Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Buying Has Changed Forever - Part III

 
Determine if prospects are ready to engage with sales.
 
For most marketers, the decision about which leads to nurture begins here.  The process of defining what constitutes a "sales-ready" lead requires marketing and sales to agree upon the profile of an ideal prospect and a lead scoring methodology.  Scoring methodologies should use a combination of:
 
     Demographic attributes (company size, role, industry, etc.
 
     Lead source and offer.
 
     Budget, authority, need and timeline.
 
     Completeness of data profile (do you have enough information).
 
     Behavioral attributes (number of responses, overall engagement).
 
Based on the above criteria, leads can be sorted in a variety of ways: bucketed into cold, warm or hot leads; ranked on a numerical scale; placed into lead stages; and so on.  Depending on the sorting method you use, some leads will be deemed "sales-ready" and others will need to remain in (or return to) marketing for further nurturing.
 
Here are a few ideas to help you define what it means to be sales-ready:
 
     Does the prospect visit your web site? If so, how often and which pages were visited before and
     after registering on your site?
 
     What search terms did the prospect use to find more information about you?
 
     Has the prospect visited "high-value" pages such as pricing or contact information pages?
 
     Have other propsects from the same company visited your web site?
 
     How has the prospect responded to your follow-up email campaigns or offers?
 
     What interactions has your sales team had with the prospect and when?
 
Regardless of how you choose to score and categorize your leads, implementing lead nurturing must begin by collaborating with all stakeholders to define the process for determining which leads get sent to sales and which leads get nurturing.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Buying Has Changed Forever - Part II

 
Marketing and sales alignment is a popular topic that is frequently discussed but not universally practiced in today's B2B businesses. The basic principles of good lead nurturing are predicated on marketing and sales teamwork at every stage of a single revenue cycle.
 
In today's web-centric world where buyers are reluctant to engage with sales until much later in the decision-making process, there are at least three areas where marketing and sales collaboration become a necessity:
 
    * The definition of a sales-ready lead derived from co-defined lead scoring values.
 
    * The appropriate type of customer communication, associated cues and optimal timing.
 
    * The lead profile and history that is most valuable to sales, expecially for recycled leads.
 
Similar to the trusted advisor relationship your company is building with prospective customers, marketing and sales must share a common revenue goal, an interdependence that relies on earned trust and respect, and joint credit for revenue achievement.
 
The Return On Investment Of Lead Nurturing
 
A discussion on the value of lead nurturing would not be complete without exploring ROI.  Let's take a look at some compelling statistics gathered from several research organizations.  Companies that excel at lead nurturing:
 
    * Generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost per lead.
 
    * Reduce the percent of marketing-generated leads that are ignored by sales.
 
    * Raise win rates on marketing-generated leads (7% higher) and reduce "no decisions."
 
    * Have more sales representatives make quota and a shorter ramp up time for new reps.
     
Additional, anecdotal evidence suggests that nurtured prospects buy more, require less discounting, and have shorter sales cycles than prospects that were not nurtured.
 
Next time: Tips to develop a lead nurturing program.
 
   
 
 


Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Buying Has Changed Forever

 
Many companies do a good job at generating leads.  The problem is that most new leads are not yet ready to engage, so if a sales rep does try to contact a lead before he or she is ready, it reinforces the general impression that marketing-generated leads are no good. As a result, leads risk getting lost, ignored, or snatched up by competitors.
 
To prevent this from happening, marketers need to hone their lead nurturing...the process of building relationships with qualified prospects regardless of their timing to buy, with the goal of earning their business when they are ready. Building a relationship with a prospect is the same as with any long-term relationship -- you can't force someone to commit to a purchase, but you also cannot afford to lose individuals because their willingness to buy doesn't match your readiness to sell.
 
Most non-sales-ready leads will eventually be ready -- and it is up to you to both provide them with relevant information and to be there when they are ready to make a buying decision.  According to a DemandGen Report, up to 95 percent of the qualified prospects on your web site are there to research and are not yet ready to talk with a sales rep, but as many as 70 percent of them will eventually buy a product from you -- or with one of your competitors.
 
To make things even more  challenging, the B2B buying process has fundamentally changed. Prospects are spending more time on the Web doing independent research, obtaining information from their peers and other third parties.  That's why companies are meeting prospective buyers earlier than ever, and is a key reason why having sales attempt to engage with every early-stage lead is premature.
 
Next time, some lead nurturing basics.

MY OBJECTIVE:

To share common sense lessons learned with 40-plus years experience in marketing, sales and as a B2B publisher.

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