B2B Lead Generation Tools & Strategies for Business Growth in Dubai

Working in the B2B sphere, when one company offers goods and services to other companies, is very different from the B2C business, which is focused on retail customers. In this article, our Dubai-based B2B digital agency talks about the specifics of B2B marketing: how to segment the target audience, create a sales funnel, select promotion tools and channels, and formulate a strategy.

B2B (Business to Business) is a model of work in which a business creates products for another business. For example, a coffee machine manufacturer sells its equipment to coffee shops, and an IT developer offers accounting programs to consulting companies.

Accordingly, B2B marketing is the process of promoting goods and services to corporate clients. It includes a set of strategies and tools for attracting potential buyers and building long-term relationships with them.

The sales cycle, criteria for choosing goods and services for business, channels and methods of promotion, as well as the style of communications in B2B differ from the retail market. Therefore, to successfully work in the B2B sphere, you should take into account its features and select the appropriate tools.

• Different target audience

The end buyer in business is the person who is engaged in procurement or makes decisions when selecting partners and suppliers.

• Involvement of several employees

Often, the decision to cooperate with a new company is not made alone - it is agreed upon with the manager and other departments.

• Long transaction cycle

Due to the more complex purchase process and agreement with several interested parties, the duration of the transaction in B2B is longer than in the retail market. Therefore, multi-stage schemes are often used here, which increase sales.

• More rational selection criteria

Purchases in business are usually made after a thorough analysis of all factors - they evaluate the potential profit from investment, ROI, risks and benefits associated with the purchase of the product. Emotions play a lesser role here, although they are also important.

• The importance of reputation

In the B2B market, companies are often focused on long-term cooperation, because the effectiveness of the entire business may depend on its results. Therefore, the partner's reputation and reliability will be of decisive importance.

• Special sales channels

In B2B, there are specific methods of promotion that are not found in the retail market. For example, tender procurement platforms or industry exhibitions. In addition, personal and expert sales are more often used here.

• Business tone of communications

When working with corporate clients, a fairly restrained and formal communication style is usually used. However, it should be understandable and easy to perceive.

Thus, in B2B marketing, you need to focus first on demonstrating the value and benefits of the product, use complex sales systems - you will need from 6 to 10 "touches" with a potential client for the deal to take place. It is also important to increase the perceived expertise of the company and form a reputation as a responsible and effective partner.

Before developing a marketing strategy for a B2B company, it is necessary to collect data, segment the market and more precisely define the target audience of the business. The criteria for segmenting potential customers can be as follows.

Where the company's head office and branches are located, in what territory it operates. This includes the country, region and city.

Geography determines the features of logistics and communication with a potential client, and also indirectly indicates the scale of its business. For example, you can segment the base by criteria - federal, regional and city companies.

The size of an organization can be described using various indicators - the volume of production or sales last year, the number of employees, branches or clients. Choose the criterion for which information is available to you.

Conventionally, all companies are divided into small, medium and large. Their tasks and needs, budgets, and decision-making process usually depend on their size. The smaller the business, the less bureaucracy and approvals.

This includes:

• the company's field of activity - sales or production;
• the industry, for example, medicine, education, construction or tourism;
• the type of ownership - individual entrepreneur, LLC or NPO;
• what kind of clients the business is focused on - corporate or retail;
• the stage of the life cycle, for example, a startup or an established company;
• the range and pricing policy - economy, mid-range or VIP.

The data on the specifics of the work can be supplemented if it is important for your business. For example, metal manufacturers can segment potential B2B clients also by raw material procurement channels - with or without tenders.

Determine what current tasks the business has - what the company currently lacks and how you can help solve this issue.

For example, a supplier of medical equipment offers complex diagnostic systems to large clinics, chairs and consumables to dental clinics, and ergonomic couches to massage parlors.

The scheme of work with a potential client depends on the decision maker.

This could be:

• management — owner, top manager or CEO;
• purchasing specialist;
• engineer or IT specialist;
• employees for whom the business orders a product or service.

Several specialists can be involved in coordinating the purchase of complex and expensive products. For example, an engineer selects solution options, describes their pros and cons, and the CEO makes the final verdict and allocates budgets.

For an engineer, the most important thing is its quality characteristics and technical data, and for a director, it is the return on investment and the overall increase in business efficiency.

Specify what the company pays attention to when choosing a supplier or partner. This could be the quality of the product, price or terms, brand awareness, its reputation or technical characteristics of the product.

If there are many criteria, highlight the most significant ones - this way you will be able to correctly place emphasis in the presentation or advertising.

This includes data on the frequency and seasonality of orders - products are needed regularly or at a certain time of year. Here you can also indicate the urgency of purchases, their average volume.

In addition, the nature of the relationship with the client is important:

• no orders yet;
• new customer;
• regular customer.

For current customers, you can additionally apply RFM segmentation. It will tell you what actions will help increase the level of repeat sales.

Select the necessary criteria for segmenting B2B clients that meet your business objectives. Then collect data from open sources or conduct your own marketing research.

After that, divide all potential clients into segments, calculate their number and capacity, and assess the level of competition in each niche. Then select the most attractive segments that you will focus on in your work.

For each segment of the target audience, you will need to build your own sales funnel. At the same time, different marketing tools are used at different stages of working with clients:

Further work with corporate clients will be aimed at organizing repeat sales, increasing loyalty and forming long-term and trusting relationships.

For these purposes, you can use:

• email marketing;
• surveys and service calls to analyze customer satisfaction;
• special offers to increase the average bill and frequency of purchases;
• gifts for holidays;
• invitations to free events;
• stimulating word of mouth — bonuses for feedback or invited friends.

B2B marketing relies primarily on rational benefits and advantages from using the product. But do not forget that people make decisions. Therefore, their emotions can and should be influenced by the company's attentive attitude, care and prompt assistance in solving problems. Your support should be felt at all stages of work.

There are many types of marketing tools that are used to promote products and services in the B2B sphere. Let's consider the most common ones.

A personal resource that describes the company's main advantages is the basis of successful B2B marketing. The site should be convenient and visual. Make sure that it answers the main questions of customers and clearly describes your products and services, conveying a unique selling point.

Add materials to the site that emphasize your expertise:

• description of work experience;
• real cases and completed projects;
• customer reviews;
• industry ratings in which you participated;
• opinions of market experts about your products;
• awards and letters of thanks;
• information about participation in exhibitions and conferences;
• a list of large clients with whom you have worked.

If you decide to use content marketing, the site can be supplemented with useful articles that help visitors solve their problems and improve their work efficiency. For example, for a consulting company, these could be materials on the topic of "How to conduct an audit of the sales department?", "10 signs that your team can sell more" or "How to choose a sales methodology that suits you?".

In all main sections, it is necessary to integrate tools for capturing contacts of potential customers. This could include a convenient application form, registration for a gift, a window for subscribing to a useful newsletter, quizzes, or other formats that are accepted in your industry.

Search engine optimization (SEO) allows a company to appear on the first lines of search engines for key customer queries. The main advantage of this method of promotion is that it does not require constant financial investments, unlike other types of online advertising.

To appear on the first lines of search engines, you need to:

• ensure good website performance — fast loading, no errors;
• design pages correctly — indicate their Title and Description;
• add texts with the necessary keywords to the website.

Life hack: to get more leads, optimize the website for keys that relate to the first stages of the sales funnel. These are “Realization of need” and “Search for a solution”. At these stages, competition is lower, which means you will be able to bring in more clients.

PPC Advertising - this is a paid ad that appears in the top lines of search engines. You can set up a list of key queries, after entering which your ad will be shown. In addition to text formats, you can use media formats - pictures or videos.

PPC Ads is primarily used to "capture" customers who are already looking for a specific product. For example, a coffee machine for business. But, just like in the case of SEO, you can use queries from the top of the sales funnel for promotion.

Email newsletters are an effective way to stay in touch with customers, provide them with useful information, and tell them about promotions.

Here are the types of newsletters that are commonly used in business:

• Welcome letters for new customers;
• Product and service news;
• Invitations to events, including online ones;
• Current promotions and special offers;
• Loyalty program news;
• Market reviews and industry analytics;
• Useful materials and recommendations for running a business;
• Surveys and performance evaluations.

Try to personalize your letters and send only what will be of real interest to customers. There is a very fine line between email marketing and spam, and you should not cross it.

Social networks are traditionally used to promote products in the B2C market. But in B2B they can also bring considerable benefits.

This is a good way to maintain relationships and conduct a lively dialogue with corporate clients, demonstrate your expertise and share useful content. And with the help of targeting, you can attract new users.

You can find themed events in every industry. Perhaps your business hosts:

• industry exhibitions;
• conferences and seminars;
• master classes;
• business lunches;
• online webinars.

You can participate as a speaker or just a guest. In any case, visiting a place where potential customers gather is a good opportunity to remind people about yourself or to gather new contacts.

The most “advanced” companies organize their own B2B events. Due to this, they raise their status and improve their reputation.

Cold calling of potential buyers is still common in B2B marketing. This is partly due to the fact that the number of B2B clients is an order of magnitude lower than in B2C. You can often work with them individually. Especially if your target is a medium or large business.

For successful cold calling, you will need a team of well-trained employees, as well as detailed sales scripts. The calls should not be intrusive, but each contact should have a goal, for example, to get acquainted, find out needs, arrange a meeting or send a commercial proposal.

Unlike B2C, in B2B direct sales and personal communication with business representatives play a huge role. To conduct successful negotiations, you will again need scripts, as well as a colorful company presentation, a convenient price list and an effective commercial offer.

Depending on the complexity of the product and the deal cycle, you may need not one, but several meetings with potential customers. In the B2B sphere, negotiations take a long time.

The key to B2B marketing is to make sure that different tools work together as links in a chain. It is important to develop a comprehensive strategy in which all communications are coordinated and lead to one goal.