B2B Lead Generation
I am a firm believer in many tried-and-true lead generation strategies for B2B healthcare marketers, including:
- Content marketing (buyers love consuming content in healthcare)
- Event marketing (aka go to healthcare conferences)
- Targeted Account Based Marketing
All three of these strategies are always in my marketing mix. However, when you are in a highly-competitive niche or when the economy slows down to the point where leads are harder to generate, I have found that shaking things up with an unconventional strategy (or two) can generate good quality leads.
Targeted Outreach to Presenters
One of the unconventional strategies that I have found particularly successful is reaching out to presenters at conferences who fit the profile of an ideal client or who are speaking on a topic that my buyer audience is interested in.
This strategy is simple to implement:
- Go to the website of any healthcare conference and explore the agenda
- Carefully review the agenda, paying particular attention to the speaker profiles and the subject of the session. Note the ones that fit your buyer profile or who are speaking on an interesting topic.
- Reach out to those speakers via LinkedIn (or if you are lucky, via your CRM or Marketing Automation database) and ask if they would be so kind as to forward a copy of their presentation
- If they agree, be sure to read the presentation and write a comment or question back
When done well, this online dialog can be the start of a trusted relationship. The key is to demonstrate genuine interest. People can spot fake interest a mile away, so don’t try this strategy on a topic that you have no interest in or knowledge of.
This strategy is particularly effective for startups who don’t yet have a lot of connections. Conference agendas are public-facing so studying agendas can be a rich source of leads when you are starting out. Plus, this strategy only requires elbow grease.
Ask Partners for a Joint Meeting
One of the least-leveraged sources of leads are partners. I’ve always made and effort to get to know a few sales and marketing folks at the various partner companies. Those relationships can be a great source of leads when conventional strategies go through a lull.
If you are partners with another company, that means both see value in the other and there is already a foundation of trust to build on. Smart salespeople are always looking for excuses to get in front of existing clients – especially to showcase something useful. Why not your solution?
All you need to execute this unconventional lead generation strategy is a well-crafted email to an account manager at your partner that articulates how valuable their client will find an exploratory discussion with you. Note I didn’t say “sales pitch”. No one wants to be pitched to. Instead offer to spend an hour discussing the latest information around a hot-button challenge.
Obviously you have to do your research ahead of time to discover what those hot-button challenges are for your partner’s clients AND then research the challenge enough so that you can have a discussion. When executed properly this strategy can yield very high-quality leads since you are able to leverage the trusted relationship your partner already has with their client.
If you don’t have any official partnersihps, this strategy also works with salespeople you are friends with.
Pay for Morning Coffee
This is a strategy I have used a few times, and it always nets a good quantity of leads. Here is how it works:
- While attending a conference, find the closest Starbucks to the venue, preferably the day before the event starts. That Starbucks will undoubtedly be the place where java-needing attendees will go to get their morning coffee.
- Show up early each morning of the conference and stand at the front near the cash register. When you see someone in line with a conference badge, approach them and tell them your company is paying for their morning coffee.
- If they say yes (and most do), ask to take a picture of their badge and if possible, ask for their email
- After they place their order with the Barista, pay with your credit card
This strategy works even better when you have two or more people. While one person is at the front paying for the coffees, the other person can be working the line, talking to people, and getting their information.
When you show up the next morning, word will have spread and you will likely have lots of new people to meet.
This strategy does mean you will end up paying for coffee for exhibitors (the one time we tried to exclude exhibitors, it led to a bit of a backlash so I wouldn’t recommend it), but the genuine leads you get will be worth it.
Even with inflated coffee prices, this tactic is effective…and much less costly than being an exhibitor at most conferences. Plus, you end up generating a lot of goodwill.
What unconventional lead generation strategies have worked for you?
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