Lead Nurturing: A How To Guide
26th October 2016
It’s likely your customers are very busy, especially if they are C-level executives. Organisational changes can have an impact on your sales leads, particularly those of a situational nature. For example, you might find that the decision maker you were in negotiations with has left, or moved to a different role.
Words: Liz Fulham
If that’s not tough enough, you may also discover that the company doesn’t have the budget available, or they have already purchased a different service on an annual subscription base and can’t cancel it.
This doesn’t mean that they don’t want your product. It just means that you have to wait until the decision maker or budget is available, or when their annual subscription has finished. According to a Marketing Sherpa study, 73% of leads aren’t ready to buy when you first connect with them.
This means that B2B companies must find a way to nurture these sales leads until the buyer is ready to purchase the product/service. You need to keep them interested in what you’re doing. That way, when they are ready to buy, you are the top of mind brand and the first company they will want to call.
1 Lead nurturing definition
Lead nurturing is the process of developing relationships with buyers at every stage of the sales funnel, and through every step of the buyer’s journey. It focuses marketing and sales on listening to the needs of prospects, and providing the information and answers they need.
2 Benefits of lead nurturing
Here are some great statistics that support the lead nurturing process being critical to revenue:
• Companies that automate lead management see a 10% or greater increase in revenue in 6-9 months. (Gartner)
• Lead nurturing emails with good content generate an 8% CTR (Click Through Rate) compared to general emails which generate just 3%. (HubSpot)
• Lead nurturing emails get 4-10 more response rate compared to single email blasts. (Demand Gen)
• Nurtured leads produce, on average, a 20% increase in sales opportunities as opposed to non-nurtured leads. (Demand Gen)
