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Marketing-for-Leads Guide: Step 10 – How will you reach the best prospects?
Step 10: Determine how to reach the best companies and contacts.
After you have identified the right companies and contacts to target with your B2B lead generation efforts, you need to determine the best ways to reach them.
The first step is to determine to what media your target audience is exposed to. For example, which magazines do they read? This may include national business or industry magazines as well as regional and local trade journals.
In addition, you should think about the
- Professional associations to which your target contacts belong.
- Conferences and tradeshows they attend.
- Newsletters (print or electronic) to which they subscribe.
- Websites they visit for professional or produdt information.
- Radio and television programming that attracts them.
Each of these, potentially, is the source of a mailing list, website, conference or publication that would be appropriate for reaching your target contacts.
| To download the complete guide as a PDF, visit B2B Marketing-for-Leads Guide. |
Another way to reach your target companies and contacts is through their professional advisors. Accountants, attorneys, consultants and other advisors often provide recommendations on purchases relevant to their spheres of knowledge. In other words, they influence buyers. For example, a decision-maker in search of a commercial printer might ask his/her graphic design firm for recommendations. Therefore, your marketing plan should have some provision for articulating your competitive advantage to key these influencers.
Mac:
These are all excellent ideas. You really should be charging for this (not me, but your other readers).
Of course, when some of these options aren’t available (aka low funds / marketing budget cuts). If your a sales rep has commissions depending on you getting the decision maker, you can always pick up the phone and call them.
Posted by: Sales Training | Mar 20, 2009 at 4:33 pm
This is a really insightful article on Sale Strategies, and would certainly help people in sale industry.
Posted by: Kevin Johnson | Mar 26, 2009 at 7:14 am
Maybe I’m wrong Kevin, but it appears your post is more of an attempt to get a link to your site for SEO reasons than a real comment about the post above which was about targeting prospects in a marketing-driven lead generation plan, not about the “sale industry.”
In the future, my dear readers, if you want me to publish your comments on my blog, please make them at least a little useful to my other readers. Or I won’t bother to publish them.
Posted by: Mac McIntosh | Apr 7, 2009 at 8:53 pm
With the economic crunch, we’re all exhausting options in finding the best leads. Thanks for your wonderful suggestions, Mac. Really helpful. =)
Posted by: zsa zsa | Apr 13, 2009 at 1:13 am
Wow Mac, as a fresh business graduate who is in the third week of his first real job (I am the ONLY marketing/business person at a small IT consulting firm), this blog has been a godsend for me. I’ve subscribed via RSS and look forward to reading all your new and archived posts.
Posted by: Graeme Beyeler | Apr 16, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Graeme, Glad to be of service. I also do marketing coaching/consulting over the phone and have lots of experience in the IT consulting business.
If that interests you, let me know and I’ll tell you more about it.
- Mac
mcintosh at sales-lead-experts.com
401-294-7730
Posted by: Mac McIntosh | Apr 16, 2009 at 4:23 pm
We are in a huge economical crunch, everyone is feeling it from the big boys on the top to the little ones at the bottom, I just feel for those who work on a commission only basis, if these people are not making sales they are surely not making an income. Mac I have past this on to a friend of mine who is in direct sales and is battling at the moment, hopefully this will help her out a little and give her so encouragement. Thanks for this post.
Posted by: Sue | Aug 7, 2009 at 4:12 am