A waitlist makes all the difference between “blending in and accepting feast and famine” and “standing out as a premium option that’s always in demand.”
Not many B2B companies and service providers are using this strategy, though.
That’s actually fabulous news for YOU but not for your competitors (because, by the end of this article, you’ll know exactly how to use a B2B waitlist to set yourself apart from them as an exclusive brand).
So, let’s look at how to create one using the right tools and strategy, step-by-step.
Waitlists aren’t just for products: they are powerful marketing tools for B2B companies and service providers like you
Maybe you’re a bit confused because you thought waitlists were just for B2C products.
You know, those premium products that are a symbol of status and whose demand always exceeds supply, like the Tesla Cybertruck, new Apple items, or Rolex watches.
Well, YOU can be the Rolex of your niche!
When you lead with a waitlist for your B2B services, you become in demand and show up as such, positioning yourself as a premium option that clients will happily pay more money for.
But, as if that weren’t already a game-changer, the benefits of a B2B waitlist don’t end here.
Why should you use a waitlist as a B2B business?
Building a waitlist allows you to:
- Position yourself as an exclusive B2B business – Let’s say you sell websites. Your competitors lead with “Book a free call today” and “We can’t wait to chat with you”, whereas the first step to work with you is joining a waitlist. Who do you think will get better and higher-paying clients? You, of course! When something is easy to access and always available to everyone, it loses its perceived value. A waitlist, on the other hand, sets you apart as a premium and in-demand option
- Really get to know your audience – With ScoreApp, you can add a quick quiz to your waitlist to ask strategic questions to your new subscribers. So, you’ll get clear on what they’re struggling with the most, what motivates them to buy, their needs and wants, and much more (for example, “What’s your biggest marketing challenge right now?”). That way, you’ll collect a tonne of valuable insights that you can use to inform your marketing!
- Pre-qualify your leads – In your waitlist quiz, ask questions to identify who would be the perfect fit for your B2B services and to weed out uncommitted and low-paying clients (for example, “What’s your budget for new branding?”)
- Gauge demand – No more relying on guesswork or hoping for the best! Your waitlist will show you how many potential clients are interested in working with you or investing in that new service you’re thinking of launching
- Validate a new offer idea – Don’t run the risk of wasting months and thousands of pounds launching a service that doesn’t sell. Instead, illustrate your initial concept on your waitlist landing page. Then, with a quick ScoreApp quiz, ask questions to find out what your target clients like and dislike about it, how much they’d pay for it, and whatever you need to know to develop it and launch it confidently (knowing it will sell!)
- Retain more leads – If someone lands on your B2B website when you’re fully booked, they’ll probably leave and forget about you. A waitlist, on the other hand, collects their contact details and allows you to stay in touch
- Personalise your marketing and communications – Your ScoreApp waitlist quiz will segment your subscribers based on their answers. So, when you set up an automated email sequence (which we’ll cover soon), you’ll get to tailor it accordingly, making it super relevant to each lead (for example, by highlighting the problem they are struggling with the most). Much more effective!
- Build and maintain momentum – Nurture your waitlist subscribers even when you’re fully booked or still getting ready to launch a new offer. Your email sequence should build trust, urgency, excitement, and FOMO, reinforcing your positioning as a premium option. Your leads will be ITCHING to work with you!
- Sell more easily – Time to take on more B2B clients or launch a new offer? Easy: email that list of people who expressed an interest in working with you and who have already been nurtured… and get ready to sell out!
- Raise your prices – Once you’re so in demand that people are joining a waitlist and applying to work with you, you can increase your rates confidently, knowing your audience will happily pay them
Common waitlist misconceptions
- “Won’t a waitlist deter potential clients?” – No, quite the opposite! A well-communicated waitlist doesn’t push clients away but instead creates exclusivity and adds value.
- “I don’t have the bandwidth to manage a waitlist.” – With the automation options available, especially with tools like ScoreApp, waitlist management is hands-off.
- “My clients expect quick service – they won’t wait.” – In B2B, there can be pressure to meet client needs immediately, but a waitlist can actually help filter out clients looking for quick fixes versus those committed to long-term solutions. For those who genuinely value quality, a waitlist won’t be a deterrent; instead, it will indicate that your service is worth waiting for.
Overall, with your waitlist funnel, you’ll keep your pipeline filled with premium leads who are waiting for an opportunity to work with you specifically (NOT uncommitted ones who are shopping for the cheapest price).
How to set up a waitlist for your B2B company in 7 steps
Ready to be in demand? Here’s how to plan, promote, and manage a waitlist funnel that’s always working in the background, setting you apart and bringing you the best B2B clients.
1. Identify your goals
What are you hoping to achieve with your B2B waitlist? Be specific!
For example, you might want to use it to:
- Build a list of people who are interested in working with you
- Create demand for one service in particular, perhaps because it’s fully booked now but you never know when that’s going to change
- Validate a new offer idea before developing it
Get clear on this first to then find the right promotional angle for your B2B waitlist.
2. Define your waitlist terms and incentives
There’s no right or wrong way of creating a waitlist. The most important thing is planning one that works for you and your goals. So, some things you could consider are:
- Will it be free to join, or will you require a deposit? – For example, you could start with a free waitlist and then, when you’re more in-demand, ask for a deposit to join it (if that aligns with your strategy, of course)
- What’s the biggest benefit of joining your waitlist? – This could simply be… because you ONLY offer your services to those on your waitlist. In that case, lead with that element of exclusivity and scarcity. However, you can also choose to offer additional benefits: maybe your waitlist subscribers get access to secret deals or receive a complimentary 1:1 session with you?
3. Create a waitlist landing page
To get enough people onto your waitlist, you need a strong waitlist landing page.
- Open with a compelling headline and sub-head: lead with how your services will benefit your B2B clients by solving their problem, and tease how exclusive they are (for example, “Our copywriting services are usually booked up 4 months in advance”)
- Expand on that throughout the rest of your body copy
- Complement your written copy with high-quality visuals (like photos and videos), a countdown timer, and social proof to build trust (such as reviews from past clients)
- Include unmissable calls to action, especially after your headline and sub-head, at the very bottom, and a few times throughout the rest of your landing page
With ScoreApp, it’s a breeze to create a landing page that actually gets people onto your waitlist (we’ll show you how soon!).
4. Attach a quick quiz
Once someone submits their contact details, show them a handful of quick but strategic questions.
Their focus will depend on your waitlist goals and what you need to find out from your audience, but to give you an idea, you could ask questions:
- For market research – For example, “What do you value the most: making +£10k a month, or saving +10 hours every week?”
- To validate a new offer idea – For example, “Which of these bonuses would YOU want to snatch straightaway?”
- That pre-qualify your prospects – For example, “What’s your yearly revenue?” or “Have you worked with a business coach before?”
Use your audience’s answers to inform the rest of your B2B waitlist funnel and marketing. And when you’re ready to take on more clients? Get in touch only with the ones who meet your criteria (YOU set the rules, now!).
5. Promote your B2B waitlist
It’s the job of your landing page to sell your waitlist, but for that to happen, your audience needs to SEE IT first! So, make it impossible to miss.
- Add your waitlist landing page to your website menu, consider harnessing pop-ups and banners, and use it to replace old calls to action like “Book a free call today”
- Promote it on social media: link to it in your bios, and whenever you share new content, use “Join our waitlist” as your call to action
- If you already have an email list but it’s dormant and not segmented, send them your waitlist landing page and invite them to subscribe
- Use it as a call to action whenever you show up for your business, from webinars to guest posts and even in-person events
6. Stay in touch with your waitlist subscribers until you’re ready to take on more clients
For your waitlist to bring you premium clients on repeat, you can’t just promote it on your landing page and then drop your offer out of the blue.
You need a waitlist email sequence that acts as a bridge, allowing you to stay top of mind and reinforcing that element of scarcity and exclusivity.
It’ll work EVEN better if you personalise it based on each subscriber’s quiz answers so that it’s super relevant for them.
For example, you can automate B2B waitlist emails that:
- Welcome your new subscribers – Thank them, set the right expectations, and make them feel like VIPs for joining your waitlist
- Talk about their problem – People pay big money to solve big problems. So, remind your audience of theirs, how it’s impacting their life or business in practice, and why you care about solving it
- Educate them – Stop wasting so much time and energy doing that on a 1:1 basis during calls or endless back-and-forths. Instead, let your sequence answer your audience’s most pressing questions about your industry and services. For example, craft emails or link to resources (like blog posts and videos) that debunk their misconceptions or tackle their biggest concerns
- Connect with them – From stories to anecdotes and your values, share content that humanises your B2B brand (for example, you could talk about when you used to be in your target clients’ shoes and how you flipped that situation)
- Build trust – Share testimonials and case studies, showing your waitlist subscribers how you’ve already helped people who used to be in their same situation
- Create FOMO – Highlight the scarcity around your services (for example, maybe you only onboard two new clients every three months and there are +200 people on your waitlist), and get your subscribers excited to work with you
7. Sell out, stay in demand, and raise your fees
Finally ready to take on new clients or launch that new offer?
Well, you might as well open that bottle of champagne: you’ll be making your announcement to a list of people who have already been nurtured and are actively looking out for it.
And now that you have so many right-fit clients waiting to work with you? You can also raise your fees confidently. Whoop, whoop!
What waitlist management system should B2B companies use?
Now that you know how to plan a B2B waitlist, it’s time to find the right tool for you.
Most waitlist management systems are actually built for restaurants and events.
So, instead of wasting time on the wrong platform, choose one of the best waitlist tools for B2B companies and service providers specifically.
1. ScoreApp
Yes, that’s us!
While we’re a quiz platform first and foremost, our founder, Daniel Priestley, is a big advocate for harnessing waitlists as a B2B business.
So, you can use ScoreApp to promote your waitlist and ask strategic questions to your audience, pre-qualifying them or validating your new offer idea.
Key features and pros
- ScoreApp is intuitive and user-friendly, even if you’ve never created a waitlist before
- You can create a landing page from scratch with our drag-and-drop builder or start from a template (this template and this one are perfect for waitlist landing pages, in particular)
- After capturing your audience’s contact details, you can ask them strategic questions through a compelling quiz
- You can customise both your landing page and quiz to match your branding and requirements
- Make the most of handy features like conditional logic and AI to create your landing page and quiz in 3 minutes
- Connect it with your email marketing platform, CRM, and other tools to build a full waitlist funnel
Cons
- At this stage, “powered by ScoreApp” can only be removed with our higher plans (but you can still customise everything else to match your branding)
Price
Freemium and from £24/month
Create your B2B waitlist for FREE with ScoreApp, and only upgrade to a paid plan if and when you need more features
2. Paperform
This is primarily an online form builder but it has an interesting option for B2B waitlists, too.
Key features and pros
- Paperform is fairly simple and intuitive to use
- Its forms and landing pages have a professional look
- You get additional features like conditional logic, calculation fields, bookings, and online payments
Cons
- You have to ask all your questions on the landing page itself, and this could put off your audience, who might give up before sharing their contact details
- Several users struggled to get support when they needed it
- There’s no free plan, and the basic one is quite limited
Price
From £18.49/month
3. Typeform
This is a popular online form builder, known for its recognisable layout that asks one question at a time.
While it’s not its main focus, Typeform has a template for B2B waitlists, too.
Key features and pros
- Typeform is really easy to use
- It integrates with lots of third-party tools
Cons
- Its layout isn’t for everyone, especially because it’s not always easy to go back to a previous answer (which might frustrate your users)
- Some customers complained about getting Typeform submissions by bots. This could skew your results and fill your waitlist with fake emails
Price
Freemium and from £21/month
All prices correct at the time of publishing this article
Elevate your B2B brand and become in demand with a ScoreApp waitlist strategy
Even as a B2B company or service provider, you can choose to be the cheap Casio that’s available for all or the premium Rolex that people pay more money for.
Ready to stand out and fill your pipeline with high-quality clients waiting to work with YOU? Then, set up your B2B waitlist funnel with ScoreApp.
Start for FREE by customising these handy and strategic templates:
