Let’s set the record straight: lead generation and sales prospecting are not the same thing. In some ways, these two marketing and sales strategies use opposite methods to arrive at the same result: closing deals. There are times when each can be more effective than the other, depending on the scenario. We’ll get into all […]
Let’s set the record straight: lead generation and sales prospecting are not the same thing. In some ways, these two marketing and sales strategies use opposite methods to arrive at the same result: closing deals. There are times when each can be more effective than the other, depending on the scenario. We’ll get into all the nitty gritty below. But first, if you’ve heard about these concepts and want to know which one is more relevant to you, the question to ask is this: are you trying to build awareness and engagement from a wider market, or do you want to directly go after hand-picked prospects who don’t know much about you (yet)?
How is lead generation different from prospecting?
Lead generation and prospecting take opposing starting points to connect with people that might end up as customers. Here’s how we defined lead generation in a separate primer on the topic:
Leads can be defined as people who have displayed interest in your product, and lead generation is how you inspire that interest through assets like websites and social media. The goal of lead generation is to convince potential customers to engage with your brand and/or accept when a salesperson contacts them.
In other words, leads take the first step to engage with your brand because a lead generation strategy has convinced them to do so.
Then there’s sales prospecting:
Prospects are contacts that haven’t engaged with your brand, but which still have been qualified because they show intent signals that indicate a good potential for conversion. Prospecting is how you engage them by identifying, contacting, and nurturing their interest in your product.
Prospecting uses research to identify people who might want to buy your product, but who have probably never engaged with your brand before. It’s up to sales to make the first move in connecting with this type of prospect.
Lead generation vs. prospecting examples
There are clear differences between lead generation and prospecting that are apparent at many stages. Here are a few examples:
Lead generation examples: techniques
Rule number one in a lead generation process is this: it’s all about the content. By analyzing how your customers do their product research, you’ll be able to create the right messaging in the right channels. This can include blogs, whitepapers, webinars, and videos.
Content is often considered more of a marketing activity. That’s because, for a lead generation model, the goal is to build a list of marketing qualified leads. At some point (according to your department’s best practices) they hand it off to the sales team, which applies their own set of lead generation strategies to turn warm leads into hot leads.
Sales prospecting examples: techniques
In comparison, it’s the sales team that takes on more of the responsibility for a B2B sales prospecting strategy. A few of the techniques used to identify and contact prospects include:
- Using a sales intelligence platform along with LinkedIn to build personalized contact information
- Creating an effective lead qualifying system
- Developing some great cold-calling scripts
- Trying out a few best practices such as how many calls to aim for each day, and at what time of day, and with what length of time per call
But salespeople aren’t totally alone when prospecting. For instance, you can get support from the marketing team for your efforts on LinkedIn. Similarly, sales-marketing alignment is absolutely necessary for qualifying prospects, ensuring that salespeople have the right collateral, and coordinating the messaging related to product offerings.
Lead generation examples: tools
You’ll see a similar contrast when it comes to the technology that is used to support each activity. Here is a partial list of types of lead generation tools:
- Lead enrichment platforms that provide more data on leads to qualify and segment them
- Email marketing and automation systems that help to stay in touch with leads
- Live chat and messaging systems to communicate with website visitors
The common theme here is that lead generation tools are about making the most of any engagement between your brand and a lead. The goal is to develop their awareness of your product in a way that encourages them to find out more.
Sales prospecting examples: tools
On the other hand, most B2B prospecting tools are focused on one thing, and that’s getting the information you need to contact the most relevant prospects possible. Theoretically, all you need for this is one method of researching a prospect. But the common source of B2B contact information, which is LinkedIn, is far from complete. That’s why salespeople tend to fill in LinkedIn’s blanks through a technology like the Lusha platform which provides up-to-date and direct contact information for millions of business contacts – not to mention important company information that can help identify companies that fit your ICP.
Which method is best for your company?
Many companies use a mix of both strategies because they want to find the optimal balance of quality vs. quantity.
A major part of any sales effort is just getting your name out there, and in the case of leads, you’re already past that barrier. But, unless you’ve got a really strong brand, the number of people finding their way to your website and social media might not be enough to meet sales goals.
This lack of volume can be offset with sales prospecting. Compared to leads, the chance of converting any single prospect is lower because you are often starting to educate the potential buyer about your value proposition from square one. But a good lead generation process will deliver lots of contacts to give you decent conversion chances overall.
The key is to continuously refine your ideas across the board. For instance, by analyzing the conversion rates connected to various content types, you will eventually discover where your messaging appeals most often to leads.
Similarly, although it takes a lot of effort to make all of those calls, sales prospecting techniques can work wonders with the right methods.. They are crucial for qualifying prospects and making sure that your team spends its time on nurturing the ones that closely match your ideal customer profile.
Key Takeaways
Lead generation seeks to attract potential buyers via marketing assets, while sales prospecting involves actively reaching out to companies that have a good chance of converting.
Among the differences between lead gen and prospecting are the techniques they use and the tools that support each strategy.
It’s best to use both lead generation and sales prospecting through a continuous refinement of both strategies that will generate the maximum number of conversions.
