lead progression and lead nurturing ebook
DESCRIPTION
Learn how to progress your sales leads that aren't ready to buy using a lead nurturing strategy. 24-page e-book.TRANSCRIPT
© Copyright Espresso B2B Marketing 2011. All Rights Reserved.
Lead Progression and Lead Nurturing
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Buying Patterns Have Changed!
Reports by Sirius Decision and CSO
Insights show that buyers are progressing
through 70-80% of the buying cycle
before engaging directly with a sales
person.
Four-fifths of buyers say that they found
the seller rather than the other way
around.*
Many companies we interviewed say that
it is far more difficult to get a buyer on the
phone, and to meet face to face,
compared to two years ago.
.
* Source Ardath Ablee - eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale
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Changing Preferences
Today, the power lunch and the in-person PowerPoint presentation have
been replaced by websites, blog publications, social media discussions and
downloadable content as the main form of communication during the early
stages of the buying cycle.
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A recent study by Forbes Magazine
found that on a daily basis:
• 49% of C Level Executives
regularly use the internet
• 57% of senior management at large
corporations use the internet
• 85% of all business respondents
use search engines
Consider This
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Buying Behind Closed Doors
Because the internet provides ready access to
the information they need to help them make a
buying decision, buyers are now reluctant to
meet with sales people.
Ninety-five percent of the people who visit your
website are there to do research – educating
themselves on the kinds of solutions available.*
An overwhelming number of buyers say that
they learned nothing new as a result of their first
meeting with a sales person.
Much of the buying process now takes place
without a sales person is present!
* Source Brian Carroll ‘Lead Generation for the Complex Sale’
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Keeping the Seller at Arm’s Length
Our own research shows that only 10-25% of
new leads are willing to engage with a sales
person early in the buying process. The rest
push back on entering traditional sales
engagements.
In reality, these leads are not cold. The buyer is
conducting research, generally online
research, preparing to make a buying decision.
It’s estimated that 70% of these ‘cold’ leads will
eventually buy a related product or service.*
To ignore these leads is a great waste of
opportunity, since they are actively looking for
a solution!
* Source InTouch
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Continual Cold Calling Will Drive Them Away
Yet, in desperation, some sales people continue to relentlessly pursue early sales opportunities. This reduces the chance of winning a deal. Buyers report that persistently pushy sales behavior is one of the biggest factors in making them not engage with a seller.
From a CIO’s point of view, an unsolicited cold call tops the list of things that annoy them.
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There has to be a better way!
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Lead Nurturing and Lead Progression
Lead Nurturing is the process of providing the
right content at the right time based on the
stage in the buying process.
Lead Progression is the act of persuading
buyers to take next steps to move forward in
their buying journey. It’s the art of creating
pipeline momentum.
For more information on this: click here
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In the early stage of the buying cycle, prospects are looking to educate themselves on products
and services — they are not yet ready to be sold to. Unfortunately, most marketing materials are
too sales oriented and company centric and often ignored by potential buyers.
Research shows that sharing information that is unnecessary or not relevant can reduce your
chance of winning a deal by 45%!1
1 Marketing Sherpa
Identify Business
Need
Interest
Explore General &
Informational
Education
Solution Specific
Proof of Concept
Reference Stories,
Testimonials
ExploreVendor
The Right Content at the Right Time
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Identify Business
Need
Interest
Stage 1: Business Need – At this stage, buyers are struggling
with issues or challenges that impact their ability to meet
business goals and objectives. They may have experienced
problems for some time, or it’s possible that a compelling
event has led to a search for a new solution.
Either way, your buyers are seeking general and educational
information – they want to know what others are doing to
solve the problems they face. But all too often we see
companies hurl white papers or customer reference stories at
buyers during this early phase. This can confuse rather than
enlighten the buyer.
The buyer is looking for is information on what others
(preferably with a similar job title, in a similar sized company,
and in an relevant industry sector) are doing to solve these
problems.
At this point information needs to be geared toward industry
trends, business issues and the need to look at alternative
solutions.
The Right Content at the Right Time
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Explore &
Educate
Education
Stage 2: Explore and Educate – The prospect is now actively
interested in educating himself about ways of initiating
change – and understanding what this change might mean
to the company.
At this point, the most effective discussion here is one
focused on the buyer’s pain points – exploring types of
solutions available. The goal is to provide information on
solutions and to get the buyer to understand the value of
making a commitment to change.
Painting realistic scenarios that demonstrate your value
proposition is appropriate and relevant at this point – but
again, this needs to be presented in an educational and fact-
based discussion.
The Right Content at the Right Time
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Solution Specific
Proof of Concept
Stage 3: Solution Specific – Now the buyer is committed to
change and is narrowing focus to a short list of solutions –
he’s starting to look at solution capabilities to understand how
specific issues and challenges can be addressed.
Bear in mind, your buyer may have to do internal selling to
get his management, direct reports or other teams on board,
so sharing information on the benefits and advantages of your
solution is important. Enabling the buyer to envision how your
solution will work for him and his company is key.
The Right Content at the Right Time
Courtesy – Ardath Albee
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The Right Content at the Right Time
Explore
Vendor
Decision
• Stage 4: Explore Vendor – At this stage, the prospect has
built a business case, has gained a level of competence about
the subject matter, and is about to make a decision.
The buyer is now looking for justification for selecting a
specific solution – he’s looking for information on ROI,
expected benefits, risk mitigation and any other factors that
might impact a successful implementation of your solution.
This is a good time to share customer success stories and
demonstrate how others have achieved success.
You need to distinguish your organization from others
providing similar solutions. Showcase your unique value
proposition. Demonstrate how your company’s assets – your
expertise, product capabilities, existing client list –
differentiates you from the others.
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Provocation to Advance the ‘Journey’
Call to action strategies and provocation points advance the buyer’s journey forward.
Here’s a list of some that we have seen used effectively:
• Specific actions, such as down load a white paper
• Topical news items (such as Wikkileaks, Economic News, Corporate reports)
that could spark interest and generate buyers’ action
• Regulatory changes and the impact they have on specific businesses
• For more information on sales provocations: click here
Identify Business
Need
Interest
Explore General &
Informational
Education
Solution Specific
Proof of Concept
Reference Stories,
Testimonials
ExploreVendor
Provocation
PointProvocation
Point
Provocation
Point
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Right Content at the Right Time
Delivering appropriate content at the right time in the buying cycle is one of the best ways
to establish yourself as a thought leader – one who stands apart from all the other sellers
on the market.
Tailoring the content you share to job position, industry and company size will also establish
you in a leadership role.
• 82% of prospects say content targeted at
their specific industry is valuable
• 67% say content targeted at their job is of
interest
• 49% say content targeted at their
company size is of interest
1 Marketing Sherpa
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Buyers Look to Buy from Someone They Trust
More than 70% of the time, trusted advisors come away with the sale!
Source: Susan Mulcahy ‘Evaluating the Cost of Sales Calls’
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Getting Started in Six Steps
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Create a Definition of a Sales-Ready Lead
1. Create a definition of a sales-ready
lead.
The definition of a sales-ready lead
will vary from organization to
organization. To be sales-ready, the
lead must be willing to meet with a
sales person or move forward in the
sales cycle.
Our research shows that leads that
are not sales-ready tend to clog and
choke the sales pipeline, diverting
selling resources away from high-
value, prospect-facing activity – and
generally inhibit sales teams from
meeting revenue targets.
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Establish a Lead Nurturing Funnel
2. Establish a lead nurturing funnel that
is separate from the sales funnel.
Have the marketing team manage
the sales funnel passing leads to
sales only when they hit the agreed
sales-ready status.
3. Move all non performing – those
not yet sales ready – into a
nurturing funnel. This will improve
the health of your sales funnel and
enable the sales team to focus on
those deals that have the greatest
chance of closing.
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Map Your Content to the Buying Stages
4. Map content to stages in the buying
journey for each of your target
buyers.
Focus on the buyer roles involved in
the purchasing decision, and for each
buyer role develop a content map.
We recommend developing a sales
frame to help with this process. More
information on sales frames can be
found by clicking here.
Imagine an electronic dialogue
conducted with the buyer at each step
of the buyer’s journey.
Don’t limit yourself to white papers
and data sheets alone – consider
engaging content pieces such as
videos, recorded webinars and
animated presentations.
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Map Your Content to the Buying Stages
5. Develop an outreach program to
nurture and progress leads.
What we have found to be effective
is building one piece of content for
each stage in the buyer’s journey –
tailored to each specific buyer role.
Each content piece is then placed
behind a landing page where
access is granted only after contact
information is given. For more on
the best way to build landing pages
check out this article.
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Track, monitor and manage your leads
6. Track, monitor and manage.
Existing tools enabling you to track
and score leads using complex
algorithms. These tools often
enable automated lead follow up
based on buyers’ reactions to your
outreach campaign.
In the programs that we run for our
clients, whether automated tools
exist or not, it is critically important
to track email open rates, click-
through rates and landing page
conversions. Contacting a prospect
within hours of them downloading a
white paper will dramatically
increase the chance of converting
that prospect to a sale by as much
as 20 times.
In a future paper we’ll be talking more
about measuring open and click through
rates and landing page conversions.
Many thanks for downloading this paper –
successful selling!
Lead Scoring image courtesy of Marketo, Inc.
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Contact Information
Thank you
Mark Lennon
650.346.9683
Dave Brown
650.291 1001