Technology

Lead Nurturing

At a basic level there are three groups involved in the B2B sales cycle. The prospects, the sales team and the marketing team. Marketing is trying to identify new prospects and make their target audience aware of the product or service that they have available. Sales is trying to convert those prospects to customers and bring in revenue and the prospects are trying to solve a problem and get the most value for their money.

The good news for marketers is that over half of the prospects that respond to a direct marketing campaign will go on to purchase. The bad news is that it could take over a year and they might not choose your product. The challenge comes from maintaining that relationship with the prospect until they are ready to make a purchase decision. If marketing hands the lead off to sales to early then it will languish. Sales are trying to convert prospects to customers, but if the prospect is not ready yet then sales will move on to the one that is ready to close now. The prospect might feel neglected and ignored and then get a negative impression of your company from the experience.

Lost Leads could represent 22% of a companies annual revenues

Industry estimates indicate that up to 80% of the money spent on direct marketing is wasted because the leads that are generated are not followed up on by sales. According to AMR Research, the unrealized potential of “lost leads” could be as high as 22% of a company’s annual revenue (AR).

So what can marketing do to keep sales happy, gain more customers and look like superstar to the Executives? Lead Nurturing – a process of cultivating leads through the long considered B2B sales cycle until they are ready to purchase. Of course it is, but for a solution that is so simple and obvious to explain, why are so many companies falling down and losing leads? The answers lies in the analysis of the B2B sales structure and the current economic realities of our world.

In the B2B space, no two sales are alike they all have different amounts of expertise, money, time. Each sales is on its own timeline. There are multiple people involved in the purchase decision and frequently marketing is fighting against the noise and chatter put out by other companies.

In an ideal world marketing and sales would have the time and resources to act as a consultant to each prospect, taking the time to make them aware of all the issues surrounding their challenges. Educate them in the best practices and solutions to the problem and then demonstrate how their solution is the best by case studies, analyst reviews and media reports. Unfortunately to perform this is a daunting task and given the pressures on sales to deliver revenue and on marketing to deliver prospects it is nearly impossible. This is further compounded by the diversity in the sales force. The Top performers inherently do much of this, but making a consistent effort with all leads across the company when you are relying on a manual process is a challenge that many companies fail to conquer.

So how can the modern B2B company measure up?

In a word - Automation. Marketing needs to embed the best practices that are available for lead generation and lead nurturing along with the processes and knowledge into an automated system to stay in touch with prospects until they are ready to purchase. Marketing should only deliver highly qualified, educated prospects who are ready to make a purchase decision over to sales.