Lead generation is one of those things that never goes away. Sales teams constantly need more leads to keep their pipelines flowing, and inbound inquiries alone don’t always suffice. When it comes to generating (outbound) leads within ISV accounts to join your OEM program, challenges arise.
How can you assess the potential that an ISV account holds for your business before you spend a lot of time and energy pursuing them?
Will the deal size be worth your efforts?
How can you encourage ISVs to join the buy versus build debate with an open mindset so that you can get your foot in the door?
How can you create more visibility across channels for your OEM value proposition when that is not necessarily your core business activity?
Generating ISV leads is also somewhat more complex than targeting end-users due to the nature of the accounts being targeted. Marketers often have a hard time getting their heads wrapped around the value proposition when it comes to OEM because opportunities can vary greatly from one company to the next. Most marketing agencies find OEM to be too “technical” and shy away from it. However, with the right messaging and outreach strategy, generating ISV leads for your OEM program can become one of the highest sources of revenue for your business.
Here are some tips to produce more ISV leads for your OEM offer to keep your sales team happy.
Take a Holistic Approach
Consistency over time is the only way to create lasting change. The same goes for building a brand for your company that people recognize. Sustained efforts to educate and nurture prospects through always-on marketing efforts that are holistic and omnichannel are the only way to achieve that. When marketing campaigns are done in a silo and become a one-off method to quickly generate leads, the impact is short-lived.
By regularly creating and promoting valuable content that your prospects can learn from and enjoy, you will build a pipeline of followers who will appreciate what you have to offer them; this, in turn, will help you convert more top-of-the-funnel leads into paying customers.
Go After the Low-Hanging Fruit
When designing any new marketing or sales outreach initiative, it’s important to determine which target audience needs your product the most right now. By identifying the “low-hanging fruit” (the prospects that are most likely to purchase quickly), you can find faster-converting opportunities in the short run. Taking a direct approach with these prospects will yield higher sales results; by highlighting the pain points your solution resolves with a case study demonstrating your success with a similar type of customer, you will quickly grab their attention and get the ball rolling. Hosting a webinar can be a great way for you to speak to many of such prospects at once so that you can accompany them down the sales funnel efficiently.
Create More Visibility on Social Media
Information on OEM programs is often difficult to find online and yet, it you want to drive more inbound leads to your Business Development Reps, creating more visibility on social media is a critical way for ISVs to find you. Creating a dedicated LinkedIn Showcase Page that focuses on your OEM offer and targets ISVs with specific messaging that resonates with them (instead of a more general end-user audience), is a great place to start. The content you share here should highlight your OEM value proposition, and drive clickers to dedicated landing pages that focus on lead conversion.
Market Intelligence Rules
Many people often neglect the importance of Market Intelligence when thinking about OEM. Researching and regularly monitoring an ABM list of accounts to pinpoint triggers that help answer the buy versus build argument (based on recent mergers or acquisitions, strategic partnerships, alliances, and company initiatives), can get your foot in the door with solid, data-backed arguments that enable your sales team to create more compelling pitches.
Market Intelligence can help you keep an eye on industry trends, and be sure that you have the latest and greatest information about the priority accounts your team is focusing on. By integrating Market Intelligence into your OEM outreach plan, you should be able to generate more, high-quality leads than ever before.
Conclusion
OEM sales is not rocket science. As is true for the end-user side of your business, it is important to dedicate time and resources to generating both inbound and outbound leads to build a viable pipeline of opportunities that is educated and nurtured over time.
