Marketing Interactions

The "Why" for Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. I often hear lead nurturing talked about as an email campaign designed to turn prospects into buyers through the use of compelling content over the course of their buying process. And, they're correct. That's exactly what lead nurturing should accomplish.

This said, lead nurturing comes in more than one flavor. And, yes, it all starts with your buyers. The type of lead nurturing program you develop should be based on the "why."

Why are you nurturing a specific group of prospects?

The answers could be many, such as:

• They attended a webinar about problem X that our product solves.
• They downloaded a white paper on a new trend our solution addresses.
• They downloaded a trial version and we need them to opt to buy during that period.
• They're in a specific industry.
• They match a demographic that mirrors our ideal customers.
• They were interested once but have been dormant for a period of time.
• They're following us on Twitter.
• They used search term X to find our website.

Some people would say that nurturing is based on a marketer's goal such as building brand awareness or your company's reputation for thought leadership. I say those are integral parts of lead nurturing but that neither is valid as a standalone goal. The end-goal should always be focused on new customer acquisition or existing customer lifecycle extension, upsell or cross-sell.

In other words, we don't just want cursory attention, we want intentional attention.

For example, I subscribe to a number of newsletters. Not because I ever intend to buy anything from the company but because I value their content. It gives me ideas I can use for my own selfish purposes. I'm not their buyer and I won't ever be their buyer. I am, however, aware of them and consider them thought leaders on their topic.

That's not what marketers want from a lead nurturing program. It won't move the needle they're responsible for.

Once you've defined the "why" for a nurturing program, you have direction for how to construct it. The "why" will dictate your starting point. If your "why" doesn't include source then that information can also be helpful for identifying the appropriate starting point.

Here are a few examples:

A trial user doesn't need to be educated about the problem. They are a late stage buyer and need to quickly understand how to use the product to meet an objective. You have a limited period of time to influence their purchase decision. Think tutorials, tip sheets and directed use examples that will demonstrate quick wins.

A webinar attendee has told you what they're interested in by indicating they're willing to spend an hour with the subject matter. Based on what was covered in the webinar, what stage of buying do you think they're in and what information makes a logical extension. Note that all webinar registrations are not created equally. Those who didn't attend, or those who signed on and then left after 15 minutes are in a different place than those who stayed for the duration.

A lead working within a specific role or industry will find information that's personalized to match will be of higher relevance than general information without a specific application to their circumstances.

I hope you can see that lead nurturing is not just a cookie cutter program to put on your marketing checklist. Rather it is a construct dependent upon context in order to deliver the relevance needed to build engagement and motivate progression across the stages of buying. One size does not fit all.

Stories are the Key to Buyer Engagement

One of the biggest challenges for B2B companies is what they do to keep prospects interested and engaged across a long-term, complex buying process. And, with buyers pushing sales conversations to the later stages, the bigger question becomes how to keep them moving to help them get there faster.

I submit to you that storytelling is the answer. Stories are an expression of movement. Stories, by their very nature, progress from beginning to middle to end.

Things happen in stories. The main character has a goal, overcomes conflict and gets to the happily ever after. In business terms, the client has a problem to overcome so they can achieve a strategic objective. Not so different.

Build Your Marketing Story:

 
Stories link ideas – This is a key factor for your content strategy. The norm in the past has been one-off, one-way messaging that gets generated when an idea strikes or a particular event is happening within your company. Companies spend a lot of time “telling” prospective buyers what they should be thinking.

The difference with stories is that they position your communications to evolve. They build from one idea or premise to another. They pull buyers forward in the process by giving them contextual reference points and discussing one topic at a time to transition them through the pipeline without anxiety or information overload. Another benefit to stories is that they establish your company's credibility, showcase impact and allow buyers to envision their future, once the pain has been eliminated.

To create a story strategy for momentum, map the complete knowledge transfer requirement and tackle a piece of it. Then give buyers a prod, or preview, into the next piece they can either request, or that you’ll be sending as a follow-up. Learning is a process. You can’t just dump all the information on them at once and expect them to say – Yes! This is exactly what I need. Where do I sign?

Especially not for a B2B complex sale.

Remember the ebb and flow of decision making. Buyers may move two steps forward and one step back, then forward again, as questions and obstacles occur. Look for places where they can get off track and plan ahead to address them before they happen.

Here's an example of how a "story" might exist for a buyer

An IT systems manager needs to roll out patches and updates across his network more quickly but doesn’t have the technology and visibility to know which computing device needs what without a manual check.

He learns a variety of software tools are available to solve that problem. He also learns that these tools can update his inventory catalog. He’s found your company via a search that returned a blog post at the top of the results page. Upon further investigation, your products look viable for his situation and he found a customer story that directly relates to his situation. Suddenly he’s heading toward happily ever after.

Then, the step back – Your prospect slams the brakes on as he starts to question how easy this change is really going to be and whether your repoorting tools are really as customizable as you say. What if his expectations aren't met?

This doesn’t have to be a set back because you prepared for this and are ready with a paper[ a story] that discusses all the steps of the implementation and the division of responsibility. You share testimonial proof[a story] that the solution can be implemented in less than three weeks. The buyer sees he can well manage his side of the requirements and gains confirmation that the reporting will do what he needs.

All the “I’s” are dotted and “T’s” are crossed. He’s back to visualizing happy days and how he’ll shine when the project comes off without a hitch.

Wait. The CIO is concerned that the new tool will won’t adapt to their corporate compliance policies and that the total cost of ownership is too high.

Not to worry, you assure your buyer, and whisk him a link to an article or video[a story] that highlights the time savings achieved with your software and the customization capability that will map to their compliance policies. And the buyer becomes a customer.

You may not be selling IT software, but it’s likely that this ebb and flow—from positive to hesitant—exists within your buyers’ process. Salespeople and customers can help you narrow down the critical points where these step backs are likely to happen. By mapping the buying journey and preparing stories to handle each step, you’re not only prepared, but elevating trust with each relevant, timely response to your buyers’ needs.

Sales Conversations Must Improve Buyer Experiences

The last couple of years have turned the B2B buying process inside out. Instead of seeking out salespeople to gain answers to their questions about solving problems, buyers now push sales conversations to the end of their purchasing process. The information they need for most of their research and consideration is now in plentiful supply on the Web.

This is downright frustrating for salespeople who are used to establishing a relationship at the start and guiding their prospective customers toward a purchase decision across the entire process. Because buyers now decide when to involve sales, stepping into the relationship in mid-stream is a new skill that requires salespeople to focus more on extending conversations than on starting them.

The way in which online dialogues are transitioned into 1-to-1 sales conversations can either keep your prospects’ buying momentum moving along or stop it cold.

The reality is that there’s a critical gap between what salespeople know well and what buyers want to discuss. According to the buyers who participated in a Forrester Research study, the sales meeting would be considered effective 65% of the time if the salesperson was capable of addressing the problem.

Unfortunately, this level of competence is not the norm. Considering that 53% of purchase decisions are made based on the buyer’s perceived quality of sales conversations, companies need to take action to transform the buyer's experience.

Step 1: Take Steps to Shift the Reality

Buyers are looking for vendors who can become strategic partners in helping them achieve business results they need. It’s not about products and solutions. It’s about what they enable your customers to achieve that they couldn’t do before. By enabling your salespeople to have relevant conversations based on business concerns and objectives the value-add becomes clear, moving price negotiation to the back burner by eliminating the commodity perception.

Giving buyers what they want should be built into our DNA. If your marketing strategies are pulling buyers farther through the purchasing process to the point where they’re willing to engage with a salesperson, your company has the intelligence available to help salespeople become value providers. By connecting the dots and contributing valuable ideas, salespeople will keep the momentum going that turns prospects into buyers.

Step 2: Connect the Dots

Buyers are busy. The new priority that just landed on their desk is not a replacement to their other responsibilities, but an addition to an already full plate. The complexity of solving problems in today’s dynamic business environment can be overwhelming. The speed of change is making knowledge obsolete faster than ever, lessening the confidence buyers used to have in the quality of their decisions. The following factors can help your salespeople become sought-after resources buyers search out to help them find the answers they need.

• Make Introductions: In my work with clients, I’ve heard a lot of salespeople say they want better transitions into their conversations with buyers. Instead of marketing (or inside sales) sending a qualified lead on to sales and expecting the salesperson to call in blind, provide an introduction. You do this for peers and colleagues, so it should be a natural extension to do so for your buyers. Given the brief, introductory email example below, you can see how much easier it will be for the salesperson to extend the conversation this buyer is already having with the company.
  
  Bill, I’d like to introduce you to Nancy Smith. Nancy is one of our best resources for insights about how to reduce costs in your data center without reinventing the wheel. She has been instrumental in helping companies just like yours increase efficiencies with virtualization.
  
  Nancy, please allow me to introduce Bill Jones. Bill is the CIO for ABC Corporation and is concerned about the escalating costs in his data center. He would like to ask a few questions raised for him by our white paper, How to Gain Economies of Scale in the Data Center.
  
  
• Simplify the Complexity: Your solution may have 57 whiz-bang features, all of which your salespeople are well-versed in discussing. But, your buyer’s immediate concern is about the few that will impact their immediate problem. With access to the prospect’s online activity history, a salesperson can easily see their highest interest points and come prepared to discuss the impact of the most closely related features to the problem at hand.


• Compare Apples to Apples: There are probably many alternatives to your product or solution. The ways in which companies talk about—and package—their products, makes it tough for buyers to compare the functionality head-to-head. Provide your salespeople with accurate assessments of “like” features including scenarios that showcase the performance of your offering.
  
  It’s important to provide as unbiased a view as possible. This can be difficult as it goes against the nature of selling—especially for passionate salespeople who believe your product is the best. Trust me. Your company’s credibility will escalate as a result. Disparaging competitors creates friction for your buyers that will have them wondering if what your salespeople say is true. That means they’ll be spending some time thinking about the competitor. And that’s not in your best interests.

Step 3: Contribute Ideas

A complex purchase is accompanied by the need for education. If your company is producing thought leadership content and comprehensive customer success stories, you likely have the insights salespeople need to weave valuable ideas into their conversations with buyers.

• Provide Unexpected Outcomes: The goal for solving a problem either increases or decreases something critical for the buyer (e.g., increased revenues, decreased expenses). Look deeper and prepare your salespeople to introduce additional outcomes buyers may not have considered when they set out to solve the problem. Take an in depth look at what your customers are achieving beyond the outcomes your solution is most commonly known to deliver.


• Address Overlapping Considerations: Buying committees are getting larger. This means there are more stakeholders, each with their own expectations about the way a problem is solved. It’s likely that implementing your solution will affect other departments and processes beyond your buyer’s immediate focus. Your salespeople need to be prepared to intelligently discuss the impact of your solution across the enterprise, to address the perspective of each member on the buying committee. 


• Overcome Obstacles: Even when buyers are tasked with solving a problem, that doesn’t mean they have a clear path to doing so. Salespeople must be able to help buyers overcome obstacles from a variety of sources—from executive misconceptions to the personal preferences of influencers to the internal competition over securing budget dollars for other projects.
  
  Building a business case is not one-size-fits-all. The components may be similar, but their order of importance will vary based on the culture of the prospective customer’s organization. The more salespeople know about which triggers are most important to buyers in specific situations, industries or in relation to primary goals, the better they can position your product—and your company—as the best choice for achieving the ROI buyers need.

Sales Conversations Must Create Movement

Every sales conversation must be focused on creating continuous momentum across the buying process. With increased competence in understanding how buyers make the necessary progress to complete a purchase decision, salespeople can be prepared to have conversations that drive desired outcomes. In the case of a complex sale, momentum is usually incremental. In other words, the purchase won’t result from one meeting. Enticing buyers to take the next steps is a critical outcome for each and every interaction.

Although learning about a buyers’ timeline, purchasing authority and budget are critical to helping the salesperson assess the value of the opportunity, they also need to become proficient at serving the buyers’ needs in parallel. The longer buyers stay in the same state, the less likely they are to purchase. Inertia causes friction and doubt. Continuous movement driven by sales conversations is the key to conversions—even if the movement is one step at a time.

Marketing and Sales - Two islands, no bridge?

Last week I was in Minneapolis speaking at Confab and attending AA-ISP. It's the first time I've gone directly from a conference focused exclusively on content strategy to an inside sales conference. Can I just say, Whoa!

It was like hoping from one island to another without a bridge.

First, a snapshot of my impressions of Confab:

• Wonderful conference with a tight focus on a topic that's my passion
• Commaraderie that spawned comments such as "I found my people!"
• Inspiring conversations with people who actually "get" content
• Met a number of people I've been watching/stalking from afar
• Had a great crowd at my presentation that asked very thoughtful questions - bless all of you!
• Cake (lots of CAKE) and our own cocktail - the Lorem Sipsum - and it was GOOD!

Overall, it was inspiring! I thought, WOW, marketers are making a lot of progress. In a number of conversations, I met marketers who were rocking it, but weren't sure they really were. Yes - all of you, take note - you're on the right track.

I felt great - cake not withstanding.

Then I went two blocks down the street to sign books and attend the AA-ISP conference.

As a marketer, it was like walking into a foreign land. And I say this having worked and collaborated wtih a number of inside sales organizations on successful projects. I actually knew as many people at this conference as I did at Confab. Many of them on board with the alignment imperative between the two professions.

Unfortunately, what I found in several of the presentations that I attended was either a total lack or respect for marketing or no mention of them at all. In all fairness, many marketers don't mention sales much, but it does come up more often since marketing actually serves sales (or they should be).

Here's the part that really sets me back. There were a number of really terrific ideas presented at AA-ISP. Really good, with the potential to be great collaborative efforts with marketing in order to create higher efficiencies and greater momentum in the sales process. Wonderful opportunities for overlays.

But the emphasis was on sales owning, controlling and keeping all of these ideas on their island. No sharing.

I can't help but wonder that if this is what salespeople are learning at conferences, no wonder the subject of alignment is still as controversial today as it ever was. And going nowhere fast.

Which brings me to a question that my friend, Trish Bertuzzi (@bridgegroupinc) posed in a recent Focus roundtable we did together:

If prospects are spending up to 70% of their buying process with marketing, why is it that only 50% of sales reps are meeting quota?

Seems to me that both marketing and sales need to bridge this gap and work together if we're going to improve the prospects' experience during their buying process to the point that objectives are met on both sides of the equation.

I'm not placing blame on sales, I'm just noting that something's gotta give if we're going to reach higher levels of success for our companies. It really shouldn't be this hard. Ultimately we're all working toward the same goals...aren't we?

On the high side - I watched Anneke Seley (@annekeseley) receive her Lifetime Achievement Award and was proud to be there clapping and cheering for her. Congrats, Anneke!

Part 3: The Contagious Content Challenge

Those of you who are regular readers of this blog have likely been following The Contagious Content Challenge. I started this series to share with you the updates sent to me by a marketer who'd read my book, eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale, and started implementing the strategies I wrote about to create his company's content marketing programs.

If you need to catch up, here are the other posts in the series:

Part 1: The Contagious Content Challenge

Part 2: The Contagious Content Challenge

Today he sent me another email. I'm really excited to hear from him as this is his update after one year of sticking with the program he developed. Here's what he had to say:

I promised to provide you quick updates every now and then since you  inspired our content strategy.  One year ago I implemented the strategy.   It is amazing how much can be accomplished by staying at it.  A few observations:

1. User-concentric content works best for lead nurturing.  We use an online lead generation package that allows us to set up campaigns. Our lead nurture program has 12 pieces over 3 months. Educate, educate, educate. Every time we post a piece or release it to our email list - the phone rings. The leads are highly qualified.


2. Once a lead contacts us - it typically takes us 90 days to close a sale.   We have developed sales content.  First we aggregated 5 of our thought leadership "Strategy Briefs" into an e-book. We have also created case studies.  Plus we have all of the traditional product catalogs and stuff. When we are in sales mode - we tend to use the content on an ad-hoc basis. Whenever we check in with a prospect for a status check by email - we always attach one piece of content. We can use more ideas for sales content.


3. This week we had a new experience. In your book you talk about the continuum of 0 to 100.  0 is the start and 100 is the sale. It seems that content takes us from 0-70 … and then sales takes us from 71-100.  
   
   This week we got a call from a firm.  They told us they have been reading our stuff for months.  They had one key function they were looking for in a system that they concluded our product had.   The called - we did a demo - and had a sale in 2 days.   What was so interesting is this prospect knew almost everything about our product and the demo was about confirmation.  Throughout the demo they used our company vocabulary when asking questions - indicating they have been combing through our stuff pretty seriously.  
   
   So in this story - content took us from 0-98. This was unbelievable to us.

It is time for  you to write a second book!

[I included that last line for my benefit :-) It's nice to hear.]

I'm so proud of him for sticking with it. Just look at what's possible if you do! His success is based upon setting expectations and consistently delivering over time. By using content strategically, he's been able to position his company as an expert, help prospects understand exactly why they need what his company offers and shorten the sales cycle by a huge margin. Those are results I'd bet every company would like to have.

My reader also shared something he'd like some help with. He says he'd like to create a formal, automated sequence for a prospect once they enter the sales cycle, but he's using his best content an ad hoc basis during Step 2, above. He's concerned about being too repetitive.

Here's the dirty little secret about repetition: It takes 5 - 12 repetitions of an idea to make it stick. I'd recommend he re-invent some of his best content, change it up a bit so the repetition isn't obvious, maybe even switch out a point or two. That way he can create a series that reinforces the active sales end of the buying process with nurturing without having to reinvent the wheel.

And, consider that if salespeople are also interacting with the prospects at this point, that the touch frequency can slow down. You don't want to barrage them with communications from the sales rep and the nurturing program. So, slow the cadence.

An additional point to consider is breaking longer pieces in two. Use the first part as a nurturing touch and have the salesperson use the 2nd part when they call to follow up. This not only gives them a conversational lead in, but a way to extend the conversation. This would require a bit of coordination, but can be done.

It's amazing what can happen in a year, isn't it? What's stopping you?

Product vs. Solution vs. Perspective

The Sirius Decisions Summit is happening this week and I'm wishing my schedule would have allowed me to be there in person rather than absorbing the wisdom through Twitter #sds11 - but thankfully I have at least that.

In reviewing the Tweets from yesterday [Thanks to @sgersh for compliling] I saw a Tweet posted by Carlos Hidalgo (@cahidalgo) that caught my interest.

RT @cahidalgo: 57% of #sds11 attendees say their mktg/sales approach is Product-centric but want to move to solution centric.

As I'm observing from afar, I may be misinterpreting, but this makes me want to wave my arms and say - "Stop and think!"

Solution-centric may be a step up from Product-centric marketing, but most B2B companies approach solution marketing is as a way to sell more stuff by bundling it together, not so much to help buyers find the best way to solve a problem.

This is where perspective needs to play a bigger role. Instead of focusing on products or solutions, marketers need to focus on improving the buyer experience - from THEIR perspective. The only way this happens if if we make our buyers the pivotal point around which all of our marketing content revolves.

But perspective is also bigger than that. It must be dynamic because solutions to problems evolve faster than the nature of problems change. With the length of a complex B2B buying process, this can also mean that what was important to your buyers at the beginning of their journey has changed by the time they get done with their research, involve others on the buying committee, etc.

To create marketing content focused on the buyer experience, we must also look farther into the pipeline and create a plan for getting more than just attention and a bit of interest. True engagement takes time, education, the sharing of expertise and the ability to frame context to invite serious consideration.

There's a lot that needs to happen after lead generation and qualification to make that happen.

This is going to be a big challenge for many given that, of the 800 attendees at the Sirius Decisions Summit, 61% are focusing their lead nurturing programs on pre-marketing-qualified leads and another 18% are doing nothing with their leads.

Before marketers decide to trade in one approach for another, the first thing they need to do is figure out what their prospective customers need. If you address their issues from their perspective as related to what your offerings enable, product vs. solution will cease to be the choice.