How to Boost B2B Leads Using Live Chat

Up to 85% of B2B companies use live chat to generate sales. 54% of B2B companies also use it to enhance their marketing operations. 

Live chat is a tool that allows customers to conveniently find information about your products and services. It also benefits your business by generating new leads and potential clients.

Live chat positively impacts sales, revenue, and customer loyalty according to 79% of businesses. 41% of customers now prefer live chat to other modes of communication when interacting with a business. 

Customers want to speak to real people and they want to do it quickly. When researching products and services, live chat offers the information required with minimal time investment from the customer.

In the B2B market, 48% of businesses use B2B eCommerce platforms to make between 51%-74% of their purchases. B2B wholesalers and companies must focus on store design and customer satisfaction for businesses. 

This means emphasizing their customer-centric approach when handling digital interactions with other businesses and customers. 

Why is live chat so valuable?‍

Web chat software is an essential technology that has become valuable for a business and its customers. You often find an unassuming messaging icon in the bottom comer of business websites. Other times, these are animated and utilize sounds to draw attention to the resource. This technology enhances the connection a business has with its customers.

Simply put, live chat is an effortless way to find answers. A client visiting your landing page may want to research the products and services that your business offers. 

Rather than scouring the website, waiting through pre-recorded phone prompts, or sending an email, they can simply drop you a message. Within a couple of minutes, a live receptionist is available and provides all the information that the client is looking for.

Below are some ways to leverage live chat for B2B lead generation.

Time is everything

73% of customers believe that businesses must value a customer’s time in order to provide good customer service. As a result, businesses often emphasize the response times of their agents. 

Customers want answers as soon as possible. In 2018, the average live chat first response time was 48 seconds. More importantly, live chat breeds high customer satisfaction rates.

When compared to other forms of communication, live chat is the quickest in terms of response rates. Through live chat, your receptionists can engage with customers immediately. 

As customers land on your site, they can also get information quickly before bouncing. While speed is king, a positive client experience will bring them back for more.

Live chat is a tool that can assist in this goal. Used correctly, it generates quality leads and positively impacts your sales.

In B2B interactions, your business must provide the best possible experience to potential customers. Multiple businesses offer similar services to the ones you provide. 

To stand out, you may want to offer better customer service and more positive experiences. Engaging with customers and providing them with the right information at the right time will result in an increase in converted leads.

Be proactive

In the digital world, it’s best to be proactive and stay on the front foot. By being forward-thinking, you can address the concerns that prospective clients have when engaging with your business or brand. It’s important to seek out opportunities to provide relevant information at the right time.

Through the use of cookies and scripts, you can monitor a customer’s behavior on your site. This makes it easier to add to their experience. It allows you to gauge which stage of the sales process a potential customer is at. Through live chat, your sales agents can probe customers and provide information that may be pertinent to their decision. 

In a B2B environment, a proactive approach is necessary to gain new clients. A small business may want to upgrade its phone system and consider the perks of using a VoIP system. 

Your company sales representative could then educate them on how an IP phone works. By providing extra resources at the right time, sales reps can use live chat to generate strong and potentially profitable leads.

Tailored messaging

It’s a well-known fact that customers wish to be seen as individuals. In email marketing, they’re 26% more likely to open emails that have personalized subject lines. 

Customers love it when a business gives them a personalized experience. Through live chat, you can provide this to each potential client. In chat, your agents could have a photo and name, making it easier for them to feel personable too. 

Before entering chat, you can collect the lead’s information via a knowledge base Q&A.  This will give you the lead’s name and contact information to work with.

By chatting with potential new clients, you can pinpoint the exact message or information they need to make a decision. A VoIP company could run a campaign on their video conferencing hardware or how to send fax without a fax machine. Such campaigns could target companies looking to digitize their operations. 

When chatting to potential business clients, agents must tailor information to the business’ specific needs. 

Train your team

Creating a successful live chat system is a challenge for any business. To implement one well and avoid becoming a company that leaves 21% of chat requests unanswered, you need to train the best staff. What you require are high-quality sales reps who know how to provide customers with the best possible experience. 

Your virtual receptionists are no longer tied to one customer during interactions. Unlike the phone, live chat enables your receptionists to multitask. They can search for the appropriate information as they engage with customers. 

This mode of operation makes it possible for a sales rep to chat with multiple potential customers simultaneously.

Sales agents must know everything about the products and services your business offers. You could have a software company with the best inventory management software on the market. With agents that understood the software in-depth, it would be much easier to provide information and educate potential customers on its use.

To get the best out of live chat, put some emphasis on workforce optimization (WFO). Having workforce and quality management in place serves to assist sales agents. By maximizing your contact center teams, you can improve the customer experience. 

An efficient team will lead to higher sales as 38% of customers that avail themselves of live chat are more likely to purchase from you.

Incorporate CRM‍

Customer relationship management (CRM) tools go hand in hand with your live chat software. As CRM is used to monitor and manage interactions with customers or prospective clients, it’s a suitable partner for your chat agents. Using CRM tools, sales agents can manage data on customers to nurture leads further. 

Live chat can be useful to a business’ lead generating and nurturing capacity. Coupling it with CRM enables the business to improve customer interactions. By pairing the two, it’s easier for a business to avoid making customer profile mistakes that hamper their B2B sales strategy. 

Pairing CRM and live chat will benefit your business as it will help you nurture better quality leads.

Add functionality to your site

Live chat improves the quality of your website by adding some extra functionality to it. These improvements are beneficial to customers and businesses alike. Customers are 3 times more likely to buy after chatting with agents. 

You can also add 24/7 live chat to your website. As you can be contacted at any time, this addition increases the likelihood of your business generating and capturing leads.

A website can save time and resources by incorporating live chat. Rather than using forms on multiple pages, use chat software to gather information on potential clients. 

You can also utilize chat software to build trust and talk a customer through any pain points they find on your website.

Use live chat for B2B leads

There are many benefits to incorporating live chat into a business’s digital operations. It lifts the quality of your website. It builds extra connections between you and your customers. It provides convenience to customers seeking information and helps businesses looking to push customers down the sales funnel.

Live chat is a highly useful tool that will enable you to maximize your traffic by adding value to your customers. Teach them, show them the personal side of your business, and give them the best customer experience on the market. You’ll generate more leads and your bottom line will be happier for it.