How Account Profiling can Improve Your Sales process?

Boosting sales and adding to the profit is at the core of every business organization. In the case of a B2B organization, the focus is on lead generation. Each business operation has to be handled effectively to streamline strategies which can generate positive B2B sales lead.

Let us move ahead and see how account profiling can help in lead generation.

What is Account Profiling?

Account Profiling which is also called prospect profiling or customer profiling includes collecting information related to the concerned profile (company) in order to plan out a perfect sales strategy. Collecting every possible data of the prospect helps in categorizing the complex data and make the decision making process simpler. When the sales team is equipped with the correct & sufficient data about the prospect, it becomes easy to handle the profile and pitch for more.

Account profiling includes collecting data such as the business profile, history of the prospect, SWOT, challenges, milestones, market trends, etc. Once you know all these factors & more you also understand if the concerned lead has enough potential or the lead is dead. When the team knows which leads to focus on, the team saves its efforts for those leads and ignores the rest. This ultimately can boost productivity, and lead-to-client conversion is higher.

Here is how account profiling can help boost your sales success:

Updated Account Information-

Account profiling is about gathering data through research, hence the data collected has a deeper value and understanding of the prospect you are planning to convert or work with. Hence, you know that the data is worthy and the information you have is crucial.

Your team can use this information to framework the perfect sales pitch covering their pain points and your exact solutions. Here, your chances of converting a lead into the client are more.

Contact:

When you gather all the necessary data about the prospect, it also comes with a list of dignitaries you will have to contact so as to move toward the prospect lead. You know which protocol to follow in order to reach the prospect in the best, easiest and safest way possible. your sales team knows whom to reach first and what to talk with them in order to move ahead in the process.

It makes you look professional as well as saves a lot of time. Plus, the impression you create on the prospect by following the given protocol and hitting each cord right is phenomenal.

Competitors:

The world runs on data and account profiling provides you with the one. So, if your sales team is efficient enough to use this data, you have a chance to stand out in the market and get an edge over your competitors. Customized sales approach can be framed to pitch the prospect. Effective Prospect profiling blended with the market insight allows you to build a product that is unique enough to give you a distinct market identity, attractive enough to impress the prospect and effective enough to help the prospect in getting what it needs.

Sales & marketing becomes more efficient:

Account profiling increases the accuracy of the forecast, along with making your sales and marketing process efficient. Knowing information about your prospect makes it easier for you to devise a sales strategy that they cannot deny, thus having a positive impact on the sales of your B2B business.

It also makes your business more profitable and helps you in understanding the budget and buying processes.

Other advantages:

As you already know what there is to know about your prospect, you can help craft a message that will most definitely grasp the attention of your prospect.

Apart from that, the accuracy and the updated information helps in shortening your sales cycle. It also opens your business for possibilities of up-selling and cross-selling, which eventually boosts the average sales of your business.

So, this was everything you needed to know about account profiling and how it can help your B2B business in increasing sales.

What are different ways of generating Sales Ready Leads?

Opportunities have grown exponentially for salespeople, driven by digital innovations, more systematic request for proposals, and extensive use of internal sales to generate leads. And on these grounds, having qualified leads at your side is half the battle. No matter where it comes from; sales or marketing, it most of the time takes you closer to the final closure.

Sales-ready leads in real

SQL (Sales qualified leads also termed as sales-ready leads) often indicate immediate interest in a company’s products or services. For example, it is recommended that sales staff acts on SQL within 24 hours of generation.

However, if you have large volumes of leads entering the funnel, you are likely to flood your sales team with huge database of low-quality leads that will end up wasting time with zero productivity. Executions of various marketing strategies pull out large number of leads, but probability of those marketing qualified leads; turning out to be potential customers is believed to be non reliable.

So, if you come across a lead generation dry spell more often, there are some effective ways to mitigate the concern and create a productive b2b sales lead database that is result-driven.

Organize aunified customer experience

Whether through marketing emails, search for products online, or use mobile devices to find the best deal, today’s customers are in constant touch with brands as they incline towards finalizing on purchasing decisions. Digital channels can bring this experience together and prevent missed opportunities.

This represents the cumulative effect of driving increased online traffic, effective consumer participation, increased sales conversion rates, and deepening branded sales connections.

Connecting with lead generation companies

This scenario majorly comes into picture when you don’t have effective database or the lack of qualified sales leads in you CRM. However, in the phase of swift advancement in technologies, lead generation companies can give you a saving hand with most refined sales-ready leads.

Outbound calling

No one is needed to explain of how it works and where an efficient outbound calling process might take you. Though the business world is crawling aggressively in World Wide Web, there is always a need to make a call for better clarity; human way of connecting we can say. However, before dialing up your potential client, your call strategy should be defined. An effective outbound campaign is directly proportional to superior call strategy and preparedness.

Emphasizing on enterprise personas

Analyzing the key categories that clearly explain the enterprise personas such as firmographic, technographic, psychographic, business situation, business operating model, and resources. As trust and credibility are two critical ingredients in the process of B2B Lead Generation, staying around your customers would take you closer to qualified customer that is ready for a sales pitch.

Everyone is online

A recent study suggests that around 90% of businesses prefer online research before coming onto a purchasing decision. That’s exactly where we can engage the businesses; right at start of the buying procedure. SEO and digital marketing tactics are creating phenomenal prospects in terms of finding the correct client, with clear details of what exactly is needed.

BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timing)

This theory of recognizing the lead has been in the picture since long time now. Though somehow its applicability has been reduced due to drastic changes in sales process. Today’s lead generation process are majorly inclined towards quick result and gaining counts on the board. However, BANT strategy is more relevant when authorized spokesperson or client himself/herself is looking for a solution with a set budget to spend on, and timeline. BANT procedure brings more transparency between you and client.

Automate the marketing

Newsletters are making a huge effect, as they land in inboxes directly. Deploying a dedicated tool for marketing automation bridges you with your clients through multiple promotional medium such as email campaigns, social messages, forms, and many more.

An effective lead generation, whether used for creating marketing qualified leads or sales-ready leads is a well-calculated fusion of offline and online strategies. Trying new things every time and staying in sync with the latest trends is also equally crucial. Just don’t over-optimize your strategies.

How important is Account Profiling in B2B Lead Generation?

Imagine that you have a thorough understanding of your target accounts, which can give you a competitive advantage in marketing and sales. They help you prioritize calls, create personalized messages that attract attention, encourage decision-makers to consider your products, shorten the sales cycle, and close the sale.

Sounds like your sales graph knocking every point towards the peak, right?

There is a big difference between a potential business and a venture that is out of business. Generally, accurate account profiling can fill the gap most effectively and robust your sales which come with an added benefit of knowing which track to look for and where to hunt. The B2B account profiling provides decision-making information for effective communication and tailored solutions that lead to higher and more dynamic conversions for your investment, as well as efforts.

Most strategic accounts are the double-edged swords and it has been seen that these key accounts hold a huge margin in terms of revenue. Leaving these gemstones unturned might turn them into a fallow stone and can be overlooked in spite of considering it as stepping stone for your business objectives.

Obtaining in-depth details of the key accounts is strategically driven by B2B marketing campaigns. And this has a direct link to account-based marketing (ABM). As the adoption of ABM (account-based marketing) has been accelerating since last some years and with its deep penetration in marketing funnel specifically in prospect profiling, it is predicted to have a transformative impact on the B2B sales and marketing.

What can be missed if your process isn’t efficient enough?

Account profiling is the process of acquiring every succinct intel of the target accounts that help in customize and personalize the campaigns. And if things don’t go well, it brings some serious consequences related to sales of the company.

Account profiling help you in,

Engaging with a potential client that suites best for your service offerings
Analyzing their long list of collaborated vendors and suppliers
Providing POCs and decision-makers who are perfect to pitch you proposals
Buying patterns, business & financial activities, and recent news

If you don’t know what you’re dealing with, you can venture into a maze and wander aimlessly until you reach a dead end. But the account profile offers a master card to crack the maze. It decrypts the people involved in the decision, their role and the problems they face.

If the process makes you twirled in the logic and strategies and still leaves you nowhere in the process of onboarding clients. Consider some of the account profiling services which assist in running prospect profiling.

What are the different types of B2B Leads?

What does B2B Lead Mean?

A lead is nothing but a potential client. A B2B lead means a potential business lead. Here, your potential client would be a company, not an individual. B2B leads are generated using different lead generation strategies like email generation, content syndication, appointment setting, content marketing, etc.

What is B2B Lead Generation?

B2B lead generation process accommodates one of the initial steps in any typical marketing or sales funnel. Gathering all the required data about the potential customers – Name, email, job profile, etc. which could be used in future by the sales team. However, it does not happen so quickly and smoothly. Before qualifying for B2B Sales Leads or sales-ready leads, the gathered information goes through multiple filters. The data is sorted based on its status and eligibility into different types of leads.

Two core types of leads are:

Marketing Qualified Lead

Sales Qualified Lead

Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL):

A lead can be qualified as an MQL if a prospect is showing interest in the company’s offerings/message. Lead generation team finds out quality MQLs after analyzing the database depending upon specific behavior pattern, level of engagement of the prospect in the business offerings. In the lead generation funnel, marketing team comes across the potential B2B sales leads database, which is mixed with other no-so-sales-ready leads. Marketing team takes on these as MQL and try to convert them into the SQL. MQL is a lead which is more likely to become the client.

Sales Qualified Leads (SQL):

What SQL means vary from company to company, depending upon the company’s nature, client’s expectations from the leads, etc. Marketing and sales team sometimes have to sit together and decide the difference between MQL and SQL as per their lead scaling measures.

Sales Qualified Lead is the next stage of MQL. Which means the sales team is the last part of lead generation funnel and has a responsibility of converting SQLs into the potential customers.

As a matter of fact, once the MQLs are worked on by the marketing team and SQLs are provided to the sales team, the received leads enter the buying cycle. As this is the final stage of conversion, more than half of the work is already done, and the sales team just has to identify the expectations and offer deals accordingly.

The sales cycle is the most significant process as the successful ROI depends on this cycle. A crucial factor to consider while qualifying any SQL is demographics. Factors like prospect’s pain points and budget should also be considered by the sales department to shorten the sales cycle. A reliable and experienced B2B lead generation company would assist in acquiring quality SQLs. Here is an ideal process of finding the quality SQL:

Understand the target segment

Build lists based on clients’ specifications

Start the lead generation process and appointment setting.

These were the two core types and core step of B2B lead generation. KIABiz is a reliable market player when it comes to B2B lead generation and marketing. Contact info@kiabiz.com for more details.