All right you’ve obtained some contact information about a business, checked out what kind of industry they’re in, and now preparing yourself to contact them. At this stage, you might already be preparing to send an email with an impressive template or readying a very convincing telemarketing script.

However, you might want to step back because chances are, you’re assuming a sale a little too soon. There’s still something you need to know.

The good news is you can still push through with contacting the prospect even if you don’t know what that is. That being the needs of the business you’re calling.

ERP software deals covers a lot of departments. As such, you have so many features and so many solutions to many problems but guess what? Not all companies have the same problems (or even set of problems). Whether you’re already calling/emailing or formulating the words to say/write, you need to find out these needs.

If you’re planning on doing it beforehand, try researching more in-depth. Do they have news about them on their own website? Can you look them up on LinkedIn? Have they made postings and requests somewhere where they’re looking for a software solution.

Now if you’re already contacting them, don’t try to sell your product right away. Instead, use your first contact as a means to ask about any problems they might have, introduce your business, and simply ask up front if they have had any problems (sometimes they don’t even know how to check).

Decision makers don’t want to be sold to. They’d rather want to be helped and the only way you can do that is by finding out what they need help with.

While contact information can make for a good start, even good starts can have you either crashing into a halt or painfully slowing down if you don’t know how to keep going. Now in order to keep the lead generation process running, you need to know what to do and say during the first time you’re connecting to a prospect.

There are actually many other different types of information that come in here but one of the important ones is industry expertise. In other words, how much do you know about the industries your targets are in? Believe it or not, it’s actually one detail you need to carefully investigate when you acquire contact information. Depending on the flexibility of your software, it can be good news or bad news.

For instance, with regards to SCM systems, you need to make sure that your SCM leads are in accordance with your industry expertise. It doesn’t matter if you’ve managed to develop one that can be tailored any kind. There might be some industry specific details that you might still need to know (and if you don’t, it might mean a nasty surprise during the actual engagement or even during implementation). Speaking of which, it’s another way to keep your foot in the figurative door. Decision makers and their gatekeepers are logically more willing to listen someone who is at least familiar with what they do. (And as far as SCM is concerned, industry really plays a big role because it can also be an indicator of the products and services that they manufacture for.) It also applies even if you’re outsourcing lead generation services because they need to know your industry as much as that of your targets!

ERP software is a product that not only handles vast amounts of information, it also requires vast amounts of information in order to market and generate leads for. Companies who supply these systems need various types throughout all stages of the lead generation and appointment setting process.

Now there are various methods that even a small company can start with and some go as far as to integrate several more together in the long run. Some companies prefer to make outbound calls or emails. Others prefer to attract those same inquiries inbound via a website. However, none of these approaches can even start without something basic.

That something is contact information. No matter how you get it, it’s obvious that communication cannot start if you don’t even know who to call. When you’re targeting businesses, do remember that you’re targeting organizations. There’s more than one person involved but you need to contact the ones who are relevant and can speak for the company regarding your product.

Of course, this doesn’t eliminate the possibility of needing other parties to have their say. Still, that’s why you’re targeting the one who is most relevant because they will be your connection to those people so chances are, what they say will be relayed (and vice-versa). This all means nothing though if you don’t know who that person is and how to contact them. It doesn’t matter if you outsourced a company to get it and contact them for you, bought a list from an online database, or even just manually scoured a directory for a few hours. You can’t start without basic contact information.

Generating leads requires information that is beyond that of simply contact details or the names of decision makers. It’s a steady exchange process that takes as much as it dispenses (perhaps more). The more information you gather on a prospect, the more likely you can find ways to convince them about HR software solution.

The thing with HR though is that you might need more than what the manager says. The managers themselves may even say that they can only speak for the company’s workers if the workers themselves have given their input.

Make no mistake, this doesn’t mean you have to go all the way and ask the employees directly. It only means you need to consider them as much as the person in charge whom you’re contacting. Be careful though, your questions must be tact and subtle. If not you, then at least you should outsource people who are experienced with such scenarios and know how to get answers.

These same answers can then prove quite useful and can help you how to make implementation a smooth process. It can even equip you with some knowledge if you’re using software appointment setting to discuss things more fully in a business meeting. As far as HR management is concerned, the perspective of employees will always play an important factor so you might as well show concern for them as much as the person handling them. Try to go beyond the decision maker because your product isn’t just mean to serve them but also the people who keep their business running.

In Australia, costs are becoming increasingly less of a reason to outsource and opportunities like global expansion are taking its place. What does this mean? Well one thing it doesn’t mean is that cost is no longer a factor. It still is but just not a primary one.

And despite its loss in significance as a primary one, it’s still something you need to consider in your decision making. Especially, if you’re an ERP software supplier and need to be careful about taking away too many funds from your main specialization of software development and manufacturing.

Now when outsourcing another company for ERP leads, you need to be careful about contrasting cost instead of trying to see how it relates to other aspects of the company. Instead of just looking at the results and contrasting it with how much you paid, try to see how it ended up that way.

This kind of consideration should eventually guide you to narrowing your search for the right group. For instance, if you want lead generation in Australia but want to market globally, you need to consider how the costs of your candidates correlates with the quality of their services as well as their practices. Is it worth it? Are you outsourcing a reputable group? What exactly are the reasons for why this or that group does things more cheaply than the other one? Is it due to legitimate or unethical business practices?

These are just some of the questions you will ask if you start considering how cost will relate to other things about a group.

• What’s your deliver model? Are you cloud based or on-premise?
• Does it carry support for their particular industry?
• Does your pricing put your software in range of their budget?

These questions alone give a nod to some of the buzz that has been going on among B2B software companies. The question of cloud computing and SaaS relates to the on-going discussions of where the industry is going. The question of support deals in the debate of whether or not CRM software should adjust to the company or the other way around. And of course, the subject of price relates to the economic climate and how willing everyone as whole is willing to buy something.

These days such efforts are conducted online. Even if you were a B2B company (e.g. you supply SCM software), you still make use email, webpage, and social media marketing. Honestly, it is quite surprising to find a lot places on the web were your industry has taken a foothold.

Speaking of that though, B2B businesses in particular use a lead generation model. In other words, despite the wide coverage, engaging a potential client takes a considerably longer amount of time in order to qualify. In fact, that wide coverage could even mean that you’ll end up having too many inquiries to handle.

However, that hardly means you should stop. It only means you need to accommodate more. With that said, you can start by looking for a faster means of communication between yourself and the inquirer. Email, despite its capacity to reach hundreds and thousands of decision makers all over the world, becomes difficult once a positive response is made and the time comes for a conversation. At this point, it’d be a better idea to shift a live phone conversation. Don’t think this means you’ll be bombarding them with all the details through speech though. It actually means you just have to cover enough of the basics to make them set an appointment. If you’re worried about costs, then just outsource telemarketing services if the calculations start getting too heavy for you.

On the other hand, that doesn’t mean they should persist and for all you know, yours could be the better software solution. The problem though is finding these people and making them aware. This means you might have to consider what questions to ask and how you can gradually show that you can be more of service to them.

In other words, it’s about communication and information. And putting those two together, you spell out lead generation. There’s no doubt though that it’s a painstaking process involving the use of many communication channels (even more today with the introduction of internet communication) as well data management tasks.

Then again, should price be an obstacle to providing service? The idea is practically both unprofitable and also unethical. In fact, you can always outsource another company to generate sales leads for you and simply spell out at what point you’d like to engage a prospect (be it asking for simply a number or even setting an appointment).

Remember, your goal is to help a company be more aware of any potential problems in their HR system and an encounter like that is not unlikely when you’re approaching them as B2B leads. Generate some leads today and increase their awareness!

The latter has just as much importance as the former because every company has sales teams with their own standards for a qualified lead. In B2B accounting software for instance, good accounting leads are exclusive to businesses and not simply private individuals in need of accounting services.

However, even with that in mind. There are still different ways that sales teams would want to approach these leads even if they’re within the same category. Some of them would want to be more involved and thus, would like an early notification. Others might just want a thoroughly qualified lead and would rather focus on closing the deal.

No matter what, you’re likely to have as many preferences of how to qualify software leads as there are many kinds of leads themselves. On the other hand, outsourcing is the most common option for those who can’t handle the heavy costs of having one’s own lead generator. If you must outsource, take care to outsource only those who not only listen to your potential clients but also to you.

On the other hand, what is it that any good doctor does before making a prescription? They do tests, analyze, and make conclusions. They rely on the information provided to them by their tools and methods. If a patient can’t give that information, they can’t make that conclusion. If they can’t make that conclusion, they can’t prescribe a solution.

This same logic applies to you if you were a medical software provider. If you don’t know enough about who you want to supply to, then you don’t know what you can do for them. That’s why medical leads are so important. It’s not just about doing business. It’s about finding out if they have issues that need dealing with. This could issues with their equipment, EMR system, etc. You don’t even need to mention the many laws countries have with regards to the quality of these tools. Whether one likes it or not, it will affect the quality of their healthcare (and to an extent, their standards of living).

These leads though won’t be enough either unless you make the most out of them like setting an appointment. Even if you use something like outsourced telemarketing to save you the time, money, and personnel in contacting prospects, you’ll have to analyze all the information that was gathered and meet with them. On the other hand, that’s all the more reason to get that information so you immediately offer the right software solution.