In a world where 44% of millennials prefer no sales rep interaction in a B2B purchase setting, marketers are having to think outside the box when it comes to lead generation.
There are a whole host of tools and strategies on the market to try and help you overcome this, but one such tool that has entered the fray and hit the ground running is the benchmark assessment tool.
A benchmark assessment is an interactive tool that a potential buyer uses to score their capabilities in key areas. By assessing themselves – often against best practice – they are identifying their strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement.
It’s a win win for both you and your prospect – they get sent a personalised benchmark report complete with recommendations for areas in which their business can improve. And you get contact information, an understanding of their pain points, and an asset to use as a conversation starter with a fully engaged and highly convertible lead.
In short, these magical tools potentially offer a dynamic, fully customisable, lead magnet that you can align to your own branding, core themes and solution offerings.
However, just like any lead magnet – it works best, when you extend your reach and let the right people know it exists.
One way to supercharge uptake is with a comprehensive set of assets – an armoury if you will – to get the ball rolling and ensure your new kid on the block is the coolest in town.
Your armoury of assets needs to help drive the awareness of this tool to the right prospects. Once you’ve pushed this out to the big wide world, your organisation can start reaping the benefits with triple digit ROI, an accelerated sales cycles and a more consultative sales approach.
So where do you start in compiling your armoury?
79% of B2B buyers are looking online for problem identification, rather than using a sales rep. With that in mind, the first crucial step to accelerating your uptake is to get your message out there using social and digital ads.
Think imagery for LinkedIn and Google, banner ads for popular and reputable news sites. You need a stash of ‘go to’ images you can use at the drop of a hat to hit high traffic areas that your prospects are guaranteed to visit.
This really is a quick win, and with 49% of internet users saying they’re likely to purchase from brands they see advertised on social media, ensuring visibility on some of the worlds biggest platforms is a must for boosting awareness.
Pssst! Did you know that the cost per lead on LinkedIn is 28% lower than on Google Adwords? So even if you’re running on a tighter budget, you can still implement ad campaigns that don’t break the bank.
This assessment needs to be used by your sales team, and by providing talk tracks, objection handling and wording for email outreach sequences, your chance of internal adoption skyrockets.
Once your team are onboard, your assessment can become a standard part of the outreach process and allows your prospect to gain something from the interaction without crumbling under the pressure of booking a call.
One great tip is to find an internal champion. They’ll help you spread the word, keep on top of submissions, and will have your back if sales reps struggle to immediately see the value in your investment – after all, two voices are better than one! Or why not run an incentive for your sales teams to see who can get the most submissions? There’s nothing wrong with a little healthy competition!
One crucial benefit of using an enterprise focussed assessment platform (like the SMART Benchmark Toolkit) is that for the same investment as one assessment, you can create multiple versions which feature different branding and imagery. This allows you to tailor each assessment to the look and feel of your top prospects, offering them a more personalised service and leading the charge for an effective ABM campaign.
Not only can you tailor the look and feel, but why not capitalise on this assessment to capture a 360 view of your target company? By offering your prospect a consensus view of the way their business operates you allow them to build a gap analysis style insight into how their individual departments measure up, whilst obtaining a web of data that fills in the blanks for an entire organisation.
Regardless of your method or approach, having the assets at hand to quickly scale these offerings to a whole host of target accounts will prove invaluable – so ensure this isn’t overlooked when compiling your must have toolkit.
Finding a solution partner to not only provide you with the assessment platform, but guide you through the creation process and handcraft the assets you need to see those leads flood in can be a painstaking process.
From social imagery, through sales enablement, all the way to perfectly executed ABM campaigns, you really need a (solution) partner in crime to help you kick back and relax – and watch the leads come rolling in.
So, if keeping your pipeline full with a steady flow of marketing qualified leads is one of your priorities, then the SMART Benchmark Toolkit could be the key.
Not only does it provide you with a fully fledged assessment, but we’ll work with you to produce the holy trinity of supporting outreach assets to ensure success. Don’t believe us? Just ask one of our happy customers, check out our website to try the assessment for yourself, or get in touch to discuss a personalised demo.
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