Category: Lead Response
Did You Know That Lead Nurturing Boosts Results?
Strategically work sales funnel leads to improve response rates and increase sales
Savvy marketers use a sales funnel to better manage their sales leads. A key tool in moving leads through the funnel to produce a sale is lead nurturing, a strategic approach to cultivating inquirers in order to turn them into buyers.
“Lead nurturing focuses on listening to prospects and providing the information they need, when they need it,” explains Adam Berkson, president of LiveVoice, a boutique phone support service. He knows because his firm specializes in lead response services.
To further support his enthusiasm, he cites two recent stats from DemandGen Report. The first confirms that lead nurtured emails enjoy four to ten times the response rate compared to standalone email blasts. “Imagine taking a typical email response rate of 1.5 percent and increasing it tenfold,” enthuses Berkson. “The result would be a 15 percent response rate, which is rare. Even a fourfold increase bumps the response rate to 6 percent, something any marketer would covet.”
The second stat reveals that nurtured leads produce an average 20 percent increase in sales opportunities versus non-nurtured leads. “While a 20 percent boost may not seem like much, it’s one in five, and that’s significant,” says Berkson. He is sold on lead nurturing because he knows the profound difference it makes.
Mike Novak, chief technology officer at TeleServices Direct, a worldwide provider of outsource call center services has seen his share of email blasts. “A 20 percent increase can turn a failed initiative into a successful one, be it a marketing campaign, a product launch, or even a sales rep.”
“Too many marketers are focused solely on lead generation,” Berkson adds. But that is short sighted. Lead generation is just the first step. These leads need to be managed in a sales funnel, and one tool to do that is lead nurturing.
“The responsibility of marketing is not just to generate leads, but to qualify them and nurture them before passing them on to sales,” Berkson concludes. “The result is increased sales, which is good for business and bodes well for both the sales and marketing teams.”
With lead nurturing everyone wins.
LiveVoice understands how important every call is to your business. Contact them about customizing their flexible, premium phone support service so you can turn opportunity into profit.
Peter DeHaan, PhD, is a freelance writer, call center authority, and publisher of Connections Magazine, which covers the call center industry.
