Writing for business-to-business lead generation is a balancing act: On the one hand, you want as great a response rate as possible. But on the other, you dont want to clog the sales pipeline with useless leads, people who dont have the authority, interest or money to buy what youre selling.

Your real goal? A high number of genuinely qualified leads, the attention of prospects who actually have the power to make or influence the purchasing decision. The following are five pragmatic ways for you to increase your success rate with the prospects who matter the ones more likely to lead to a sale.

Know your segments and position accordingly.

Any large purchase will involve a variety of people with different titles and roles. But a one-size-fits-all message wont work; instead, youll need to segment your deliverables (be they mail, e-mail, ads in various media, etc.) by title, and reposition your message for each segment.

Think of it this way: Each title has a different set of hot buttons and theyll only respond when you press the rights ones for each role. Consider a large software purchase, for example. For the CEO, you may want to position the software as an investment for facilitating corporate growth. For the financial officer, youll need to address the bottom line how will it affect their overall financial health? The IT people, the ones wholl have to deploy and maintain need it, need more pragmatic insights: Is it easy to use? Will it require training or new hardware? How will it work with the systems and software they already have?

Fortunately, you rarely have to write an entirely new piece for each segment, but can create variable sections perhaps the Johnson (headline) and the first paragraph of a letter, for instance to address the specific needs of your different titles.

Ask for incremental steps, not giant leaps.

No mail package, no matter how beautifully designed, is going to close the deal on a $2,000,000 product. And very few will even land that precious face-to-face sales call you want.

Plan your communications strategy as a step-by-step process that systematically builds confidence in your product or service while drawing prospects progressively closer to the sale. Think of it as a funnel that, with each contact, winnows the remaining prospects to a core list most amenable to you to those prospects who would be most likely to convert through an in-person sales pitch.

In the initial communications, therefore, its important that you concentrate on selling the next step, be it a white paper prospects may download, a webinar they can join or an event they can attend. Emphasize the value of these offers. By concentrating on modest, low-risk steps, you can overcome the resistance prospects would otherwise present to more intimidating leaps, such as a request for a meeting.

Offer useful, relevant information.

In one of my recent campaigns, my client made two offers. One was a USB data stick loaded with a product demo. The other was a report that promised top ten tips for making better M&A deals. Both pulled well yet the quality of the leads varied dramatically.

The data stick attracted too many spurious responses people who wanted a free device but had little or no role in M&A. The tips booklet pulled a slightly lower response rate but because it promised insights and know-how relevant to people in the M&A field, it attracted prospects with a much higher degree of interest in the subject -- that is, genuinely qualified leads.

Toys will lift response, but offers that are directly relevant to your product and its industry will draw a better-qualified prospect.

Illustrate your case with real life examples.

I dont wear plaid jackets or smoke stogies, but as a marketer, my credibility isnt much greater than that of the old used car salesman stereotype. Who has credibility? Look in the mirror we tend to trust people like ourselves.

Thats why its important to lard your mail packages, collateral, websites and other pieces with endorsements, testimonials, case studies and/or examples drawn from real life. These success stories are empathy builders that come from people your prospects can trust, people like themselves. Get their stories and whenever possible, let them speak in their own words.

Create a lead maintenance device.

A positive response doesnt necessarily mean that the prospect is ready for the sales call. Most leads will need to be maintained on a back burner, some cultivation program that keeps your company in front of your prospects eyes and top of mind.

Think about creating a communications vehicle such as a monthly e-newsletter (with opt-in, opt-out provisions) featuring brief, informative articles. Or regular e-mail or postcard updates of events, conferences and other activities that feature your thought-leaders, products and/or services. The tactics may vary, but the goal is the same: To keep the responders youve attracted in your camp until that opportune time when theyre ready for the full-force sales pitch.