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What’s your #1 B2B lead generation marketing priority for 2009? It’s the question I asked my ever-expanding network of LinkedIn tech marketing colleagues in our latest poll. I asked people to rate the following priorities in order of importance:

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The response was reassuring: the graph represents 1,048 replies from a cross-section of IT and telecoms sales and marketing professionals.

It came as no surprise that ‘reaching decision makers’ was high on people’s agendas. And who wouldn’t want to generate more, improved quality leads? But it isn’t until we begin to explore how these priorities overlap that it becomes interesting.

The most illuminating thing about the poll was the reaction it generated on the blog, most of which centred on the importance of reaching decision makers. Tom Kurke, Vice President, Subscriptions at Bentley Systems, rightly pointed out that that ‘you won’t know if you’ve reached decision makers unless you can measure the lead generation results’. Hence the critical value of tracking and analytics.

But let’s say that, for the sake of argument, we’ve done our due diligence, we’ve sifted the wheat from the chaff, and we’re now working with a ‘decision-maker-rich’ sales and marketing database – from whatever source. From this point on, the question we should be asking ourselves is not ‘how do we know when we’re reaching a decision maker,’ but ‘by what method and with what frequency do we reach a decision maker?’

The first thing to remember is that effective lead generation is just one part of an overall demand generation strategy. This involves drawing a clear distinction between outbound, or ‘push’ marketing – such as telesales and ‘cold’ B2B email – and inbound, or ‘pull’ marketing – such as SEO, PPC, banners and online PR – and understanding how the two disciplines integrate.

When done intelligently, outbound lead generation can be a highly effective way of reaching decision makers. But inevitably it is, in large part, a numbers game. The pervasiveness of voicemail, spam filters and gate-keepers means that delivering your sales message to the right person at the right time is never going to be easy. For this reason, the final cost of a high-value, pre-qualified sales-ready lead sourced by ‘interruptive’ methods can be anything from £1,500 – £2,000, which, although not cheap, is still a price well worth paying for those who are marketing big-ticket products.

By contrast, the typical cost of generating an inbound lead is £25 – £50. Leads generated from inbound sources benefit from being ‘warm’ from the word go – at least in theory – because these are people who have responded to your ad because they’re actively searching for what you have to sell. Whether or not they buy on their first visit to your website, however, is another matter. The fact is, few will.

A person may well be searching for XYZ product, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that they’re intending to buy – at least not at that precise moment. We all do it: a notion springs into our head and we’re into Google like a rat up a pipe to indulge in a little ‘research’. To compound this, IT and telecoms products frequently entail complex sales cycles, involving multiple decision makers and lengthy consideration. None of this is going to happen at the click of a mouse.

The business development challenge is to divert this steady stream of non-buying ‘undecided’ browsers into your keep-net before they click away into cyberspace never to be heard of again, and hold them there until they grow fat. Because with the right nurturing they will, in all likelihood, be ready to buy at some point in the future. All they need is to be reminded, but for this to happen it is first critical to gain their confidence. You do this by developing a relationship.

The first step is to place an effective lead capture mechanism on your website (sounds obvious, but few businesses do it effectively). This may take the form of an opt-in newsletter, blog-feed, a free download, such a as a ‘six-part course’, a white paper, or any other kind of instantaneous trade-off: the prospect receives useful information; you get their name and email address. Everybody’s happy! Don’t be afraid to ask for job title, phone number and physical address on your sign-up page – just don’t make the fields obligatory. And while you’re about it, always include a click-through to your email capture page on ‘cold’ B2B emails – it’s the easiest way of converting a guarded tyre-kicker into an ongoing prospect.

You are now free to transport your prospects on a ‘buyer’s journey’ via multichannel marketing. This would include a newsletter or ezine, webinars, tele-seminars, blog topics, and also by inviting them to join business networking communities and take part in online surveys, such as my LinkedIn study above. Handled sensitively, this will stimulate dialogue and enable you to understand how and why your prospects decide to buy, find out what it is they want and how best to give it to them.

Your next task is to be perceived as a trusted adviser and convert your prospects and customers into evangelists for your brand – more on this next time.