Lead Nurturing for Measurable Success (Sales!)

If you've read our blog before you'll know that I'm a proponent of customer-centric messaging.

Today, I find myself in the midst of my own customer-centric messaging project as it applies to a new client. The manufacturer is based in Shanghai and establishing an office in Jersey. We're tapped to establish their U.S. brand.

So what. What does MY business development have to do with YOUR marketing needs?

Just this: The value of understanding and aligning your messages and value proposition to the true needs of the prospect cannot be overstated. Company/customer alignment will make a measurable difference in sales. By measurable I mean you make the sale or you don't.

Many companies understand the value that their prospects and customers are seeking and effectively communicate these benefits throughout their marketing communications. Many of these same marketers still find themselves asking not for more leads but for better conversion numbers.

Where's the opportunity for success? In mapping, analyzing and improving the prospect experience. Then in identifying ways to personalize the conversation and provide customer-centric value messages throughout the chain of communication. This can be done for customer retention initiatives as well of course. It simply involves reviewing a different set of communication methods with different objectives in mind. (upsell and cross sell)

As I head into my meeting on Monday, I'll be thinking about:
-- Based on where we are in the buying stage, what do they expect to hear from me in terms of my value and offering?
-- What are the individual motivators for the parties at the table? For example, at least one will be concerned with "mianzi," (saving face) and will be responsible for the decision to work with my Agency.
-- Have I accurately assessed what it is that they value in my service offering? If so, am I prepared to communicate my value in their terms, so they experience alignment that leads them to be fully comfortable with our relationship.
-- What next step can I anticipate? What will each person need in terms of personalized and value-driven communications at that next stage?

This is lead nurturing = Taking the time to understand the buyer's role, crafting communication to align with his or her needs, selecting communications methods that are appropriate based on their preferences and where they are in the buying stage.

Whether you manufacture heat pumps or are a politician the lead nurturing concept can be applied and used to increase conversions. Ultimately, it can be used to increase the lifetime value of a customer.

Don't wait to review your communications process, identify gaps and ways in which you can personalize the conversation. Even if you can only implement a portion of the improvements identified, you'll be on your way to increasing conversions or customer lifetime value.

Now Why Don't He Write? (Or, Where are all my leads?)

As a marketer of a product or service have you ever had that thought with respect to your prospects (or customers)?

"We have a high-quality, value-added fill in the blank. We're marketing it. Why don’t we have more business?"

There could be lots of reasons. Maybe your competitor has a better offering. Maybe you aren’t marketing in the right places (where your prospect is seeking your product). Maybe you aren’t using the right messages (we often find this to be the case). Maybe it’s a combination.

Even if your marketing efforts are working, it’s likely that you have sales goals to reach and that “someone from above” is asking you to improve performance.

So how are you going to improve marketing's performance to increase sales, improve customer retention, drive new customer acquisition (or another top-level objective).

Some thoughts:

• Scan and evaluate your competitors. In addition to considering their tactical execution, what relationship are they attempting to develop with your customers and prospects? Marketing messages and content can be as revealing as tactical selections.
• Consider your call (or calls) to action. Is it compelling from the prospect's point of view? Is it role specific? Does it promise something of value?
• Review your metrics. It's possible you aren't reviewing the right metrics. Customers may be responding but not in the way that you anticipated.
• Prospects are responding. You just don't know about it. It's an ugly truth to uncover, but a worthy one in the end: Are leads coming into to your company via a selected mechanism (phone, web, etc.) but not being properly parsed to the correct internal respondent? There may also be a disconnect between internal departments. Either way, you can't measure and improve upon what you don't know about.
• There is a serious disconnect between sales and marketing. This can be an issue of message being out of synch, lack of timing/orchestration between the two departments or something -- anything else -- that represents disparity between these two departments. Whatever the issue the result can be damaging: dissonance between sales and marketing can confuse prospects and prevent them from responding to your offer.

There are countless ways to improve the performance of your marketing program. We've offered just a few for consideration.

If the marketing strategy you've deployed in the past is not delivering the results you're expected to deliver, by all means don't replicate what you're doing! Before 2011 begins, re-visit, re-think and re-set your strategy so you can deliver improved -- and measurable -- results.