Got Leads? Now what?

There seems to be a lot of frenzied activity around B2B lead generation. Well, it's one thing to get leads to opt in, but quite another to help them develop a predisposition to buy from your company. Considering that 78% of marketers say they need to improve the quality of leads they send to sales (Aberdeen), there's work to be done.

For some reason, many marketers of complex sales equate requesting a content download to requesting a sales conversation. This is a definite misconception. In fact, the 2009 Sales Performance Optimization Study by CSO Insights found that, "59% of companies with sales cycles longer than 4 months said their ability to qualify and prioritize which leads to pursue needed improvement."

Sales cycles are getting longer. Buyers are taking their own sweet time to research how to solve their problems and talking with their peers and colleagues about the pros and cons of options they may choose to consider.

This means you need a kick-butt nurturing program.

Nurturing does not mean sending out whatever content is at hand each month based on your company's agenda. Nurturing means providing content that helps educate your prospects about a problem they're trying to solve, regardless of whether they'll buy from you today, next month or even next year. It's also about positioning your expertise as the value add they need but won't get if they choose some other vendor.

Considering that it takes at least three exposures to get an idea to take hold, this means you need to go about nurturing from a strategic perspective. It does not mean sending the same, exact article, white paper or eBook to them 18 times in two weeks.

The sooner you understand that the same idea can be presented in numerous ways, the more likely your content will become interesting enough to gain the attention of your prospects.

Let's say that your product offering produces 3 benefits. Instead of rolling all three into one content article, write a series of articles about each benefit.

A popular theme—especially during the economic downturn—is do more with less. But what does that mean? It could mean save time, save money, save space, reduce loss, re-allocate resources, optimize processes, etc.

You'd write about each of those a bit differently, right? But, each focus would evolve around the same principles you want your buyers to recognize in relation to your company. The more they hear about the value in differing ways, the better it gets. And the more they attribute that value to your company.

It's almost a squeaky wheel type concept - except, please, without the squeak.

As you monitor responses, you'll begin to see the cream rising to the top. These are the leads who not only access the content provided via your nurturing touches, but explore more of your content on their own.

Check in with those leads every so often to see if you can provide anything else they need. Do not call and ask if they're ready to buy. Call only if you have a valid business reason for the contact. The trick is to make sure that both of you benefit from the call.

The point is that generating leads is only the beginning. Without nurturing all you have is a growing contact list.

Comments

[Sara Jantsch]

I really like the idea of spreading out three benefits over three separate emails as opposed to cramming them all in one. Not only will this produce three different contacts with your customers, but it will leave them wondering what will come next. Each step is almost like a tease for the following step.

[Ardath Albee]

Thanks, Sara! You got it, exactly.