Conversions are the cash crop of B2B marketing. They’re where the money comes from.

You can run the best lead generation campaigns in the world, but if those leads don’t convert into solid business opportunities and paying customers, then it’s all for nothing.

But here’s the thing: conversions can be difficult. In fact, 54% of B2B marketers say converting leads into customers is their biggest challenge. Without the right strategy in place, you can get trapped in a vicious cycle — wasting your time generating demand that isn’t really demand, and in turn, wasting your sales reps time pursuing bad opportunities. All the while, your business is sinking money into campaigns that don’t pay off. 

So, what can you do about it?

Keep reading for 10 sales and marketing tactics you can use to improve your conversion rate, earn more customers, and increase your revenue.

What is lead conversion?

Lead conversion is the process of turning potential customers (AKA leads) into actual paying customers. This involves a series of strategic actions and interactions designed to move leads through the sales funnel, from initial contact to final purchase. 

Effective lead conversion requires understanding the needs and behaviors of your target audience, personalizing your marketing efforts, and nurturing leads with relevant content and timely follow-ups. The goal is to build trust and provide value at every stage of the buyer journey in a way that will help guide prospects towards making a purchase decision.

For B2B tech and SaaS companies, optimizing lead conversion is crucial for driving revenue and achieving sustainable growth. Here’s how to do it effectively:

1. Focus on lead nurturing

A lead nurturing program takes the leads you capture (through web forms, blog subscriptions, downloads, etc.), coaxes them through the buying stages, and singles out which ones are most likely to convert. Instead of sending untested leads to sales, you can use list segmentation and targeted content to further qualify them.

eloqua nurture tracks
Here’s an example of a lead nurture track in Oracle Eloqua.

This is common sense, really. It’s about earning people’s trust before you ask them to buy something.

Lead nurturing is one of the main functions of marketing automation software. If you don’t already have a platform in place, you might want to know that 76% of companies use marketing automation. If you’re one of those companies but haven’t seen much ROI from your programs, make sure you’re following best practices for lead nurturing (such as email personalization, which has been shown to boost open rates by 14% and conversions by 10%).

2. Set higher standards for lead quality

According to a recent trends report by ViB, 46% of B2B marketers say improving overall lead quality is one of their highest B2B marketing priorities for the year. This trend is proof of a larger shift in focus from lead quantity to quality. To see this play out in your business, you need to unite sales and marketing over a set of shared definitions for lead qualification and a clear framework for the buyer’s journey:

  • What are the differences between MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads), SQLs (Sales Qualified Leads), and SALs (Sales Accepted Leads)?”
  • How do you define a “sales-ready” lead? (i.e. what actions and criteria indicate interest and intent?)
  • Who is responsible for the quality assurance process?

It’s especially important for marketers to set higher qualification standards as they often struggle to show ROI and increase their contribution to revenue.

3. Use a lead scoring system

A lead scoring system is a perfect way to quantify and scale your targeting requirements. Lead scoring assigns each lead a numerical value based on firmographics data acquired during lead capture (department, role, company size), as well as actions a lead has taken (browsing behavior, email engagement, downloads, social media shares). When the lead reaches a certain numerical threshold, it is passed to sales for follow-up.

Source: Selling Signals

If you implement lead scoring, you may initially see a decrease in lead volume, but you should see an increase in the percentage of qualified leads and in your lead conversion rate.

4. Connect your CRM and marketing automation platform

If you’re trying to run lead gen campaigns without this key systems integration, you’re making a big mistake. A two-way integration between your CRM database and marketing automation platform (MAP) gives sales and marketing teams the ability to work from a unified pipeline and share lead intelligence.

Sales representatives can see where leads originated, how they were qualified, and how long they’ve been active. These insights (and others) help your reps start rewarding conversations with people they already “know,” in a sense. Marketers, on the other hand, can use the CRM/MAP integration to track close rates and other conversion metrics.

5. Capture the right lead information

Take a look at your various lead entry points (web forms, landing pages, gated downloads, etc.), and ask yourself whether you’re getting the right information about each lead from the outset.

This can be tricky. You don’t want to make too many demands and risk losing the prospect over privacy concerns, but if you don’t get the right pieces of information, it’ll be hard to allocate that prospect. Do you place them in a drip campaign, or follow up immediately? Are they interested in your products, or your content, or both? Typically, most web forms have three to five fields, so choose your questions wisely. Email and name are usually non-negotiable, so two are already accounted for. Most marketers also ask for basic firmographic info like company name and industry. You might even consider a custom question, depending on the circumstances.

kapost web form

6. Run data verification

According to a report by Verse, 44% of sales reps complain about lead quality. This can often be attributed to missing form fields, duplicated data, invalid formatting, failed email validation, and other issues. If you’re working from a database of inaccurate lead profiles, you’ll have a pretty hard time connecting with leads, let alone scoring conversions. This can have a number of devastating effects on your lead gen campaigns, including:

  • Deliverability issues
  • Botched personalization
  • Unreliable lead scoring

Check out our post on data verification to learn how to set up a formal strategy and overcome these data quality issues.  

7. Feed your lead generation strategy with targeted content

Content is how you communicate with prospects and leads. It’s how you offer them value and tell your brand’s story. According to Demand Metric, 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing in their strategy, but that doesn’t mean they’re all doing a stellar job. 

The best content doesn’t just attract visitors and get a bunch of social media shares; it educates readers and uses their goals and priorities to shed light on latent buying needs. That means you need a fairly stout library of content written to specific buyer personas and tailored to different stages of the funnel. For example, you might use a white paper on email marketing best practices to attract top-of-the-funnel interest from marketing middle-managers.

8. Align sales development with marketing resources

In many B2B companies, there’s a disconnect between marketing and sales. Once a lead is delivered, marketers wash their hands of it, and they certainly don’t participate in the sales development process — which, coincidentally, can be the most challenging part. This is a huge missed opportunity.

The SDR’s (sales development rep) job is to move leads from hand-raiser to committed buyer. Sure, some of that happens through good old-fashioned sales pitching, but it also happens through sales enablement materials — things like case studies, product comparisons, ROI calculators, and implementation guides. As marketers create these assets, they should work directly with SDRs to determine specific requirements. What kind of assets can help a lead make that final step in the decision process? SiriusDecisions reports 24% faster revenue growth for companies with well-aligned sales and marketing departments.

9. Master the art (and timing) of the follow-up

People tend to blame marketers for low lead conversion rates, but sales reps also have some responsibilities to own. One of the biggest is following up with leads. In fact, research indicates that leads that are followed up within 5 minutes are 9x more likely to be converted

Additionally, how well a sales rep handles the conversation can have a lot to do with whether or not a lead converts. SDR’s should be able to speak to priorities and pain points related to the lead’s unique professional role. 

And of course, a follow up isn’t always person-to-person. If you’re using auto-responders through a marketing automation platform, just make sure the message is relevant, and that the prospect understands why they’re receiving it.

follow-up email

10. Supplement your programs with purchased leads

It’s fairly common for B2B companies to buy leads from a third-party provider —  a lead generation service or B2B marketing agency. If you’re struggling to bring in high-quality leads through your own programs, outsourced demand generation can be a good way to keep your pipeline full. But be cautious. You need to partner with a company that accommodates your targeting requirements and has a track record of success. Ask to see case studies, or even to try out a few sample leads before you make a commitment.

RELATED ARTICLE: The B2B Marketer’s Guide to Choosing the Right Lead Generation Partner

Ultimately, your lead conversion rate will depend on how much you’re willing to invest on the front end (money, people, training, technology, time) and how easily you can adapt to changing market forces. No organization will perfectly master all 10 of these areas, but with a little extra effort in the right places, you can start bringing in leads that are qualified, responsive, and ready to make a decision.