Category: Features, Lead Response
3 Reasons Why You Need a Lead Nurturing Process
Lead nurturing produces greater results at a lower cost and increases timely follow through
1. Just because someone gave you their contact info doesn’t mean they’re ready to buy
“Just because someone gave you their contact info doesn’t mean they’re ready to buy,” says Adam Berkson, president of LiveVoice, a boutique phone support service build around twenty-five years of call center experience. LiveVoice specializes in lead response service, so Berkson knows what he’s talking about. “Not all leads are the same, and the sooner businesses realize this the more effective they will be in their sales and marketing efforts.”
“Nurturing their leads is essential.” Berkson builds his case for this by citing three eye-opening stats from Forrester Research. First, is the measured reality that companies which excel at lead nurturing generate 50 percent more sales-ready leads at a 33 percent lower cost. In other words, they realize increased results for less money. “This alone should convince everyone that lead nurturing is an essential process.”
2. 46 percent of marketers with mature lead management processes have sales teams that follow up on more than 75 percent of marketing-generated leads.
While we don’t know about the results of the other half of these marketers, we do know that for this first group, nearly half of them, there is a decided increase in lead follow up. “Imagine how ecstatic your sales team will be when you nurture leads and only present them with mature, ready-to-buy prospects,” says Anthony Vesho, chief operating officer at TeleServices Direct, a worldwide provider of outsource call center services. “You’ll be an instant hero.”
3. 25 percent of marketers who adopt mature lead management processes report that sales teams contact prospects within one day.
Only 10 percent of marketers report the same follow-up time without mature lead management processes. “Though we can’t establish direct causality, the connection is impossible to miss,” Berkson says. “Marketing departments with a lead management process have a two and a half higher rate of one day follow through.”
Though it could be argued that the greater attention paid to lead nurturing has a positive side-effect of greater sales team engagement and at a faster rate, the opposite is equally likely: that “the direct outcome of lead nurturing is greater results at a lower cost, significantly increased follow through, and a more timely response,” concludes Berkson. “I’m sold on lead nurturing as an essential step in maximizing the value of sales leads – and so should you.”
Peter DeHaan, PhD, is a freelance writer, call center authority, and publisher of Connections Magazine, which covers the call center industry.
