Nurturing Interest Into Sales Opportunity
Saturday, January 29th, 2011
In the last 5 years the landscape has changed dramatically. procurement budgets are well controlled, resources are scarce and potential customers now have instant access to information from a plethora of sources, allowing them to research and review of potential solutions and, in many cases actually purchase without the need to interact with a salesperson.
This capacity for self-service “requires sales and marketing departments to work harder and smarter, diligently refining leads to extract the value of 95% and the fabric of their value proposition across multiple communication channels to ensure that highlighted in this pletho
ra “of sources.”
That companies proactively generate business leads to your salespeople to follow up is essential to have a defined strategy to manage the 95% who are not immediate sales opportunities. The cables have value, but needs to be refined and cultivated relationships with customers. Consistent, thoughtful and contact relevant time period will go a long way to help the position of a provider and / or seller as a “trusted advisor” (“nirvana for most organizations) and will be placed in front of the line when the customer makes a step forward with a project.
In many organizations the scale of time and effort involved in this maturation process is at odds with the way sales teams are led and encouraged. Vendors also can be monthly or quarterly, which has to be fed well could take several quarters to come to fruition and generate business. With this in mind and from a cost management perspective, you might want to consider outsourcing the refining and the process of ‘feeding’. An organization specializing in marketing automation and telemarketing resources can work with you to help create a library of breeding material which can be distributed, monitoring and fine tuning. Providing information on a regular basis, monitor the status of lead and opportunity of the flag when an agreement “lead score” is achieved, so that sales can pass as a “hot” opportunity.
It may be that the scale or complexity of the solution offered is such that you feel is most appropriate for marketers to run with this process. If this is the case, it is wise to devote time to individual customers and contacts, understanding that influences their decisions, when they go for counseling and research, whether using social / business media, industry publications, etc.
