Lead Nurturing – Accelerating the Sales Cycle

Research has shown that up to 80% of prospects are not ready to purchase when they first interact with a company, which makes lead nurturing a vital part of the Lead Management Framework.

And the benefits are substantial as evidenced by the following:

• Deals that closed from nurtured leads received a 47% higher order value than deals that closed on non-nurtured leads1
• Nurture emails have a 2x higher open rate than one-off emails2
• Companies improve win rates on nurtured deals by as much as 20%3

While most first time prospects are not ready to buy at the initial contact, they will most likely buy your product or service in the relative near future from your company or a competitor. This being the case, the best thing an organization can do is to build a relationship with the buyer, increasing the likelihood of a sale when the buyer is at the point of purchase. These “not sales ready” leads are NOT marketing qualified (MQL’s). However, they are good leads qualified for long-term nurturing.

Lead Nurture at Every Stage of the Buying Cycle

The goal of lead nurturing is to build one-to-one relationships with buyers. So, it’s important to maintain conversations through every stage of the customer lifecycle. (See Figure B)

Figure B – The Buying Cycle

Lead nurturing will not only improve your lead conversion and sales rates, but will also improve your customer relationships. By nurturing customers after a sale, B2B companies will help first-time buyers through potential buyer’s remorse, improve retention, and build loyalty with long-term customers.