Marketers must stop viewing lead generation and lead nurturing as a series of campaigns.
It’s really a dialogue – a conversation. We must remember that companies don’t buy. People do.
Lead generation starts the dialog with the right people within the right companies to find more immediate opportunities. Lead nurturing keeps the conversation going with relevant and meaningful personal touches regardless of their timing to buy.
In today’s commoditized business climate, the one thing that is setting companies with a complex sale apart is how well their sales people create and develop relationships. Why? Economic buyers know, “How you sell me is how you will serve me.”
Roughly 70% of final customer brand image and preference are determined through direct contact with a sales person.
Yet today’s economic buyers increasingly avoid talking to sales people if at all possible. They simply don’t have time or trust sales people as much, and they don’t want to be sold, period.
Readily available information from the internet and other sources delay the need and value of face-to-face contact until later in the buying process. And at that point the sales person must be recognized as a trusted advisor to be successful.
A recent study found that sales people who came to be regarded as trusted advisors are 69% more likely to come away with a sale. I wrote an article a while back on how to develop a lead nurturing program which will do just that.
Chris Baggott’s Email Best Practices Blog has a great post that talks about the science of humanizing your communications.
A study by Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics, reports that recognition benefits go back to hunter gatherer societies of more than 10,000 years ago. We are hardwired to pay attention to those that are familiar.
Humans unconsciously feel that people we see frequently are our friends (which explain celebrity endorsements). Kanazawa says: “It makes us more susceptible to product messages, because we’re designed to trust our friends.”
The Science of the “From” Side
Chris points out an article by Business 2.0 writer, Thomas Mucha too:
Why The Caveman Loves The Pitchman
Brian Carroll is the CEO of InTouch Inc. InTouch is a 50-person company focused on delivering effective lead generation solutions for “the complex sale.”
Brian authors the very interesting B2B Lead Generation Blog which focuses on B2B lead generation, sales leads, and marketing for the complex sale.
