These touch points are opportunities to prepare leads for the final stage in the buying journey, the point of decision-making. The six to eight touches it takes to qualify a lead are crucial components of the lead nurturing process, allowing marketing the opportunity to educate and inform prospects as they move through each stage in the buying journey. There are dozens of statistics that show time and time again that when the leads passed to sales are qualified, they are far more likely to convert. Here’s the thing: Your sales team doesn’t have the time to spend nurturing leads who aren’t yet ready to make a buying decision, nor are they typically equipped with the resources and assets with which to do so. Qualified leads are more likely to convert to buyers Gathering this information takes multiple, positive interactions where marketing representatives have the opportunity to establish trust and rapport, setting the stage for the sales team to close the deal at the appropriate time. What is the prospect looking for? How soon does the prospect plan to make a buying decision? What are the budgetary requirements? Is the contact the individual with decision-making authority? These questions must all be answered, in most cases, to deem a lead sales-ready, and it’s not information that’s easily obtained via a simple web form. As a result, leads which could have become sales-ready with the proper nurturing at multiple touch points are lost. When marketing passes on leads that are not yet at the point of purchase, sales spends valuable time and information trying to convert leads who are just not yet ready to make a buying decision. It’s vitally important for sales to optimize the use of these limited resources with the most qualified leads who are most likely to convert to buyers. Sales resources are limited and must be optimizedĬompared to marketing resources, sales resources and assets are often limited, even scarce. Often, these interactions are not in-depth enough to provide the information necessary to qualify a lead. At the early stages in the buyer’s journey, consumers are often merely gathering information and building awareness about your products and services. It often takes several touches for a consumer to make the choice to request information, and even more for marketing to gather the information needed to determine if a lead is ready to be passed to sales. Without understanding what this information means for your company, and having the appropriate number of interactions with prospects to determine sales-readiness. But the myriad of paths to purchase make it increasingly challenging to effectively qualify leads as sales-ready.Īccording to the Online Marketing Institute, one reason it takes a multitude of touches to generate a sales-ready lead is the sheer amount of information required to deem a lead sales-ready: Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeframe (BANT). What’s more, when leads are passed from marketing to sales, they’re expected to be “sales-ready,” or at the decision-making stage in the buying journey. Others will visit your website, read your blog, and evaluate your competition before engaging with your company.Ī lot of information is needed to qualify a lead as “sales-ready” Some may read online reviews before engaging with your marketing team or filling out an online request for more information. Some may have discovered your company on the social web, while others learned of your products or services through word-of-mouth recommendations. They’re not even being exposed to the same information about your brand from the same sources. That’s why the buyer’s journey may differ from one consumer to the next they’re not all listening to the same radio spots to learn about your company. Today’s consumers are also increasingly immune to traditional advertising and sales methodologies, meaning they conduct more independent research and take more convincing before they’re sold on making a purchase. Consumers are immune to traditional advertising and marketing strategies
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