Nurturing Sales Leads: Are You Quitting Before You Reach the Finish Line?
By M. H. ‘Mac’
McIntosh, Sales Expert, CBC
While salespeople race to close
sales from the most qualified short-term prospects, nearly three-quarters of
the leads that convert into sales are ignored. How can this be? When
salespeople are measured and paid for immediate sales, they’ll naturally
focus on the quick and easy opportunities and dismiss the longer-term leads.
The lack of a sales lead development process may be costing your
organization big bucks in lost sales.
Do You Have a Plan to
Win the Long-Term Race
If you don’t have a process in place for the patient work of nurturing,
managing and tracking your longer-term leads, sales opportunities fall by
the wayside. Industry experts estimate that only one-quarter of those who
are going to buy, do so in the first six months, roughly another quarter buy
within a 7 – 12-month period, another quarter buy within a 13 – 18-month
period and the final quarter buy sometime after 18 months.
When all of the organization’s concentration is on the immediate sales
opportunities, those that will close within three months, you are leaving
the remainder of those leads – three out of four sales opportunities – out
there for your competition to win.
Stay in the Race by Staying in Sight and in Mind
These valuable longer-term leads must be nurtured with a series of
communication efforts designed to help move prospects along in their buying
cycles.
Some call it prospect relationship marketing. Others call it lead
development. Regardless, the implementation of this strategy requires sales
or marketing to put this lead-nurturing responsibility into their job
descriptions. Or it may require the development of a whole new department
between Sales and Marketing – the Lead Development Department – to get the
job done. Either way, it’s essential to your company’s sales success.
Designing Your Lead-Nurturing Program
When designing a lead-nurturing program, these are the questions to ask:
- How do we best deliver ongoing messages to the people who will influence or make the final buying decisions
- How do we stay with them as they move through their consideration and buying processes? How can we communicate in a way that addresses the prospects’ issues and reduces the perceived risk of buying from your company?
- What can we offer that will cause prospects to engage when they are ready to move forward with their buying processes?
Use a series of ongoing communications – by mail, email or phone – designed to keep pace with the prospects’ information needs to make decisions about your kinds of products or services.
Be Sure to Include Multiple Offers or Calls-to-Action that Appeal to Prospects at All Stages of the Buying Process
For example, if prospective customers are early in their buying processes, they will be more receptive to offers for free information in the form of how-to guides, white papers or email newsletters. As prospects move further along in their buying processes, appropriate offers may include those that require a higher level of interest or commitment on the part of the prospect. These include webinar invitations, demonstrations, checklists and other decision-making tools. As prospects approach, being ready to buy, they will be more receptive to offers such as longer, in-depth seminars, needs assessments, or meeting with and getting a proposal or quotation from a salesperson.
Next, keep in touch with your prospects via a series of ongoing communications and offers throughout your prospective customers’ consideration processes, until they are ready to engage with your salespeople.
Lead Nurturing Pays Off in More Sales
By proactively nurturing your leads, you can pick up three out of four sales from the longer-term prospects that other salespeople usually neglect. I’ve also found that sales revenue per customer is usually much higher from the leads included in the prospect-relationship-marketing program compared to those who are not. Either way, you win.
M. H. ‘Mac’ McIntosh, CBC, is described by many as one of America’s leading business-to-business sales and marketing consultants and an expert on the subject of sales leads. He is President of Mac McIntosh Incorporated, a sales and marketing consulting firm specializing in helping companies get more high-quality sales leads and turn them into sales. For article feedback, contact Mac at macm@sales-lead-experts.com
