There is a lot of work to be done once someone converts into a lead on your website. Keep in mind, not all visitors who come to your website are ready to buy. In fact, less than 1% of them are ready to buy. The leads your website generates will be in different stages of their buying journey. This is a great opportunity for marketing to support the sales team, through personalized lead nurturing.
According to the CEB Marketing Leadership Council, “B2B customers reported being nearly 60% through the sales process before engaging a sales rep, regardless of price point. More accurately, 57% of the sales process just disappeared.”
Today’s buyers are enabled to do their own research without having to call a sales rep to start the process. And effective lead nurturing puts you in a strong position against your competitors.
The manufacturers and professional services companies we work with have a considered purchase process their prospects go through. The sales cycle for their high-ticket ($80,000+) product or services can be anywhere from several weeks to several years.
Establishing a long-term, documented strategy for lead nurturing will ensure your company is forging a trusting relationship with your potential customers. If you have done a good job of creating a comprehensive path for the prospect to educate themselves on your product, chances are that you will have earned your way to their “short list” when they eventually choose who they want to do business with.
You’ve seen which specific offer your prospect has self-selected in the lead generation phase, and determined which stage of the buying process your potential customer is in. Now it becomes your task to appropriately educate that prospect so that they are informed enough to make a buying decision.
Therefore, it’s important to structure your marketing automation to optimize what content your prospects see - at the times they are hungry to see it.
For most companies, lead nurturing with 6-8 “touchpoints” is the magic number before a prospect becomes a qualified sales lead (when they are ready to speak to sales).
Different prospects will want to interact with your content in different ways, so this is where it’s crucial for sales and marketing to complement each other.
Example channels to execute your touchpoints include:
We likely agree that the wrong time to be overcoming potential client objections en masse is at the end of the sales process.
How can you overcome objections ahead of time? Put simply, you focus on enabling your prospects to educate themselves on your product information. Think of it as “over-educating” your prospect so they are able to make the most well-informed decision on what product makes the most sense for them.
This mindset helps your company focus on your customers’ needs through helpful content, which frames your business as a trusted and empowering ally when a buying decision is to be made.
Trusted partners in the financial services space
We've had a tremendous experience working with the entire Craft Impact team... they've helped us refine our messaging and target market, develop our new website, and onboarded our team to the HubSpot platform. The most impressive part about our experience with Craft is their team. Everyone we've worked with has been patient, knowledgeable, and responsive to the point where we feel like they're a part of our firm. We're excited to continue working together to implement our strategic growth plans.
The Craft Impact team provides a personal level of service that helped us seamlessly transition to an inbound marketing vision and strategy that will be the future foundation of our company’s growth.
Craft Impact has developed and implemented a marketing plan to not only increase web traffic but to engage visitors in discussions about solving boardwalk challenges. I would certainly recommend Craft Impact to others searching for an industry expert to evaluate their website’s potential and/or to develop a plan to increase website traffic and qualified leads.
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