1) Responding on time
Your prompt response to a qualified lead is the perfect way of winning a lead over into a successful sale. Transacting with multi-level companies or well-established corporations requires a longer negotiating period, but a punctual response and follow up will leave outstanding impact on the companies and surpass the competency of other competitors.
Prompt response is applicable not only for more complex products and transactions; it is also an influential strategy in convincing even smaller groups of traders to make purchases.
2) Regular, value-added communication
Being in regular contact with the customers to provide important information and updates is indispensable. Updating methods may include newsletters, white papers, technical updates, audio interviews or video presentations, or invitations to events. The main purpose is to keep in touch to prospects as a way of nurturing leads.
3) Stylistic procedures of conversion.
Your distinctive style of converting visitors into regular clients is a major turning point. The 80/20 policy indicates that definite ways of dealing with prospects may tend to yield productive results.
One client was who was selling six and seven figure software systems for an international software company in a past career made the very interesting discovery that ALL new clients had at some point attended a 2-hour evening workshop. Getting bums on seats in those seminars thus became the focus of lead generation activities, yielding exponential results.
What makes your conversion procedures significant and productive? What else is lacking in your methods to further increase your sales? What can you do to avoid fruitless performances?
4) Multi-modal contact
If leads are of sufficient value, experiment with varying your contact methods. Go beyond a monthly newsletter to include phone calls, hard mailings, webinars and face-to-face events.
Automatic responding and newsletter electronic sorting may seem beneficial but they are subject to some limitations as well. If you think that emails are successfully reaching the desks of the customers, consider the fact that competitors' emails are there too.
Take into account the important word - VALUE. DM communications that seem skillful are sometimes still lacking. Esteem your customers highly by giving them important attention and meaningful information that they might need regarding the business.
5) Approach them with different VAK learning techniques
Various people gain knowledge by utilising their VAK (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic) views.
A great number of people are Visual - which means they gather information by using their sense of sight.
Some people are Auditory - which means they get their knowledge by hearing.
Others are "kinaesthetic" - they learn best by doing.
Employ these facilities in relaying information to your prospects to improve your conversion rate of leads to a pool of regular customers.
Make use of diagrams, charts, power points, and video streams for the visual types.
Consider audio programs, video streams with audios, and live presentations for auditory types.
Utilise interactive webinars, surveys and live workshops for kinesthetic types.
Before, I used printed handouts for my lead nurturing activities. During those times, I became productive with these old formats, but now I am using the modern ways of giving information to customers such as audio and video technology.
The best way to start
In a sense, "lead nurturing" covers a good proportion of the entire sales and marketing process. If you know you could be nurturing leads a lot more effectively, but are not quite sure where to start, here are some ideas:
1) Is your CRM system efficient and working well with your sales and marketing policies?
Nurturing leads in an effective way will not be possible without a strong CRM system. We apply these systems with the help of Salesforce.com which is offering pay-per-seat answers appropriate to an organisation. Several industries are also executing similar systems.
2) Have you instituted "closed loop tracking"?
Can you pursue the growth of your market from a prospective lead to the successful and productive sale extending to a long period of client satisfaction? The marketing growth depends on the size of the organisation; it may be easy to set up or may also be risky, but the importance it generates is remarkably profitable, forcing you to focus on the process regarding lead generation for additional increase in sales.
3) Are you using a comprehensible lead classification for the entire organisation?
Classifying the qualified leads and focusing more on them would reduce disappointments for your team and prevent additional expenditures not only on finances but also on efforts and time.
4) Have you acknowledged your powers in getting things done?
Once you are able to direct your lead generation procedures; a seminar, an onsite demonstration, a product trial, you can concentrate more on the high-yielding activities.
5) Do you keep records of your customers' contact information?
Have you acquired your clients' email addresses and street and billing addresses? You might want to consider employing a database-sorting expert or well-trained telemarketers to do the cleaning and sorting of your data, and in turn, utilise it for productive generation of leads.
6) Do you have a documented lead nurturing system?
Even if your sales nurturing system is one 6-monthly followup call, that's a starting point. Which one or two things could you do to add the most value to the customer experience?
Here are some suggestions:
* Send a white paper in print or electronic form.
* Send or stream a video of a relevant presentation by your CEO or other executive.
* Conduct an industry survey and report back on the results.
* Set up an event or seminar and invite the customers.
7) Does your sales team apply the standard lead nurturing system?
Conformity with the standard recognised follow up system is as essential as the system itself; but efficiency of the system itself is the easiest way for the team to stick to it and to put it into operation. - 15336
Your prompt response to a qualified lead is the perfect way of winning a lead over into a successful sale. Transacting with multi-level companies or well-established corporations requires a longer negotiating period, but a punctual response and follow up will leave outstanding impact on the companies and surpass the competency of other competitors.
Prompt response is applicable not only for more complex products and transactions; it is also an influential strategy in convincing even smaller groups of traders to make purchases.
2) Regular, value-added communication
Being in regular contact with the customers to provide important information and updates is indispensable. Updating methods may include newsletters, white papers, technical updates, audio interviews or video presentations, or invitations to events. The main purpose is to keep in touch to prospects as a way of nurturing leads.
3) Stylistic procedures of conversion.
Your distinctive style of converting visitors into regular clients is a major turning point. The 80/20 policy indicates that definite ways of dealing with prospects may tend to yield productive results.
One client was who was selling six and seven figure software systems for an international software company in a past career made the very interesting discovery that ALL new clients had at some point attended a 2-hour evening workshop. Getting bums on seats in those seminars thus became the focus of lead generation activities, yielding exponential results.
What makes your conversion procedures significant and productive? What else is lacking in your methods to further increase your sales? What can you do to avoid fruitless performances?
4) Multi-modal contact
If leads are of sufficient value, experiment with varying your contact methods. Go beyond a monthly newsletter to include phone calls, hard mailings, webinars and face-to-face events.
Automatic responding and newsletter electronic sorting may seem beneficial but they are subject to some limitations as well. If you think that emails are successfully reaching the desks of the customers, consider the fact that competitors' emails are there too.
Take into account the important word - VALUE. DM communications that seem skillful are sometimes still lacking. Esteem your customers highly by giving them important attention and meaningful information that they might need regarding the business.
5) Approach them with different VAK learning techniques
Various people gain knowledge by utilising their VAK (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic) views.
A great number of people are Visual - which means they gather information by using their sense of sight.
Some people are Auditory - which means they get their knowledge by hearing.
Others are "kinaesthetic" - they learn best by doing.
Employ these facilities in relaying information to your prospects to improve your conversion rate of leads to a pool of regular customers.
Make use of diagrams, charts, power points, and video streams for the visual types.
Consider audio programs, video streams with audios, and live presentations for auditory types.
Utilise interactive webinars, surveys and live workshops for kinesthetic types.
Before, I used printed handouts for my lead nurturing activities. During those times, I became productive with these old formats, but now I am using the modern ways of giving information to customers such as audio and video technology.
The best way to start
In a sense, "lead nurturing" covers a good proportion of the entire sales and marketing process. If you know you could be nurturing leads a lot more effectively, but are not quite sure where to start, here are some ideas:
1) Is your CRM system efficient and working well with your sales and marketing policies?
Nurturing leads in an effective way will not be possible without a strong CRM system. We apply these systems with the help of Salesforce.com which is offering pay-per-seat answers appropriate to an organisation. Several industries are also executing similar systems.
2) Have you instituted "closed loop tracking"?
Can you pursue the growth of your market from a prospective lead to the successful and productive sale extending to a long period of client satisfaction? The marketing growth depends on the size of the organisation; it may be easy to set up or may also be risky, but the importance it generates is remarkably profitable, forcing you to focus on the process regarding lead generation for additional increase in sales.
3) Are you using a comprehensible lead classification for the entire organisation?
Classifying the qualified leads and focusing more on them would reduce disappointments for your team and prevent additional expenditures not only on finances but also on efforts and time.
4) Have you acknowledged your powers in getting things done?
Once you are able to direct your lead generation procedures; a seminar, an onsite demonstration, a product trial, you can concentrate more on the high-yielding activities.
5) Do you keep records of your customers' contact information?
Have you acquired your clients' email addresses and street and billing addresses? You might want to consider employing a database-sorting expert or well-trained telemarketers to do the cleaning and sorting of your data, and in turn, utilise it for productive generation of leads.
6) Do you have a documented lead nurturing system?
Even if your sales nurturing system is one 6-monthly followup call, that's a starting point. Which one or two things could you do to add the most value to the customer experience?
Here are some suggestions:
* Send a white paper in print or electronic form.
* Send or stream a video of a relevant presentation by your CEO or other executive.
* Conduct an industry survey and report back on the results.
* Set up an event or seminar and invite the customers.
7) Does your sales team apply the standard lead nurturing system?
Conformity with the standard recognised follow up system is as essential as the system itself; but efficiency of the system itself is the easiest way for the team to stick to it and to put it into operation. - 15336
About the Author:
Author: David B. Ascot can help your business' sales lead generation strategy and yield you the leverage you are seeking via your online lead generation.
