What is Lead Nurturing?

While a major goal of your inbound marketing campaign is to generate sales leads, the main goal of your company's actions is to generate revenue. The only way to do this is to transform those sales leads into closed deals. However, 50% of all realistic sales leads will not ready to close when you first come into contact with them; letting these individuals walk away means that you are allowing your revenue to be cut in half. You do not have to let this happen. By nurturing these sales leads, you can ensure that they come back to your company (and not your competitor) when they are ready to buy. This is done through a process called lead nurturing.

 

 

In this article, we will discuss exactly what lead nurturing is and how it will lead to more closed sales.

What is lead nurturing?

It is the process of transforming a sales lead into a B2B or B2C relationship that extends beyond the sale of the product itself. The purpose of this is to develop a trust between both you and the consumer that maintains your company as relevant in their mind.

How does one nurture a lead?

Lead nurturing is a multi-step process. Learning how these steps work together is key to the success of your lead nurturing endeavors.

 

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Keep in touch (with their permission)

The first step is to retain contact with the sales lead, because you cannot nurture a business relationship without a line of communication. You do not do this through aggressive outbound marketing tactics, but rather by gaining their permission to maintain contact with them. Gaining their permission is vital to this step, because if you do not, they are very likely to discard any communications that you send their way without another thought.

Educate the sales lead continually

One of the most powerful factors that can prevent a sales lead from turning into a closed sale is information, or lack thereof. While you or your website may have all of the answers to any qualms that a consumer might have about investing in your products or services immediately, they are not likely to ask all of them. Instead, they are more likely to step away to engage in their own haphazard research.

Instead of hoping that the sales lead happens upon the information that proves your offerings to be superior to your competitors, this is not a smart strategy. Instead, use the line of communication that you have already gained permission to use to disseminate information that is both relevant to why your product or service is so wonderful and generally helpful to the consumer.

 

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Make your team available to answer questions or concerns

As the sales lead becomes more comfortable with your organization through the helpful information disseminated through communication channels that you gained permission to use, they may begin to contact you directly. You should be prepared for such encounters with more than just another sales pitch.

A sales lead who believes in the relationship that you are nurturing will begin to send direct inquiries your way. When this happens, you should treat them as an individual and/or business partner by providing the same responses that you would give to a valued customer who has been buying from your business for years.

Carefully observe the sales lead's path along the buying cycle

Although lead nurturing focuses on developing relationships with sales leads, you must never lose sight of your primary objective: closing the sale. Although the timeline will be extended, the nurtured sales lead is going through the same buying cycle that an impulse buyer goes through. Once you see clear signs that the sales lead is at a point where they are to buy, you can then engage in the sales process.

If you follow the steps involved with lead nurturing, you will see a growth in closed sales and repeat business.

 

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