this blog post will focus specifically on strategies and tactics to help B2B sales teams generate leads online.
Once you have a strong lead generation process in place, you'll be more likely to attract the right people to your business. This can lead to higher conversion rates in your sales and marketing funnels and happier customers who are more likely to leave positive reviews and refer others to your business.
Generate leads from new managers on growing teams
To generate qualified leads, we will use LinkedIn Sales Navigator. This powerful tool provides access to hard-to-reproduce data. To do this, we will target decision-makers who fit our ideal customer profile (ICP) using the following criteria:
- Have budgets available (although LinkedIn does not provide this information, we can use reliable approximations)
- Have recently changed jobs (within 90 days)
To get started, we'll import a list of accounts that match our ICP, available only to Sales Navigator Team accounts.
After importing the list of targeted accounts, you can use a growth filter to target departments that match your persona (for example, if you're targeting salespeople, you can select the growth in sales headcount and set the percentage you think is relevant).
This filter helps detect higher purchase intent, as growing teams are typically looking to adopt new processes and tools to accommodate their growth.
Once you've selected your accounts, strategically targeting decision-makers is important.
Use lead filters to target only decision-makers who have recently changed jobs.
Why? These people have recently moved into a new role within a growing team, meaning they want to make changes and have budgets to spend.
You can use function or job title filters based on your ultra-targeted lead generation strategy.
Using the appropriate filters, you can quickly get a list of accounts that match your ideal customer profile (ICP) and personas interested in an innovative solution to help them succeed in their new roles.
Or you can use Humanlinker, which automatically compiles this information on your ICP&Persona.
Generate leads from companies that recently fundraised
When a company raises funds, it typically indicates their intention to expand rapidly and that they have the resources to invest. This presents an opportunity for your solution to assist them in achieving their objectives, as they now have the financial means to do so.
By searching for companies within your industry that have recently raised funds on platforms such as Humanlinker, you can quickly identify potential customers based on funding amount, round type, and funding date.
Here are three methods for monitoring your potential customer's fundraising efforts:
- Keep an eye on the company's activity by following them on LinkedIn and enabling notifications on Sales Navigator
- Utilize Google's advanced search functionality by searching for the company's name in combination with the keyword "ROUND"
- Utilize Humanlinker to identify leads that have recently obtained funding in your ICP & Persona.
Generate leads from your competitor product reviews
G2, Capterra, and many others are valuable resources for gaining insight into your competitors. By reading reviews, you can discover common pain points and identify potential new customers from negative feedback.
From this review, you get 2 things:
- 1. Luis C. liked the tool's browser plugin for finding contact information on LinkedIn, as it allows for saving and enrolling contacts in sequences without leaving the LinkedIn site, and found the sequences easy to configure and the overall experience of enrolling new contacts easy to follow.
- 2. However, Luis C. found downsides in the tool, such as the contact updates being only available for the top tier and only being able to obtain updated data if you upgrade. The email system needs to be more fundamental and suitable for marketing campaigns. Sequence reporting could be faster and more intuitive.
If you sell a product that competes with Apollo and has a better offering for the 2 key points Luis mentioned, then this is a relevant lead to you.
Searching for Luis C. on LinkedIn with the title "Head of Marketing and Sales" and looking through the profiles for a match with the picture will yield the correct profile in about 80% of cases.
While this method may appear time-consuming, reaching out to leads who are already familiar with your market and have specific pain points that your product can address can be beneficial. It's worth exploring if you are competing with larger companies that have many reviews available online.
It is important to keep in mind the review date when reviewing customer feedback, as the relevance of the information may change over time. The review is from March 2022, so it would be worth considering reaching out to the customer.
Generate leads from people interacting with LinkedIn content
LinkedIn is a platform where professionals frequently share their thoughts and ideas, resulting in a high volume of interactions daily.
Professionals who engage with posts by liking or commenting publicly demonstrate their interest in a particular topic. This presents an opportunity to discover a potential audience that may be open to starting a conversation with you. How wonderful is that?
Additionally, if you are concerned about the time it may take to gather data from all the relevant profiles, Humanlinker gives you all of this information from LinkedIn content and much more, creating a smooth and seamless experience.
Generate leads from Slack, LinkedIn, and Facebook groups
Slack, LinkedIn, Reddit and Facebook groups can be an untapped source of leads. By participating in conversations and assisting individuals with their concerns, you can uncover potential opportunities for your solution. Regardless of your industry's platform, these groups can be utilized effectively for lead-generation efforts.
While this approach may generate a lower volume of leads, it can effectively target prospects actively seeking solutions that your product or service provides. Manually monitoring all the messages on the channel can take time and effort. Utilizing solutions like Humanlinker or automation tools like can enable you to set up customized alerts on slack for relevant topics that are being discussed.
Generate leads from conference attendees or non-attendees
Participating in events related to your industry can be an effective way to connect with potential customers in your niche. Even with the shift to virtual conferences in 2022 and likelihood of this trend continuing in 2023, this presents an opportunity to reach out to these individuals.
By targeting companies that attended industry-relevant events with individuals who do not fit your Ideal Customer Profile, you can redirect your efforts towards decision-makers who better align with your ICP, even if they did not attend the conference. This approach can result in leads with higher levels of seniority or leads from different teams.
Lead generation tools like Humanlinker can help you quickly identify companies participating in industry-related events. You can explore how this can work for you by checking here.
Generate leads from companies that use relevant tools
The technology tools used by your target audience can provide valuable insights for personalizing your outreach and segmenting your market. Utilize this information to tailor your approach and enhance relevancy and personalization in your practice.
Valuable sources for this information include:
- Websites like Crunchbase
- Customer reviews on platforms like G2 and Capterra, and
- Customer testimonials section on the tool's website
- LinkedIn sales navigator
- Humanlinker helps you take advantage of the sales trigger events, such as buying signals, so you can perform better daily
Just as an example, a message like this will pique their interest and their curiosity to learn more:
"I came across your company and noticed that you currently use [competitor's tool] for [specific task]. I wanted to know..."
Generate leads when companies are approving new budgets
For many B2B SaaS companies, the end of the year is a prime opportunity to secure new business, as many firms are finalizing budgets, renewing contracts, and evaluating new vendors for the coming year. This makes it an ideal time to initiate conversations and acquire new customers.
You can target companies using your competitors' tools and craft a personalized message during this period. This approach can be combined with strategy 6. Here a example:
"I saw that you are currently utilizing {{competitor_tool}}. I am reaching out because the end of the year is a common time for companies to review and renew their vendor agreements. Is that the case for {{competitor_tool}}? If so, I would be delighted to connect with you and discuss how XYZ...”
Generate leads from openly available resources valuable to your niche
Free resources are a popular choice among users, especially when they are practical. Creating useful resources such as GoodSalesEmails.com, Cold Email Templates, Boryl Data are highly effective parts of a B2B lead generation strategy.
Users appreciate it when you provide value without asking for anything in return. These resources increase brand awareness and establish trust between your brand and potential customers.
Ensure your website is optimized to capture user information and encourage them to sign up with a business email address for more content.
Why try Humanlinker?
- Well-suited for B2B companies, mainly if you target potential customers with high buying signals and relevant information.
- An intuitive interface that includes a feature that alerts you to potentially outdated contacts, helping you avoid wasting resources so you can focus on good ones.
- Real-time data verification guarantees that you are consistently engaging with legitimate, relevant leads and companies.
- An ideal solution for expanding sales opportunities with mid and large businesses.
- Advanced search filters enable you to schedule meetings with highly specific target audiences.
- Combines information from external data partners and internal crawling to gather, correlate, and confirm real-time data.
- A helpful feature that allows you to automate the process of adding new contacts to your CRM and maintaining its cleanliness.
- Good value for the price with an easy-to-use interface
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