You’ve Been Targeting Business Leads the Wrong Way

In a recent article, we discussed the importance of detailed prospect profiles. For B2B companies, the next logical question is, “Which profile factors are most important when precisely targeting the right business buyers?”

Here is a look at some of the critical factors used by many organizations when targeting business leads!

Industry Type and Size

Perhaps you provide solutions that fit well into three to five common business sectors, for instance. Not only does it help you focus your lead generation activities to identify primary industry targets, but it enables your marketing and sales teams to concentrate messaging strategies that demonstrate expertise or specialization.

The size of companies, in terms of employees, sales volume, or both, is similarly important. Some companies sell products that mesh with small, medium or large businesses. Even if your solutions meet the needs of companies of all sizes, the way you communicate benefits, such as economies of scale or affordability, might align with particular company sizes. It is important to find out whether a company generates enough revenue to make a high-end solution economical as well.

Job Title

If you sell in B2B, your prospect is really the most likely buyer at that firm. Therefore, identifying the job title of ideal customers is essential to efficient communication. You want to call on a specific person at the target business rather than trying to navigate through various non-decision-makers and designated gatekeepers.

As you engage in lead generation, some tools allow efficient target by job title. This factor is primary on LinkedIn, for instance.

Geography or Location

Knowing where a target firm is located or headquartered is vital. Even if you sell globally or nationally, you want to discern which geographic territories produce the highest sales volume for certain items. Knowing this information allows you to efficiently target other buyers in the same markets.

Some providers even consider opportunities to set up new offices or to expand distribution based on geographic profile data.

Financial Data

The more data you can gather on a company’s revenue, expenses and profit, the greater your insight on its financial status. You want to target buyers that can afford your solutions.

In addition to revenue and expense numbers, adding a firm’s credit rating to a profile significantly improves your visibility. Just as a consumer’s credit score speaks to the likelihood of payment, a company’s rating establishes your risk in offering solutions on credit. Beyond that, you don’t want to waste valuable time targeting prospects without a clear picture of financial status.

Conclusions

Knowing the types and sizes of companies you have the most success with, along with contact job titles, geographic location and financial data, gives you a solid profile for more efficient targeting. Of course, adding more details to strengthen your knowledge only helps.

Salesgenie offers deep, accurate prospect profiles for B2B subscribers to target. See the factors and quality of the profile data we offer when you start your free trial!