Our Simple B2B SaaS Lead Generation Strategy

By: Jack Reamer |
 September 14, 2021 |
 Lead Generation

Depending on what your B2B saas price point is, you’re going to have a few different lead generation strategies that you can use.

For example, you won’t be able to do so much manual, high-touch outreach for each individual prospect if your SaaS is 9 USD per month. So you’ll need to adapt your strategy to make outreach profitable. 

 In this post, we’ll uncover different lead generation strategies that you can use for your B2B saas, plus a simple lead generation strategy (using nothing but LinkedIn + cold email) to get 1 lead per day, even if you’re selling a 10k/mo enterprise software technology.

Why SaaS companies should consider price points.

Every company that would like to use outbound lead generation, has to consider their price points to figure their strategy. 

Why? 

Because if you are selling a $9 a month product and I’m selling a $10,000 a month product, we would most likely have different strategies. Right? 

Remember that you need to know what you can afford before you acquire new customers.

And once you work that out, you can then go ahead and decide on how you are going to spend that amount before you acquire these new leads. 

Example:

It’s not quite like saying how much we can afford for PPC. Because when it comes to email marketing, it doesn’t matter what industry you’re going after, across the board it’s the same price.

Why?

Well, it takes the same amount of time and energy to build a list of plumbers, as it would a list of lawyers. Whereas if this was PPC, a click to get a lawyer’s attention compared to stay-at-home moms, would probably have quite different price points. 

But in this article, we are rather going to talk about how much time you’re going to bake into these campaigns and where that magic balance point is. 

It’s all about your sales time. 

Think about how much time you or your sales team is busy with the sales process. This could be spending time on sending or replying to emails, doing demos, or doing cold calling.

The more time you spend on prospecting, the more sense it makes to have a higher price point, but what if you are selling a saas product that’s only $9 per month? 

If this is the case, you have to think differently and have a different sales strategy. 

Think about these things before you plan your marketing strategy

What can you afford?

Depending on the cost of your company’s product price per month, you could think about having a small marketing team that handles different aspects of your campaign. 

You might be able to hire 3 or 4 people. One who does SDR, another who does prospecting, and another who does closing. If you could, you might even be able to hire one person who does qualifying calls. 

But this depends on the price of your Saas product. If you are selling a product in the high price bracket, then you could afford a small sales team, but if you are selling a product in the lower price field, you might not be able to do this. 

Have a look at the graph below. The higher your product price, the larger the sales team; the lower your product price, the smaller the sales team. 

Once you determine whether or not you can have a small sales team, you can then come up with a strategy. 

It’s important to have the following part of your sales team even if it is really small:

  • Someone to build a list for you of your ideal customer and runs campaigns (This might be the same person)
  • Someone to do lead nurturing. This could be by follow-up calls, replying to emails, or even booking meetings.

(A closer might not be needed if you are selling at the lower price point. You could always higher a closer later on.)

Pro-Tip

Do not be tempted to buy a list of leads, even if you are selling at a lower price point. Often these leads are not qualified, therefore they could be a bad match for your product.

Rather invest in spending some time, in building the perfect list of your target audience.

Remember garbage in = garbage out. 

On a side note: What if you can’t afford a sales team just yet?

If hiring a sales team might be too costly initially, (for example, you are a new startup and your budget is really tight) you might need to do the prospecting yourself; or you could use inbound marketing. 

This could be by having your own social media page on Facebook, or Instagram. You could also do your own content marketing, by writing blogs on your website, and dabbling in SEO.  

How much time should you spend on higher and lower price points?

Strategy ideas for lower price points

If you are selling a product in a lower price bracket, you might then spend a little less time on ultra personalization in your emails. 

For example, you could send a quick survey, or send a very simple email, like below: 

“Click yes, if you would like more info, and I will send it.” For example, 

You might offer a 5 – 10 min call to discuss your sales strategy or offer a free demo for a few days.  

If you are in the lower price point range though, you will need to be sure that your prospect list is super defined.

By hitting leads that are ideal for your product, means higher sales. You don’t want to lose the power to convert.

Remember to also try and increase the deal value of your emails. Instead of going to just one person, or the end-user, try going to a reseller or an influencer.

Try to see who could aggregate your end user. It’s like going after a branch of people who have access to your end-user.

Strategy ideas for higher price points

Whereas if you are in a higher selling class, you might offer a longer consultation call, ultra-personalized messages, or even take the time to personalize a video just for the prospect. 

If you are also selling a product that’s $10 000 per month, for example, your list doesn’t have to be super vertical, it could be more horizontal.

Meaning that you could cast a wider net to find more qualified leads. You could target those in marketing, fintech, and other industries. 

Remember responsible sending though.  Don’t spam thousands of people who are not a good fit for your product, but test the waters in different places. You have the resources to do so. 

Another idea is to contact influencers in the space, who might have 100 000 followers on their YouTube channel of prospects who might be a great fit.

You could make a few partnerships, and this could bring in quite a bit of money. 

Keep your product in mind & come up with a sequence of direct users

Having a product that people actually want, will always be helpful to your campaign.

And if you can come up with a sequence of direct users, where your product scratches an itch that the marketplace has, then you will do well.

For example, if you’re selling a natural medical balm for pandas, you wouldn’t sell it to human doctors, but would rather target vets who work at Zoos that have pandas. 

You could say in an email marketing campaign:

“Hey, I want to set your company up with access to this tool for a couple of months, on the house, it solves X in X minutes.” 

Address the prospect’s pain points and offer them something that they can’t refuse. A product that solves a bleeding neck problem, with a free trial, is an excellent value offer.

Who are you selling to?

You have 2 options. You could either focus on the end customer, or a partnership campaign. 

1. The End Customer

This means that you will target the decision-maker directly. So if you’re selling big-ticket items in the B2B space, it just makes more sense to go directly to the person in charge—the person who will decide whether to buy your item or not. 

So create conversations and campaigns that go directly after the end customer. 

2. Partnership Campaigns

With partnership campaigns, you will need to find people who are already connected to the end customer. Create a campaign where you can reach out to potential partners that can be a referral source for our clients.

 Here’s an example:

If you’re selling a hosting service and you notice that a lot of your referrals come from fractional CTOs, then we’ll set up a referral campaign where we target fractional CTOs and get them to become a referral source.

So what does this mean for your strategy?

If you have a lower price point product, you are not going to bother contacting the CEO of a company. 

Why?

The CEO might have handed over the buying power to a manager for example, who can make the call on certain financial products. 

But if your price point is $10 000 a month, then contacting the CEO, or decision-maker would be a better idea. 

Why?

Because a lower-level employee at a company won’t be able to make that massive buying decision for their company. The CEO would need to make that decision for the business.

Now that you know what to consider before you begin your outreach strategy, let’s shift gears. 

This is the strategy we use to get 1 high-quality lead per day.

1. Build a super targeted list of potential customers

Why do this? By building a targeted list of prospects, you will be able to reach out to customers, who actually want your product. There is no point in selling hardware tools to optometrists. 

Therefore, when you build a list of prospects have a look at who has purchased your saas product from you within the last 6 months. 

Do you notice any patterns? 

Here are some questions that you can ask yourself in order to find patterns:

  • What similarities do these customers have?
  • What is your ideal customer profile?
  • What kind of buyers are these? 
  • Are they all located in a similar area? 
  • Are they all in a specific industry?
  • What is the size of their business?
  • Do they also use a similar type of tech or CRM tool?

Once you have found these patterns, it’s much easier to build a list. We suggest narrowing the list down to two segments. It’s also important to have at least 500 accounts to avoid running out of prospects too quickly. 

(Read this article for more detail on how to build the perfect list of prospects. If you’re not interested in doing it yourself, we offer account-based marketing services.)

How do you find these prospects though? (You might be wondering.) The trick is to think outside the box and use a multi-channel approach to list building. Have a look below for some ideas.

One of the major reasons for the success of this campaign was the amount of research that went into finding qualified leads, building the perfect list, and reaching out with ultra-personalized messages. (Read here to see how we did it.)

Where to find attributes while prospecting

 

Where to find “events” while prospecting

 

By looking in different places, the chances of finding the right prospects will be higher.

2. Add the list of target accounts to Linkedin Sales Navigator & Filter by second degree (or by recently posted)

Once you have a list of B2B companies or prospects you would like to target, you can add them to Linkedin Sales Navigator.

You would then need to look at each company profile and see who the right person is to contact. 

You might need to contact the decision-maker directly, or if you are only looking for referrals, there might be someone else to whom you can speak. It’s important to also filter by your second-degree network or by recently posted. 

There are 2 reasons for this: 

  1. You already share a common connection with the prospect, meaning that they are already in your second-degree network.  This means that they have already accepted people like you in the past, which in turn means that they will most likely accept your connection invite request because they are accepting people relevant to them.
  2. You can also connect with those outside your second-degree network, but before you do, make sure that they have posted something on Linkedin within the past 30 days.   The reason for this is that if they aren’t active on Linkedin, they might not even see your connection request message. 

3. Write personalized connection requests

As we mentioned above, the higher your price point, the better your personalization should be. 

When connecting with prospects on Linkedin, do not send the same connection request to everyone on your list.  

Why? 

Because this will come across as impersonal and seem like a marketing automation tool. People can tell if it’s a robot sending out messages. 

By personalizing connection requests, you can be sure that a prospect will stop and read your message. Most people are curious about how you know them. 

Here are some examples:

Example 1:

“Hey, John. I loved your podcast on XYZ. I found the tips on “y” very helpful. Let’s connect? Michaela”

Or

Example 2:

“ John. Saw (Quickmails auto-answer). Let’s connect? Happy to ask Jack Reamer for an intro if it helps. Michaela”

When you research your prospect, mention something about them that you enjoyed. Maybe they wrote a book or posted an interesting article on Linkedin, or perhaps they support a specific charity that you support too.

Because of the personalization that we use in our campaigns, we often have a very high response rate

4. Begin your SaaS marketing campaign (sending your messages) and follow up 3 times.

The next step in our generation efforts is to send out all these personalized messages via Linkedin.

Because our messages have been personalized, we often receive quite high connection and reply rates. (Read here for some metrics on previous case studies.)

If someone does connect with you, and they send you a message back, be sure to follow up with them 3 times. Wait 3 days first before you do so. 

PRO TIP: Do not come across as a sleazy salesperson. Don’t push the sale during these follow-up messages, but rather ask for a call or a meeting to discuss your product. 

 We always apply the 90/10 rule. 

 This means, talk about the prospect 90% of the time and only 10% about your product for context. 

But what if they don’t reply to you or accept your connection request? You could then find their email addresses and send them a direct mail. 

 How do you find their email addresses? 

Sometimes it’s listed on Linkedin, or if it’s not listed, you could use:

Once you have their email addresses, add them to an email marketing campaign and follow the same recipe as above with regards to personalization. (Remember to keep it short for emails.)

Remember to ask for a meeting

In your follow-up messages always have a clear CTA and ask for a meeting.  

See some examples below:

  • “Are you free for a 15-minute call on Thursday at 10 AM?”
  • Can you or someone on your team jump on a quick 14-minute call this week to explore?
  • “When can we schedule a 30-minute demo?”
  • Are you available for a 20-minute chat on [MONTH] [DAY] at [HOUR] [TIMEZONE]?
  • How about a quick 30 min call next {{=day}} at 4 pm [TIMEZONE] to discuss more?
  • What will it take to get 25 minutes on your calendar next week?
  • Can I steal you away for a 15-minute phone call tomorrow at 5 pm [TIMEZONE]?
  • Let’s catch up for 15 mins. Just select any date and time on my calendar link.
  • Please choose a date and time of your choice using this link.   

This strategy works. We guarantee if you follow this formula exactly, you will get a minimum of 12% in replies. Hence our promise of 1 lead per day. 

 

Would you like 1 lead per day?

 Lead generation takes time and effort. And as a busy founder, you might not have the time to do it all on your own.

 If you would like 1 lead per day for your B2B SaaS company, why not contact us? Let us help you find those qualified leads in as little as 1 week. 

11 + 5 =

jack reamer, ceo of salesbread

Jack Reamer

CEO of Salesbread.com

Jack Reamer is the CEO of Salesbread. Salesbread helps B2B companies get 1 qualified sales lead per day, by using ultra-personalized outreach messages on LinkedIn. Jack is also the co-host of the Cold Outreach Podcast. Read his articles on Mailshake.com, Reply.io, Quickmail.io, and Salesbread.