In Today’s Marketplace, The Sales Funnel Isn’t Enough.
Whether you’re a Startup with limited capital and resources, or an established company looking to boost momentum, the secret to success is threefold: (1) converting prospects into customers, (2) turning customers into loyal fans, and (3) finding more creative ways to offer new services.
But how do you do that when money is tight and customers have more choices than ever?
The Ol’ Days
Once upon a time, all businesses cared about was getting the word out to as many people as possible, and herding them through the pipeline until they closed the sale.
Once the sale was closed, they turned their attention toward a new batch of leads and repeated the process. That’s a fine strategy when competition is light and demand outweighs supply.
But today, savvy customers have way more choices than our grandparents ever did and this type of approach is bound to lead to a high churn rate. So if you want to stay in business, you better have a plan.
The Wake Up Call
More than 40% of salespeople say prospecting is the most challenging part of the sales process.
Why? Perhaps because 42% of sales reps feel they don’t have enough information before making the call. Which would explain why 85% of prospects and customers are dissatisfied with their on-phone experience. The result? It takes an average of 3 months to convert a lead to a sale. And that’s assuming the prospect is reached on the very first try.
But any rep will tell you that on average, it takes a grueling eight calls to reach a prospect. Not surprisingly, 92% of sales reps give up after the fourth call. So, what can you do?
The Importance of Nurturing
“Nurturing” is what the best businesses do to make their prospects and customers feel cared for. It’s the birthday card in the mail, the discount coupon for expressing interest in a certain item, the friendly reminder for that ever-important check-up, the free goodie for your anniversary. In other words, it’s “staying in touch.”
The beauty of “Nurturing” is that it can be applied to anyone, regardless of where they are in their buyer’s journey, from Cold lead to Opportunity, to long-time Customer.
The goal is simple: get to know your prospect from day one and never stop. The more you get to know them, the better service you can provide. The moment you stop, they’ll look elsewhere.
Sound difficult? It isn’t. The secret is business intelligence automation.
With pre-built templates, automated reminders and pre-scheduled delivery, your sales team will save hours each day nurturing one set of leads while pursuing another. Care to see how it’s done?
FREE DYL Webcast: How to Turn Your Prospects into Customers and Your Customers into Fans
We recently released this free Webcast to show you the whys and hows of lead nurturing. Enjoy!
Watch the FREE Webcast Now
- To see the full webcast, click here: DYL Workflows
