B2B Lead Generation for Technology Companies – A Strategy That Will Skyrocket Sales

At Salesbread we love finding qualified leads for our clients in the tech space.

Selling tech isn’t always the easiest, because there might be a lot of competition but it can also be harder if your target audience is fortune 500 companies; 

But we have developed a lead generation strategy that brings in 1 qualified lead per day. 

In fact, we’ve booked sales calls with American Express, Bank of America, United States Air Force, Amway, and even Yelp

If you feel like your marketing campaigns are giving you the right amount of bang for your buck, and it’s causing you sleepless nights, then trying out our b2b lead generation strategy, might be the answer. 

In this article, we will share the exact strategy we use to get 20+ qualified leads per month in the tech space, as well as case studies and message templates to help you find and book quality leads. 

(And if doing the lead generation yourself seems too time-consuming, you could always hop on a free 15-minute consultation call with Salesbread. See how we can help your business generate 1 qualified lead per day (minimum) for less than the price of a full-time sales rep.)

First thing’s first… Consider these things before you develop a strategy.

Your Price Points

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

Anything 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.

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

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. 

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.

Think about who you’re 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

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.

At Salesbread we use the “Foot in the Door” method to get results.

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 your outreach can be as simple as asking for a small request in your messages (whether it’s cold emails or LinkedIn) 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 here: https://salesbread.com/b2b-saas–marketing-strategy/. 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 have 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,

(signature)

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 (XYZ) 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. 

Use this lead generation strategy for high-quality sales leads.

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 come then use the following strategy. 

1. Build a targeted list of potential buyers

Before you begin with your lead generation campaign, have a look at who your current customers are. This will give you an indication of your ideal customer because you will be able to see patterns between your buyers.

For example:

• Do the companies who are buying your tech only have between 10-50 employees? Or more?
• Are they all in a specific industry? 
• Are they all in the same location?
• Do they use the same CRM tool?

Once you see patterns emerging, you can then go after specific companies that need what you are selling.

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

When doing this we use https://builtwith.com/ .

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

Have a look below at how you can use Built With (The example below is of 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 competitors, you can then send a similar message to the one we shared above. 

2. Use a multi-channel 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 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. 

Below you can see our data from last year from January till now.

It’s taken a year to gain a good amount of traffic per month.

When we just started out we were getting about 400 visitors to the site, and now we are reaching over 10 000 users a month. 

3. Let’s delve into Linkedin outreach

As we mentioned, we specialize in Linkedin outreach.

This is the strategy we use to get 1 qualified lead per day.

Once you have built an ultra-targeted list of prospects, you will then need to plug that list into Linkedin Sales Navigator and find the right people to reach out to at those 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. 

Next, plug the list into your second-degree network on Linkedin

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 multi-channel 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. 

4. 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 their product? 
• How can their tech help users improve and simplify their pain points? 
• Why is their 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. If you know about open and response rates, you’re not going to stand to make money running this campaign. 

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! Let’s…”

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. 

Check out the podcast below for more tips on how Salesbread does personalization.

5. 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?

Does this work?

Have a look at our recent metrics for a company called Testable

For more qualified leads contact Salesbread

If you are looking for leads as a tech company, Salebread can help. 

We guarantee 1 qualified lead per day or your money back. The best part? Our campaigns cost less than hiring a full-time sales rep.

Read this article https://salesbread.com/the-best-done-for-you-lead-generation-service/ to see exactly how we run our lead gen campaigns.