Lead Generation for Tech Companies -13 Unusual Tactics

Selling tech isn’t always the easiest exercise.

Why?

Because, let’s face it, there’s a lot of competition out there, and if your target audience is Fortune 500 companies, it can be even harder to capture their attention.

At Salesbread, we have helped our tech clients book calls with American express, Bank of America, United States Air Force, Amway and even Yelp.

In this article we will share considerations that you need to think about before launching, and 13 strategies to implement when generating leads for your tech company.

If you do this, you can expect to crush your business goals with qualified leads that actually convert to sales.

(And if doing the lead generation yourself seems too time-consuming, you could always hop on a free 15-minute strategy session with Salesbread. We would love to help you find high quality leads that close.)

Consider this first before you develop lead generation strategies.

1. What are your objectives?

Before you begin developing a lead generation strategy, think about what you want to achieve. If you have clear objectives, it will help you measure progress and align your goals across your company.

When you track your objectives, it also allows you to adapt your framework, and come up with an even better strategy. Especially if you notice that one form of lead gen is working better than another.

2. Consider your price points

If you’re selling technology, your price point is going to dictate your lead generation approach.

Anything that could be considered enterprise tech, (where you’re selling something that’s 20 grand and up) you need to respect the sales process and realize that it will be several months, or in some cases even a few years before these big contracts close. 

Especially if you’re going after fortune 500 companies.

In this section we will consider ideas for lower and higher price points in your lead generation efforts.

If you’re selling at a lower price point

If you are selling a product in a lower price bracket, you might spend a little less time on ultra personalization in your outreach strategy whether it’s for LinkedIn outreach or cold email.

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.” 

You might offer a 5 – 10 minute quick call to discuss your tech, or offer a free demo for a few days.  

If you are selling software at a lower price point, you HAVE to have an ultra refined list of leads.

By reaching out to prospects who are the perfect fit for your tech means better conversion rates which means more money.

Another idea is to reach out to the end-user, a reseller or even 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.

If you’re selling at a high price point

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 customers in marketing, fintech, and other industries. 

You could also reach out to businesses and start a partnership campaign. This means that you will reach out to businesses that are already connected to your end customer. These potential partners can be a referral source for your product.

3. Define your target audience (Obsessively)

If you’ve already had success selling your product or service, you can analyze that data.

Have a look at WHO is buying. What do your buyers have in common?

If you can find specific patterns it makes it a lot easier to build a look a like list of potential clients.

For example:

• Are your buyers located in a similar area?

• Do your buyers all experience a similar pain point?

• Are your buyers in the B2B or B2C space?

• Have these companies recently been funded?

• Do they have specific departments? Like HR? Marketing? Payroll? Or a sales team?

• Do they use specific tools? Like CRMs? Or certain lead generation tools?

The video below is an example of how we would analyse data to build look a like lists.

When it comes to building your ideal customer profile, you need to think about these 2 options.

You could either focus on selling to the end customer, or creating 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

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. 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 that’s covered, you might be thinking…

But does it really take a few years for big contracts to close? 

In truth, sometimes the sales process is faster, but many times there are a lot of departments that need to sign off. 

So initially, you’re actually just trying to get your foot in the door with these big companies.

4. Use the “Foot In The Door” Method

The foot in the door method was created by two psychologists in 1966.

The basic principles are as such:

“The foot in the door technique assumes agreeing to a small request increases the likelihood of agreeing to a second, larger request. So, initially, you make a small request and once the person agrees to this, they find it more difficult to refuse a bigger one .”

Following this principle in outreach (such as LinkedIn lead generation and cold email) can be as simple as asking for a small request in your messages and then asking for a sales meeting a bit later on. 

So once you have a list of prospects that you would like to reach out to, you would need to think of an impossible-to-resist, call to action.  

(Side Note : We encourage ultra-targeted lists – read some of our tech outreach case studies. We actually share how we built targeted lists for our clients in the tech space .

Remember the success of your campaign is very much determined by how defined your target list is. If your target list is too broad, you aren’t going to see great results.) 

The focus of your initial outreach message shouldn’t be a big ask. 

Remember to focus on the prospect. Talk about them 90% of the time and only 10% about yourself for context. 

It’s important to be upfront about your intentions. 

“ Don’t disguise your reason for emailing the prospect, or pretend to be someone you’re not just to get a conversation going.

The “foot in the door” method is not about deception. It’s about starting small and establishing a connection before asking something of your prospect .”

Don’t be a sleazy salesperson though, because this will make prospects run straight for the hills.

All you need to do is establish a connection, start a conversation, to get your foot in the door. 

Here are some examples:

Let’s say that you are selling fintech.

Your message could go as follows:

“Michaela, I noticed that your company is using {a competing software tool} Are you happy with the way it {primary benefit of your product.}? 

Best

P.S. I’m asking because my company actually developed a similar tool that helps solve {problem} and I’d love to hear your feedback on this.”

Notice:

• The intent is clear in the message

• The tone is personal

•  A question has been asked

• And interest is being shown to the prospect, as you are discussing a specific feature of the software they use. This shows them that you did research, and this can go a long way. (Why? Because this could be a pain point for the prospect, so you’re taking an interest in how you could help them.)

With this specific message, you might find that prospects might reply : 

“Hey, we have found this {problem} to be a really annoying feature, how does your tool work?” 

This would be a better approach than asking for a demo upfront. Once you get a conversation going, you could then ask to hop on a call or offer a demo . 

5. Use LinkedIn to generate leads for technology companies

Once you have considered the above and thought about who you’re selling to, and your price points, if you will do your own outreach or hire a sales rep, you can then use the following strategy. 

First you would need to build a list of your ideal prospects like we mention above.

Once you know exactly who to target it will be easier to reach out to individuals at those companies via LinkedIn.

Another option is to build a list of prospects who are using competing tools.

When doing this we use Built With.

This site will allow you to see which sites are using competitor technology.

This is a great place to find easy sales opportunities.

Have a look below at how you can use Built With ( The example below shows us which companies use HubSpot . You can also narrow it down by location, such as the UK, USA, and Australia.):

Once you have a list of which companies use competitor tools, you can then send a similar outreach message like the one we shared above.

Next you will need to plug your list into LinkedIn Sales Navigator

This step will help you find the right people to reach out to at your target companies. As we mentioned above, it might be the CEO or the marketing manager. It will depend on who has the buying power in that company. 

Filter your list by your second-degree network

The next step is to take your list and filter it through your second-degree network on Linkedin . 

Why do we do this?

We do this because historically, prospects are more likely to accept a connection request if you are in their second-degree network.

Why?

Because in the past, they have already accepted someone like you into their network. So the chances of them accepting your request will be greater.

Then… Filter by recently posted

Filtering by recently posted (or posted on LinkedIn within the past 30 days) allows you to reach out to prospects who are active on LinkedIn . 

Remember, not everyone is active on the platform.

If your potential customers are on a different platform, such as Twitter, for example, reach out to them there.

This is why a multichannel approach is important.

You might be thinking… But after I have filtered my list to such an intense degree, I’m only left with a couple of hundred prospects? 

Yes, you will be left with only a few prospects and not thousands. But this is a good thing.

The problem that many other agencies have is that their targeting is too basic.

So, yes, they might have thousands of people to reach out to, but the chances of them being a bad fit for your lead generation campaign will be high. 

Which means wasted time and wasted money.

If your list is ultra-refined, you might only have 70 people to reach out to, but the chances of them saying yes to a booked sales meeting will be so much higher.

This means more money, and less time wasted. 

Personalized copywriting comes next

At Salesbread, we usually ask our clients to imagine that they are on a stage and talking to an audience about their product. 

• What are the best features of your tech product? 

• How does your tech help users improve and simplify their pain points? 

• Why is your tech better than competitors?

It’s important to think of these points before writing your copy. 

Consider a group of 100 perfect prospects right now, and ask yourself:

“At this very moment, how many of them are actively searching for a provider just like you? How many of them are actively wanting to buy what you’re selling right now?”

EVEN if you build the perfect list, it’s very unlikely that 5% of this list is making an active buying decision this week.

Everyone else will treat your outreach message as spam.

5 out of 100 people might care to see this message.

Your only option is to send this to 1000 people a week, but if you’re doing LinkedIn outreach you’re doomed to failure because LinkedIn will not allow you to do this. 

SalesBread does this differently, this is why we start a conversation.

NOT by pitching but by starting a conversation around a common pain point that your prospect is experiencing …

When you do this, prospects are happy to reply because you are helping solve a problem in a way that is not aggressive or slimy.

Here is a reply we received from a prospect after sending them a Linkedin outreach message:

“Thanks for giving a sh*t about your leads! I don’t respond to even 1% of LinkedIn messages but wanted you to know I appreciated you digging a bit. It makes a difference!”

A dentist and business owner wrote that after seeing our personalization .

Note: The personalization we included had something to do with how he enjoyed “water sports and camping”.

Nothing fancy. But there’s no way we could deliver our “1 lead per day” if we didn’t obsess about personalizing every single LinkedIn message.

And how did we find that particular piece of information? By doing a bit of research. 

Many other agencies don’t personalize their messages to such an extent. It’s incredibly important because it makes your messages interactive . 

Prospects want to engage with you because you’re not just sending random copy-paste messages to everyone on your list. 

Lastly, follow up and ask for a meeting

If you aren’t following up enough, you won’t see results. It’s important to follow up at least 3 times and ask the prospect for a meeting. 

Here are some examples:

• If you are the right person, does a call {{=bday+2}} work? If not, any help being pointed in the right direction would be much appreciated.

• Will you kindly refer me to the best person in your team who is responsible for achieving {{prospect.custom.goal}}?

• Who is the person responsible for {{prospect.custom.domain}} at your {{company.name}} ?

• Who would you recommend I speak with to take this forward?

• As part of our introduction, we’re offering a free trial, giving you unlimited access to [PRODUCT]. Would you like to start a trial on our platform this week?

Lead Generation for technology companies case study

Have a look at our recent metrics for a company called Testable, we helped them generate high quality leads through LinkedIn outreach.

Testable is a form of tech that helps you create a wide range of behavioral experiments and surveys in the simplest and fastest way.

We have been working with Testable since November 2021, and they are still working with Salesbread as their go-to lead generation service . 

During this time we have reached out to 874 prospects and have received 184 positive replies. Remember we only reach out to prospects during work days. 

This means that we have actually surpassed our promise of 1 qualified lead per day. 

Positive reply rate 21%

Here are some of the replies we received:

• “Hi, thank you so much for your contact. I would be delighted to know more about you and your students’ activity, but I am very busy in this period. Can I contact you after the half of December?  Best, #### “

• “Let’s correspond by email: st#####. Existing Projects in my lab are visible on ##### Happy to consider your online assessments.  Cheers,”

• “ Thanks for connecting, please let me know in details about the tool, better if you can send any ppt or video link to understand that in better way.   Looking forward to hearing you “

6. Use a multichannel outreach approach

At Salesbread, we specialize in LinkedIn and cold email outreach , but we also make use of SMS if we don’t get a response from a prospect. 

You might even consider hopping on a sales call with high value prospects. Stats show that 57% of C-level executives prefer phone calls.

You could even use a mix of inbound and outbound in order to find new leads .

For example, we also use content marketing and SEO for our own agency to get new customers . 

Side note: If you do decide to use content marketing or social media marketing , you need to be mindful that it takes time to grow a following, develop social proof , or become a thought leader. 

7. Make use of intent data

Sales intent data shows you which prospects are interested in buying your product or service – right now.

For example, we make use of Bombora.

You can use this tool to find companies who are actively searching for software that you’re selling.

Let’s apply this concept to a company selling tech software:

Imagine you’re targeting companies that will definitely benefit from your tech software, particularly those experiencing pain points, like outdated systems or inefficiencies in their operations.

You could start by using intent data to identify companies actively searching for solutions similar to yours.

This data reveals businesses that are in the initial stages of exploring technology upgrades or new solutions.

However, instead of relying solely on this data, we take a more thorough approach.

First, we cross-check the list provided by the intent data. For instance, if a company already has a well-established IT department or uses specific types of software tools, they might not be actively seeking new tech solutions.

So, we further refine our list by applying specific criteria.

For example, we might focus on companies that lack a particular type of software integration or are still using outdated systems based on our industry knowledge and client insights.

By doing this, we reduce our initial list significantly. What remains are companies that not only show intent through their online behavior but also match our predefined criteria for potential customers who truly need and would benefit from your tech software.

8. Use short explainer videos & demos

One of the main ways in which tech companies can generate leads is by creating helpful videos. Educational content is helpful for readers, but studies have shown that Google is going to show more short-form videos in search results for specific queries.

This is a great opportunity for IT and software companies to increase their visibly and show that they are leaders in the tech industry.

9. Make use of webinars

There are various stats across the web that show how valuable webinars are for generating leads.

For example, webinars achieve 43% more attention and retention than other content formats (ON24, 2021) and between 20% and 40% of those who attend a webinar become qualified leads (OptinMonster, 2024).

If you’re a tech company you can share demos of your software and create shareable webinar content if you invite other tech expert contributors.

Some challenges you might face though, is getting people to attend, but if you focus on educational content about what’s happening in your industry, more people will commit. You can also interview industry leaders, offer free content, such as e-books etc.

10. Offer free trials

In the world of technology and SaaS industries, making use of free trials or a freemium model can drive new leads.

These approaches allow potential customers to have the opportunity to explore the functionality and benefits of a tool, which in turn can help them choose whether they would like to sign on further.

Moreover, this approach minimizes aggressive sales tactics, which in turn takes some of the pressure off business tech companies’ sales teams.

By providing value upfront, prospects are more inclined to share their contact information willingly.

11. Ask current customers to leave reviews

Word of mouth has been one of the best ways to generate leads. If your company provides an excellent service, ask your current happy clients to leave you reviews.

They could do it on your LinkedIn page, your website or even on sites such as TrustPilot and G2.

When companies see that here are many great reviews for your service, they will be more inclined to try your tech out.

12. Create a hackathon and innovation contest

This might seem like a random way to get leads for software companies; but sponsoring or organizing a hackathon contest, is a fun and creative way bring similar minds together.

Hackathons are normally focused on solving specific industry challenges. and this attracts developers, tech enthusiasts, and start-ups who are passionate about your niche.

You can use these events to network with attendees, and build relationships with companies who could be a perfect fit for your software.

13. Create memorable and unexpected experiences

An example of this would be to create ads that stand out from other companies in your field.

You could create street art advertisements, flash mobs, pop up installations or even viral social media challenges.

For example, with the street art idea, you could always commission street artists to create murals or graffiti that incorporate your brand in a clever and artistic way.

An example would be using augmented reality to bring the art to life when viewed through a smartphone.

If you have a look at the image above, it was created to celebrate the launch of the Hot Tech Talent Campaign, Dice. An online platform for the tech community.

They teamed up with Global Street Art to create a tongue-in cheek campaign to challenge the stereotypical view that “tech professionals are all ‘geeks’ and celebrate all the amazing ‘hot tech talent’ out there in the tech industry.” – Onrec news.

Looking for lead generation companies?

If you’re still usure about creating lead generation campaigns yourself, you could always have a look at these lead gen companies to help you out.

Some agencies in the list specialize in SEO and content services, others specializes in LinkedIn outreach, and others in Telemarketing.

In conclusion

Lead generation for tech companies doesn’t have to be the usual boring copy/paste marketing.

If your tech is “out of the box”, your marketing should be too.

Salesbread’s tech clients know that they can expect 1 qualified sales lead per day with our ultra-personalized LinkedIn outreach.

Hop on a free strategy session with us below; we would love to help you come up with a strategy that guarantees high quality leads.