Your marketing department may pride itself on generating loads of leads, but unless they’re qualified leads, they’re not likely to go anywhere. It’s time to stop spinning your wheels and focus on targeting the right kind of leads so you can enjoy real results.

A common B2B concern
If you think that generating highly qualified leads is your No. 1 challenge, you’re far from alone: 74% of those surveyed in the 2011 Marketing Sherpa B2B Marketing Benchmark Report felt that generating high-quality leads was their biggest challenge.

A big part of the problem is that the goals of sales and marketing departments aren’t always aligned. These departments often target different types of leads.

The sales folks may have a more realistic idea of which leads will become quick customers, but they might also be too focused on making sales in the short term to see the big picture. On the marketing side, it may not be clear which types of potential customers are best to target immediately, so the objective is to cultivate a pipeline of highly qualified leads over time.

Both of these approaches are important, but they’re much more effective when used together. In a business with a long sales cycle, like most B2B companies, a constant stream of highly qualified leads at different points of the sales funnel is crucial for long-term success.

Find the perfect fit
To get your sales and marketing teams on the same page, work on creating marketing personas:

• Identify your best customers. These are the ones who are a pleasure to do business with, are interested in your products or services, and pay on time.
• Identify your worst customers. These are the customers who pay late or who offer little revenue in exchange for the time and effort you spend on them.
• Create marketing personas based on each kind of customer. Choose a few of your best and worst customers and see what makes them different. What are their corporate values and philosophies? What’s their business situation (startup, established business, business in decline)? And, importantly, what are the roles and positions of your key contacts at each customer’s company?

Personas will give your team a clear idea of which prospects are more likely to become qualified leads, why they will respond to marketing, and where they might be in the sales process when they do respond. And, of course, developing relationships with customers who are similar to your best clients helps your business grow.

Use the right tools
After developing personas, your marketing and sales teams will know who they’re after — the trick is finding the best way to reach out to them.

Attracting high-quality leads requires a combination of effective marketing tactics and legwork. You need tools that educate your prospects and offer opportunities for interaction. Email newsletters are a great way to attract and identify qualified leads, especially if your audience is built organically.

Finding qualified leads may be at the top of your list of struggles, but with the right strategies and marketing tools in place, generating quality leads is less of a challenge. Help your sales and marketing teams foster relationships with more desirable customers: Figure out who you’d like to do business with and how to reach them, and better leads will quickly follow.