How Important Is Prospect Cultivation To You?
A lead follow-up plan is only as good as it’s ability to convert prospects to actual clients. That’s why any business without strong prospect cultivation techniques isn’t likely to go far. Sure they may be able to generate tons of leads for themselves, but really, what’s the point if they can’t convert them to clients?
Prospect cultivation isn’t rocket science. It really comes down to treating your leads the way you would want to be treated. It means not being too pushy and aggressive. It means contacting them regularly (but not too often!) until they’re ready to buy. It’s important to build a relationship and become the trusted expert of your industry they turn to by providing the information they may need.
If you were a real estate agent with seller leads, you probably wouldn’t be calling them once a month just to ask to list their home. Instead, keeping good prospect cultivation techniques inside, you add them to your follow-up campaign. This involves sending them weekly emails with market updates, open house tips, home value tips and an occasional CMA on their home.
The agent comes across more as a helpful expert than a pushy salesperson - THAT is what prospect cultivation is about. You build up trust and a relationship with each lead. Every company should have a follow-up plan for each type of lead they have (prospective client, past customer, etc) and fine-tune that plan down to a science.
The only complication that may come with prospect cultivation is the NUMBER of leads many companies have to follow up with. Many companies deal with literally thousands of new leads per week. Sales people can contact these people by phone, but how do you know when you should call? What you should say?
That’s where an automated follow-up system comes in. There are plenty of programs available called customer relationship management (CRMs) and contact management systems (CMS) that can automate much of the follow up a sales force must do. These programs can take prospect cultivation to a whole new level.
Most CRM/CMS’s provide email campaigns - a series of pre-written emails that go out weekly or bi-weekly over a period of time on different topics the lead may be interested in. Many of these campaigns will also schedule in phone calls once or twice a month to the lead as monthly ‘touch points’ to ensure the lead receives the information. Consistent and persistent follow-up is TRUE prospect cultivation.
A CRM provides many other features as well, and many can be built to a company’s specifications depending on what features are most important to their particular plan of follow-up. The surprising fact is most companies today are totally unaware of what a CRM system is, and just how much time and money it can save them on follow-up. All in all, strong prospect cultivation tactics is one aspect of marketing many companies miss the mark on.
Tags: Content Developer And Search Engine Optimization Specialist, Prospect Cultivation
One Response to “How Important Is Prospect Cultivation To You?”
By James W. OBermayer on Mar 21, 2008 | Reply
CRM systems and marketing automation systems are all designed to do what salespeople are supposed to do which is record sales activities, track follow-up and prove the value of the money spent on marketing. Research has shown that 45% of all inquiries turn into a sale for someone. With the average company only following up 10-25% of these inquiries, the company with the best follow-up system wins. CRM and Marketing automation systems help. Last year we formed the Sales Lead Management Association to help companies to put in place best practices for lead management. http://www.salesleadmgmtassn.com Thank you Ashley for such a good article.