A recent MarketingSherpa study found that only a small percentage of the leads you generate are likely to be “sales ready” – especially during tough economic times. So why do we simply send leads to a dealer or sales rep relying exclusively on them to incubate un-sold prospects?
Sending a lead that is not yet “sales ready” to dealers or sales reps de-values the lead in the mind of the recipient. When the prospect does not buy after initial contact, the sales rep will often allow the lead to drift off into the abyss. This lead abandonment wastes our marketing dollars and weakens our advertising effectiveness, profits, and ROI.
An incubator was designed to maintain favorable conditions promoting growth and development. The sales and marketing departments must work closely together to create an incubator that develops these un-sold prospects into sales. By delivering timely, highly relevant, and personalized communications, the marketing department can gently pull prospects through the buying cycle before re-inserting them into the sales process.
Research shows that companies who excel at lead nurturing:
- Decrease the percentage of leads ignored by sales from as high as 80% to as low as 25%
- Raise sales conversion rates by 7%
- Reduce “no decisions” by 6%
- Have 9% more of their Sales Reps making quota
- Reduce new Sales Rep ramp-up time by 10%
In addition, anecdotal evidence suggests that prospects that are nurtured end up buying more, require less discounting, and have shorter sales cycles than customers who made a purchase but were not nurtured.
What are you doing today to incubate your un-sold prospects into future sales? Want help designing and executing effective lead nurturing strategies? Call 888.836.8567 or contact us by clicking here to develop a comprehensive lead generation, lead capture, and lead nurturing strategy.
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