Fail to nurture leads and money will slip away (Photo by Brooks Elliot)
Here’s the scenario: You have a great conversation with a prospect, you uncover needs and know your services can help. They’re the right size firm, and you’re talking to the decision maker. But the prospect is not looking to do anything right away. Despite your efforts to move your project up the priority list, there are too many things in front of it. You know eventually the need will get so bad they have to address it, it’s just not going to happen right now. It’s a long-term lead.
This is a scenario we all can relate to. In our lead generation research we found that only 25% of leads are “sales ready.” That means that the other 75% are either not qualified or require further nurturing.
In my experience, professional services firms are inherently bad at staying in front of and top of mind with these long-term leads, and they leave great opportunities for future revenue on the table. I often hear:
“We’re resource constrained and we don’t have the time to develop the follow-up required.”
“I’m great at starting the relationship, but it is tough to keep the momentum going when the sales process drags on.”
“I don’t want to be pushy by following up too often and asking, ‘Are you ready yet?’”
You can create a consistent follow-up touch plan, and it doesn’t have to be that hard (or expensive).
Here’s a system you can put in place and put on auto-pilot while you focus on client delivery, sales, and firm management.
1. Send a monthly e-newsletter. Add all clients, leads, referral sources, anyone you meet at conferences, etc. to your newsletter list. Whether you have five contacts, 500, or 50,000, sending a newsletter keeps you top of mind and allows you to demonstrate your knowledge by sharing expert insights, tips, and stories of how you’ve helped other clients. (Follow these email newsletter tips.)
With all the different technologies out there (Constant Contact, iContact, and MailChimp to name a few), sending a professionally designed email newsletter has never been easier or more economical.
2. Call leads quarterly. Make a point to call all of your long-term leads on a quarterly basis (at least). You never know when their priorities might shift. Staying in touch, one-to-one, on a regular basis allows you to strengthen the relationship and probe to see if there’s been a change in the prospect’s organization. Remember, half of business development success is timing.
3. Send a direct mail piece quarterly. Reaching out to long-term leads in multiple ways will give you a better chance of breaking through the noise. Direct mail letters do work, as do hand-written notes. If you see an article that might be of interest to a prospect, send it to them along with a hand-written note. This can be very powerful. If you write a new white paper, send prospects a letter letting them know it is available to download on your website.
4. Connect on social media sites. When it comes to social media, at the very least you should be on LinkedIn. Look to connect with your prospects here. Become an active participant by answering questions and posting updates. Watch what your prospects are doing and whom they connect with. You can learn a lot about them simply by following their updates.
Twitter is another great tool to connect with prospects. Simply by following them you’ll start to get a sense of what’s important to them. You can build the relationship by commenting on something they’ve posted. In turn, prospects can get a sense that you are indeed an industry expert by following you back and seeing that you are active participant.
5. Start a blog and post a couple of times a month. A blog can be a very powerful lead nurturing (and lead generation) tool. It provides you with the fuel (content) for your newsletters, your social media updates, and the direct mail pieces. Each touch leads the prospect back to the blog. It allows you to build a pool of thought leadership that you can use to keep prospects warm and excited about your services and more importantly you. Not to mention that search engines index all of the content on your blog, which makes it easier for those searching for your type of services online to find you.
And did I mention that setting up a blog does not have to be time consuming or expensive. I’m a big fan of WordPress (this blog uses the Thesis Theme on WordPress), and there are plenty of designers who will design and set up a straightforward site for you for short money.
The Devil is in the Details
I know what you’re thinking, “This all sounds well and good, but there’s no way I can get all of this done.”
Fooey. Take one weekend and map it out (I’m a whiteboard person). You’ll see it’s not as overwhelming as you think, and you can get help setting up. Assign someone at your firm to help manage the technology and process or hire a virtual assistant.
Nurturing leads will pay off in the long run. It requires an up-front investment in time, but once you have the pieces in place you can essentially put it on auto-pilot. Many of the tasks, such as putting together and sending out the newsletter, editing and publishing the posts on your blog, and sending out the direct mail letters, you can hand off to someone else.
It doesn’t have to be that hard; it just takes a bit of forward thinking and planning. With a lead nurturing plan in place, you’ll surely win more than your fair share of those long-term leads.
