At the outset, let us mention that we do B2B lead generation ourselves and our views on this topic could be biased. We’ve run B2B lead generation campaigns for over 500 organizations exclusively using social media platforms like Linkedin. 

We’ve seen and heard organizations burn their hands with lead generation agencies.  In this post, we share our views on what are some of the things one should keep in mind while engaging B2B lead generation agencies. 

Understand the mode of lead generation 

Unlike B2C campaigns, you’d want to deep dive into how the agency will go about contacting your buyers. Buyers of your product are usually senior stakeholders in enterprises. It’s important how your brand is presented to them. The first reachout is often critical in this. Work with your agency on the mode of reachout and the message that’s being communicated. 

For example, you wouldn’t want a junior rep calling up decision makers in target organizations with a script that goes something like: – “Hi I am calling from XYZ. Do you have any requirements for a CRM/HRIS product?”

Focus on conversations with decision makers, less on number of leads

Your eventual northstar in lead generation should be conversations with stakeholders in the right companies. This will need dedicated efforts from the agency as well as your team that is working with them. Lead generation campaigns often focus on vanity metrics like leads, phone numbers, emails,  responses etc. This makes agencies optimize for the number of leads and end up bringing either smaller companies or non decision makers into conversations. The key benchmark you want to track is how many decision makers were you able to speak to. 

Don’t overemphasis on budgets and timeline

We’ve seen organizations often harp on how they want to speak to ‘buy ready’ leads. They’ll articulate in different ways: SQLs, clear need, budgets frozen etc. Essentially organizations are looking for leads which will close immediately.

Here’s the problem with this approach. If you’ve reached a prospect when they are close to making their final decision, you’re too late to be considered a viable option in most cases. 

Your competitors have worked with the prospect to identify their needs, help with deciding budgets and timelines and built a plan with your prospect. You’ve been invited in the conversation by the prospect only to validate if they aren’t overpaying and if they haven’t missed out anything. 

Work on medium term engagements; scale once you see results

With B2B lead generation campaigns, you never really know how they will pan out until you try them out. If you find an agency which you feel is largely aligned to your goals, it’s better to pilot with them and see the results. You need to ofcourse do your due diligence, understand their past performance and case studies. But beyond that it is better to run a pilot campaign and see how they do for your brand.

We’ve seen organizations get caught up in conversations around outcomes ,BANT qualification and minimum guarantees of leads. This is counterproductive. Most experienced agencies as well as buyers understand that neither parties are in a position to predict outcomes. It’s better to design a small pilot and find it out for yourself.