Lead generation

LEAD GENERATION

What was the best single channel for sales teams to book meetings in 2020?

The majority of the respondents (51.9%) said that email was the best single channel to book meetings in 2020. Email came out tops with marketers as well, who said that email was their best single channel for lead generation.

The next closest result was phone, with 27.3% of respondents saying this is what worked for them. Surprisingly, direct mail and LinkedIn’s InMail were both only seen as the best channel by 5.3% of respondents, with video only rated by 4.8%.

Another 5.3% of our participants used other channels. These channels included LinkedIn connection messages, inbound leads, appointment booking robots and meeting tools. One respondent said Slack channels were their preferred method for booking meetings – this channel is sure to grow over 2021, with more sales teams working from home and adopting new tools.Trade shows were not part of networking in 2020, due to the global pandemic, so it’s no surprise that meetings were largely booked in from digital platforms.

Base: 321 professionals working in B2B revenue teams
Source: A joint study by Cognism, Turtl, Reachdesk, and Leadfeeder (December 2020 - January 2021)

LEAD GENERATION

What were the best marketing channels for generating leads in 2020?

Digital marketing was the way to go in 2020, with traditional forms of marketing taking a hit from the pandemic. However, marketers did what marketers do best and adapted. One usually popular lead generation channel, events, suffered a drop-off due to COVID-19, with only 4.2% of participants championing it.

This led to virtual events taking off. 2020 was most certainly the year of the webinar, with 15.3% of respondents saying this was their top lead generation channel.

Just as for sales, email was the top marketing channel for lead generation in 2020, with 29.6% of respondents agreeing. In third place after webinars was social media, with 12.5% of respondents saying this was their preferred method for generating leads.

2020 was most certainly the year of the webinar, with 15.3% of respondents saying this was their top lead generation channel.

Next up was paid ads, with 8.8% of participants saying this was their best marketing lead generation channel.

Blogs (7.4%) and SEO (6.9%) were also popular with our respondents and again show the general trend as moving away from in-person networking to online channels.

However, direct mail and gifts bucked this trend, with 4.6% of marketers advocating this personalised technique. Our friends at Reachdesk have pioneered this service in B2B.

A relatively high number of respondents (6.5%) used other channels such as calls, referrals, marketing tools, downloadable templates, content syndication and lead lists.

Base: 321 professionals working in B2B revenue teams
Source: A joint study by Cognism, Turtl, Reachdesk, and Leadfeeder (December 2020 - January 2021)

LEAD GENERATION

What were the most popular methods for sales teams to build lead lists in 2020?

The winner here was LinkedIn Sales Navigator, with 49.7% of salespeople saying it was their preferred method for building lead lists last year. The paid tool allows reps to tap into LinkedIn’s extensive network for prospecting and shows the power of online channels in an industry where in-person events have been largely cancelled.

Second to LinkedIn Sales Nav were marketing-generated lead lists - 42.2% of participants said this was how they built their lists in 2020. This also demonstrates the strength of sales and marketing alignment last year - more on that later!

Narrowly behind marketing-generated lead lists, we saw contact data providers. 41.2% of respondents created their lead lists using third-party providers - of which, of course, Cognism is one!

Then there’s a big jump before we get to website identification technology, with 29.9% of people surveyed saying that they used this tech to build lists (Leadfeeder provides an excellent range of solutions in this field).

Lists generated from virtual events also grew in popularity throughout 2020, with 19.3% of salespeople prioritising this method.

15% of respondents used intent data from an intent data provider - a solution we’re expecting to get a lot more popular in the year ahead. For those not already aware, intent data is information based around what web users have done previously online, to predict what they do next. It signifies when a lead is either looking or is ready to buy. And the good news is - intent data will be arriving on the Cognism platform this year!

Lastly, 6.4% of respondents used other sources to build their lead lists. These other sources included purchasing lead lists or participants leveraging their own business networks.

Some respondents went with the manual process of handpicking data through LinkedIn to create their own database of leads.

In-person visits (when allowed) were also used as other means to build lead lists, along with inbound marketing through free knowledge-rich content, and finally, direct calls to persons who were the right contact or referred to the correct contact.

Base: 321 professionals working in B2B revenue teams
Source: A joint study by Cognism, Turtl, Reachdesk, and Leadfeeder (December 2020 - January 2021)

LEAD GENERATION

In 2020, how difficult was it for salespeople
to find contacts for prospects?

Even though prospecting was largely digital in 2020 and more traditional sales methods were limited by lockdown restrictions, salespeople found it relatively easy to find contacts last year.

The majority of respondents - that’s 67.4% or 126 people - said they “survived” finding new prospects in 2020. Then there’s a steep drop, with 18.7% of respondents (just 35 people) saying their funnel was overflowing.

Some 13.9% or 26 people struggled in 2020, feeling that they were scraping the bottom of the peanut butter jar in order to find contacts. For the majority of our respondents, however, sourcing new prospects last year was either adequate or easy.

It will be interesting to watch these numbers in 2021, as tech stacks improve and sourcing contacts remotely becomes more widespread across our industry.

Base: 321 professionals working in B2B revenue teams
Source: A joint study by Cognism, Turtl, Reachdesk, and Leadfeeder (December 2020 - January 2021)

LEAD GENERATION

Where did sales teams acquire the majority
of new customers in 2020?

It’s no surprise: conferences, trade shows, and in-person events were largely cancelled in 2020, which is why just 2.7% of respondents used these channels to acquire new customers in 2020.

The 5 respondents who selected “Other” ways to source new customers further attributed this to partnership marketing and partner networking. They also used a combination of phone calls, email, and LinkedIn marketing, as well as conferences and trade shows (when these were permitted, prior to global lockdowns).

Another 2.7% of respondents acquired new customers from paid marketing, which stands in stark contrast to the 11.2% who said email and content marketing is where their new customers came from. In a virtual sales environment, these channels are sure to grow in popularity in 2021.

In terms of the most popular customer acquisition channels in 2020, 18.7% found success with cold email. Cold calling was almost as successful, with 16.6% of respondents championing this tried and tested B2B sales technique.

Narrowly behind email and content marketing was social selling, with 10.7% of respondents finding new customers through social networks. Topping the results for last year was referrals, with 26.2% of entrants finding new customers using this method. It’s likely the way forward, with more B2B sales teams leveraging their current customers to generate demand in 2021.

Topping the results for last year was referrals, with 26.2% of entrants finding new customers using this method

Base: 321 professionals working in B2B revenue teams
Source: A joint study by Cognism, Turtl, Reachdesk, and Leadfeeder (December 2020 - January 2021)

LEAD GENERATION

How often did decision-makers respond to cold outreach in 2020?

You may have heard cold calling is dead — but the majority of B2B professionals say it’s alive and well.

Just 9.1% of respondents reported they never receive responses from decision-makers when using cold outreach techniques like cold calling and emailing.

The majority — an impressive 85% — report decision-makers respond to cold outreach at least some of the time, while 5.9% say they always get responses from decision-makers.

That is good news during a time when most in-person events were cancelled, leading more revenue teams to rely on cold outreach to build relationships. This is considerably higher than many industry professionals might have expected and shows that cold outreach continues to be a valuable sales and marketing strategy.

Base: 321 professionals working in B2B revenue teams
Source: A joint study by Cognism, Turtl, Reachdesk, and Leadfeeder (December 2020 - January 2021)

LEAD GENERATION

What was the greatest prospecting challenge in 2020?

Prospecting has never been easy, but 2020 brought new challenges for sales teams. According to the survey responses, prospecting is becoming more data-based, which means rather than relying on a large number of leads, teams can focus on quality leads.

So what new challenges are we facing? According to 42.8% of respondents, getting higher quality data is the largest challenge they face. Connect rates, the rate at which sales teams attempt to connect with prospects, came in second place, with 41.7% of respondents listing that as their greatest prospecting challenge.

Unsurprisingly, 35.3% of B2B sales and marketing professionals found the lack of face-to-face contact was the biggest prospecting challenge in 2020.

Unsurprisingly, 35.3% of B2B sales and marketing professionals found the lack of face-to-face contact was the biggest prospecting challenge in 2020. Hopefully, that challenge will fade in the coming year.

While most people struggled to get enough data, another 16.6% reported that data quality was holding back prospecting efforts. The quality of sales materials came in fifth place, with 15.5% reporting it was their biggest prospecting challenge.

Finally, 7% of respondents reported that training of reps was their greatest challenge when it comes to prospecting. These survey responses make it clear that data will continue to be a driving force behind effective prospecting in the coming years.

Base: 321 professionals working in B2B revenue teams
Source: A joint study by Cognism, Turtl, Reachdesk, and Leadfeeder (December 2020 - January 2021)

LEAD GENERATION

Has COVID-19 impacted the B2B buyers’ time to close?

B2B has always had a longer sales cycle than B2C, and COVID-19 has made it worse for the majority of B2B professionals. A majority of respondents — 63.1% — reported that time to close extended as a result of COVID-19.

The increase could be caused by several factors, including the lack of in-person meetings, which makes it hard to build a relationship, and businesses waiting to make new investments until they understand how the pandemic might impact operations.

Still, 20.9% reported no change at all in their time to close, while 16% reported their time to close has actually improved. It will be interesting to see if this extended time to close is here to stay, or if it will return to pre-pandemic levels in 2021.

Base: 321 professionals working in B2B revenue teams
Source: A joint study by Cognism, Turtl, Reachdesk, and Leadfeeder (December 2020 - January 2021)

LEAD GENERATION

Where are marketers dedicating their budgets in 2021?

Content is king, or so they say, but is the crown slipping? Maybe. According to the survey, 60.6% of B2B professionals plan to dedicate more budget to content in the coming years. Content, such as blogs, white papers, and ebooks, has been a driving force in educating prospects and establishing a relationship for years, but many marketers are also planning to increase budgets in other areas.

It’s worth noting that this section allowed respondents to select multiple options, which means many B2B marketers plan to increase marketing spend in several areas.

A surprising 41.7% of B2B marketers plan to focus more of their 2021 on paid ads. Webinars are also growing, with 30.1% planning to increase marketing spend in online webinars, while 28.7% plan to spend more of their budget on social media. Account-based tools are also on the rise, with 25.9% of B2B marketers planning to increase spending in that area.

Email marketing remains a stalwart, with 25.9% reporting they plan to invest more budget in 2021. Virtual events may continue to pick up steam as well, with 21.8% of B2B marketers planning to spend more on them in 2021. Just 4.2% of marketers are investing more in other efforts, which include intent data, lead generation, and account-based marketing efforts.

Overall, the majority of B2B marketers plan to increase marketing spend across several areas in 2021.

Email marketing remains a stalwart, with 25.9% reporting they plan to invest more budget in 2021. Virtual events may continue to pick up steam as well, with 21.8% of B2B marketers planning to spend more on

Base: 321 professionals working in B2B revenue teams
Source: A joint study by Cognism, Turtl, Reachdesk, and Leadfeeder (December 2020 - January 2021)