Lead nurturing is a prelude to sales success, if you don’t care about it, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Here’s why.
Thomas Edison said, "our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."
Lead nurturing is a process that allows you to build relationships with leads who are not yet ready to buy. These leads are opportunities waiting to happen, and they became a lead for a reason - they wanted something from you - so it’s more than likely they’ll want to buy your product or service at some stage... And you want to be the brand that’s top of mind when they do.
But you probably think that as a salesperson, lead nurturing isn’t something you need to care about. That’s not the case.
The nature of how people buy has changed and in the world of sales, staying top of mind can mean the difference between a customer and a dead lead. So you need to be working with your marketing team to reach your full potential.
Here are six reasons you should care about lead nurturing:
1. It frees up your time
As a salesperson, you know when a lead needs a little bit of love before they buy. But you should be focused on selling now, not nurturing to sell later. Having a solid lead nurturing plan allows you to give your marketing team your insights into the lead, and they will use their knowledge of campaigns and content to keep your company top of mind with the lead. This will save time and resources, giving you more time to sell now.
2. It increases sales productivity
Because you’re not focusing your time and efforts on leads that aren’t going to buy, you have more time to spend selling and building a relationship with prospects and customers. Lead nurturing also ensures that you’re only talking to warm leads, which reduces admin and drives a productive sales process.
3. It maximises the value of leads
It doesn’t matter how many leads you get, 1000 or 10 a month, you don’t want to let any go to waste. With lead nurturing, you can track leads through every stage of the buyer’s journey and keep your brand in front of them every step of the way. And as a result, leads will start coming to you, guaranteeing you’re getting more valuable leads.
4. It can shorten your sales cycle
It may sound like we’re just blowing smoke with this one but studies have shown that nurtured leads have a 23% shorter sales cycle. It’s all about the collaboration. Marketing nurtures leads, giving them more info about how and why your product or service is what they need, at each stage of their buyer’s journey. Which means they come to you further down the sales process than normal, ready to buy.
5. It helps increase sales
This ties back to our previous point, a nurtured lead comes to you ready to buy. Which means that you’re selling more. Plus, nurtured leads (and customers) are more likely to advocate for your brand, which brings in more potential customers. In fact, a 2014 report by DemandGen showed that 67% of B2B companies say they see at least a 10% increase in sales opportunities through lead nurturing, with 15% seeing opportunities increase by 30% or more.
6. It opens up opportunities for up and cross-selling
Lead nurturing isn’t just important for new leads, it’s also something you should be doing with customers. Keeping your customers educated on your products and services opens up opportunities for you to up and cross-sell to them. Remember, it’s easier to retain and upsell to an existing client than finding a new one. A Market2Lead study found that nurtured leads have a 9% higher average deal size, proving that you’ll not only increase the number of sales but the size of sales using lead nurturing.
So, isn’t it time you started caring about the success of your company’s lead nurturing efforts? A knowledgeable inbound agency (who understands the benefits of the data you can get from a tool like Hubspot) can transform your business - not only by making lead nurturing easier, but by tracking, analysing, and communicating with your leads.
Ready to give it a try? Get in touch, 
today!
