Since many different aspects of common mistakes in B2B sales have been covered here (I would recommend going through all the answers here), I’d like to add a few points:

• Buying ‘sales’ leads in bulk from shady sites - remember that 50 other businesses are getting exactly the same list of ‘leads.’ As such, the people on the list are sick and tired of receiving what they see as spam emails or calls. Also, such providers do not give you additional data points such as firmographics, technographics or other info that signals buying intent (e.g. recent funding, expansion of a specific department, etc.)

Always ensure that your B2B data provider mines fresh leads with the latest information on your prospects. For instance, at Cloudlead, we facilitate our clients with custom data points (e.g. what chatbot their leads are using on their site, personal achievements, company achievements, etc.) that helps their reps truly connect with the person on the other end.

• Not cleaning your data at least once in 6 months - people move jobs, companies close down, circumstances change, startups raise funding, CEOs change. There is so much that can happen in 6 months that your data becomes ‘stale.’ This means that you and your sales team does not have the latest information on your accounts or prospects, which makes it harder to personalize your efforts.

Read more about data enrichment and cleansing, and why it should not be optional; Data Hygiene Best Practices – Why You Should Farm Out Your B2B Data Enrichment and Data Cleaning To Experts.

• Not giving your sales reps the right data to help them connect with prospects - and no, if you expect them to do all the research, they’ll never get around to their actual job which is selling
• Encouraging them to work with generic templates - there are templates that you can personalize and then there are generic ‘hello sir’ templates that simply don’t work.
• Not connecting with your prospects where they are - great that you’re cold calling and emailing. But are your reps making an effort to connect with prospects through other mediums like LinkedIn, Quora, etc.? It’s soon to be 2020 and I would say that nothing less than a multi-channel technique for lead generation will work now.
• Not knowing your ideal buyers inside out - this means knowing who your audience is, segmenting them based on their interests, etc.

“the hallmark of a successful marketing or sales campaign is a thorough understanding of your target market (ideal customer profile) and clear communication. You simply can’t target everyone who you THINK might buy from you, you need to have an ideal customer profile. How do you square off with large companies with plenty of resources and funding? By targeting a SPECIFIC, relevant market. At this point in the game, you shouldn’t target “all the software and IT companies” or “C-execs.” You need a focused target market so you can push your brand and brand message to the right prospects. Especially for small businesses, this is the best (and most affordable) way to generate warm leads. In other words, you need to identify your ideal buyers.”

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• Blowing your budget on tools you think you absolutely need - this one is specially for all startups. Just because all the others are paying $99 dollar in subscription or you’re being offered a special discount on a fancy new tool does not mean that you should opt for it. Yes, certain tools are extremely useful, but first ask yourself if you really need it or can your team do without it for a while. Another point to remember is that at this point, it’s likely that your needs can be fulfilled with a ‘freemium’ version of the same tool (or a different provider with the same functionality). A good example of this is a CRM - you can buy Salesforce for $25 per user per month or you can opt for a freemium Hubspot CRM.
• Hiring expensive sales reps - again, prioritize what you absolutely need and while sales is an essential function of keeping your business afloat, ask yourself if there are other ways you can make do with less experienced people. For instance, you can absolutely form partnerships or link up with affiliates you can send referrals your way for a certain fee (upfront or percentage of sale).

And that’s it for now - since this is such an important and extensive topic, I’ll try to come back and write more.

Good luck in the meanwhile!

For more on B2B sales and lead generation, you can visit my Quora profile here.

Disclaimer:

Disclaimer: I’m a co-founder at B2B contact data and leads firm, Cloudlead - but I promise I’m not just biased!

Footnotes