Timing isn’t everything when it comes to filling your B2B pipeline. That is, the timing of when business will consume at your hotel(s).

We’ve discussed the reason for looking beyond inbound leads for healthy lead generation. If the sticker price doesn’t do your properties justice, then don’t depend on winning business from leads that come knocking at the last second. Those buyers arrive more informed than we give them credit for, and you’re just one of several options boiled down to a price tag. 

We’ll never tell you to turn away an inbound lead, but they should be icing on the cake—not the whole dish. 

A reliable, sustainable B2B pipeline roots itself in proactive sales, marketing your properties to garner leads. (Not waiting for them to arrive.) Put your brand’s best foot forward and drop a line to local groups and businesses as well as organizations regularly traveling to the area.

Cast a wider lead gen net for your B2B pipeline.

Your properties are surrounded with leads. You might think you’ve got your neighbors and neighborhoods down pat, but it takes a consistent, diligent effort. Keep tabs on long-time members of the area, and be ready for newcomers and new trends. 

• Start with local event calendars: Conferences. Reunions. Sporting events. Industry summits. 
• Check on big industries sharing a home city with your properties. You can almost bet their executives travel with their peers in tow, so have an idea of which industries spend time in your cities.
• See what kind of events your local competition hosts routinely or historically. 

When you have a pulse on the community and landscape around you, you’ll have greater insight on what your B2B pipeline could be.

Your properties were strategically built in those cities because business looked promising. Keep the promise of new and continued business alive by leaving no stone unturned when looking for local leads.

Score your leads to build the sales pathway.

It’s true: Your pipeline benefits from more leads. However, attaching scores to those leads enhances your proactive sales strategy.

Approaching a long list of leads without a plan never bodes well. This inefficiency plagues sales teams everywhere. On the other hand, establishing scoring criteria for prospects’ strength and meshing it with your CRM pays dividends. 

Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) are always going to be lower on the spectrum. Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) will always be higher. But your scores shouldn’t just tie to urgency.

In our book, opportunity outweighs immediacy.

So ditch the hot-cold-warm lead-scoring system trapping you in the compressed buyers’ journey where they have all the power. Characterize strong leads with a simple pivot: more info equals a higher grade. 

Fill up your CRM with every insight you glean from every interaction with your leads. Talk about their needs for the year ahead—not just now. Evaluate your prospects based on their needs, how well your properties match up and if they present opportunities for future business. 

Pro tip: When speaking with contacts at bigger organizations, remind them to share your information with leaders in other departments. It’s an easy way to build trust and garner new leads.

You aspire to be top of mind for every lead on your list, so stay around for the long haul. This frees you from being at the mercy of the buyers’ journey and gives you more promise of making the sale.  

 Don’t tie your sales’ fate to timing. Tether it to potential. 

Bring a method to your lead gen madness.

You’ve made contact. You’ve determined their score. Now you need a strategy to keep your leads looking at you when the purchasing time is right. 

At GitGo, we find sales harmony in a precise cadence of customer touchpoints. Remember: When you’re not locked into making timing-specific sales, you have to stay relevant. You need to stick with your leads the entire time they’re considering purchasing with you. 

If you can’t nurture your leads with communication, you’ve already lost.

But if your sales teams can map out a simple marketing strategy of routinely communicating with your leads (based on their stage in the buying process), you’ll win more and more. 

And you’ll keep gaining context to their motivations and needs, improving your lead conversion rate. The more you invest in this proactive sales strategy, the more you’ll meet leads earlier in their buying process. That gives your properties more room to make their case, focus in the right places and build your B2B sales pipeline further out into the future.

Unlock real ROI with Right Fit Lead®

Our lead gen brainiacs know how to turn prospects into profit. Our Right Fit Lead® tool reliably finds leads hidden (sometimes in plain sight) from your teams and stabilizes your B2B sales pipeline far into the future. 

Plus, we’ll never just leave you with a list of leads—we teach your sales pros to understand how and why our processes work. Your ROI comes in two forms: a working B2B pipeline and sales teams who know how to keep it full of strong leads.

We fancy ourselves as process perfecters, behind-the-scenes business developers and a turnkey team for hospitality sales groups needing that extra edge. Get in touch today to see how adding Right Fit Lead® to your mix can change your sales fortunes.