Talented sales people have known for years that the best way to keep the pipeline full is to identify prospects, develop relationships with them and then close the sale when the time is right. But, if it were that easy, very few sales people would ever find themselves “excused” from work due to lagging numbers.
Most sales people are very skilled at the last part – closing the sale – but lack the time or resources to spend cycles identifying the leads and developing the relationship. This scenario is where lead nurturing can fill the gap.
We think of lead nurturing as the process of developing a relationship with potential leads and engaging them in quality conversations to assess their level of interest and sales-readiness. Marketing automation software can play a valuable role in lead nurturing strategies by automating these relationship-building communications and sending recipients down different decision-trees, based on their interactions.
Sounds like a great plan, right? Marketing qualifies the prospects using a systematic lead nurturing approach, and once the leads are deemed qualified, sales scoops in to close the business. However, much like the thought “if sales was easy, no one would get canned,” if lead nurturing were that simple, every company would be doing it.
With that in mind, we’ve taken a moment to run through 4 objections to lead nurturing from various internal departments and how to successfully overcome them…
- “I don’t like turning my leads over to someone else because who knows what promises you’ll make or what you’ll do with them.” – Johnny Sales Wizard
Overcome this sales’ fear by working together to road map the communication cycle and listening to what sales has to say about how they sell successfully. See if you can emulate some of their one-on-one dialog on a lead nurturing scale of one-to-many.
- “I don’t have time to develop a bunch of articles, emails, case studies, etc. and implement it…my day is already jam-packed.” – Sue Marketing Guru
Help marketing come aboard the lead nurturing train by identifying existing content that can be repurposed for the nurture campaigns. And don’t be afraid to start small with a 4 or 6-week cycle of communications that can be expanded as nurturing efforts take shape.
- “You people are always spending the company’s money on some new tool or system that no one uses after 3 months.” – Richard Bean Counter
As much as it pains us, the CFO has a legitimate point. Shiny new toys don’t do anyone much good if they aren’t used. Have your game plan and content mapped out with both sales and marketing’s buy-in beforehand. If you’ll be using a marketing automation tool to streamline the processes, check into CRM integration or an API so you can manage your contact’s activities from one centralized place.
- “Does lead nurturing really help or is this another complicated excuse for why sales and marketing can’t work together?” – Mitch E. CEO
The key to overcoming the dreaded “does it work” question is to first establish metrics that denote success. While the end-game goal will always be more opportunities and closed deals, that probably won’t happen overnight. Maybe the first metrics are improved email interaction and content downloads. Set realistic expectations and metrics from Day One.
With these tips in mind, you should be able to get buy-in and ideas for shaping your lead management and nurturing efforts. Happy nurturing.
