The 9 Critical Lead Nurturing Truths That Will Crush Agencies Who Don’t Have Plan

From gaining the lead, building trust, and establishing yourself as the expert in your field, all the way to closing the sale in record time, lead nurturing will change the way you do business forever. 

It is your golden opportunity to offer consistent value to your potential customers and serve them throughout their entire buying  journey. 

Lead nurturing ensures that they are not only a one time buyer, but a loyal customer and referral doorway for life. 

These nine lead nurturing truths will ensure that you are equipped to implement your own lead nurturing business strategy, and continue crushing it in sales!

1. Having leads doesn’t equal sales!

Even though 65% of businesses say that generating new leads is their biggest marketing challenge (Hubspot) and one of their top priorities, their efforts don’t always translate into business success.

The harsh reality is that only 20% of new leads will turn into sales! This means that 80% of these leads will require nurturing for additional sales opportunities.   (MarketingSherpa)

Unfortunately, over sixty percent of business to business marketers haven’t implemented any kind of lead nurturing strategy into their business yet. (MarketingSherpa)

Every business that isn’t nurturing their leads are losing a tremendous amount of sales opportunities by not understanding the power of lead nurturing.

Simply generating the leads themselves is not enough. 

2. Always be the fastest gun in the west.

When nurturing a lead, response time is absolutely crucial. People typically buy from the first person they make a connection with.

According to a study by the Harvard Business review (https://hbr.org/) that tested the response time of business to business sales teams, the average response time to a new lead was 42 hours! 

Leads are real people, and real people are busy. Which means that a slow response time will likely equal a loss of interest, and potentially forfeiting the sale to whoever responded to them the fastest. 

However, when business to business sales teams respond to a new lead within five minutes or less, they are 100 times more likely to connect with the potential lead and 21 times more likely to close a sale versus waiting even an hour! (http://www.leadresponsemanagement.org/lrm_study)

Always be “the fastest gun in the west” or someone else will. 

3. The journey from lead to sale requires trust.

One of the biggest factors that makes lead nurturing a game changing approach, is that it places the focus on building a relationship with the potential customer.

4. Make a personal connection.

Lead nurturing relies on building a relationship, and like any good relationship this means that the connection has to be strong. 

More than ever before potential buyers want to know that they can trust who they are buying from. 

They’ve heard all the lines, seen the scams, and they aren’t going to be sold on a first impression. 

Playing the long game and taking time to make a personal connection goes a long way in the process of establishing trust with a new lead. 

In application this can be as simple as avoiding overdone email blasts, and opting for more personalized emails that even start with the lead’s name. 

These personalized emails can actually result in 4-10 times the response rate when compared to email blasts according to DemandGen Report. (DemandGen Report)

5. You become the expert.

On top of building trust with potential buyers through offering value and making a personal connection, one of the biggest ways to establish trust is to become the expert.

Assuming someone knows who you are and why they should do business with you simply because they’ve landed on your homepage is foolish. 

It is your position as the business to guide and educate potential buyers throughout the lead nurturing process and establish yourself as the expert in their minds. 

Answer their questions before they even have to ask, and clearly communicate who you are and what you do. 

Provide them with all the information and assure their fears at every turn, so that when they are ready to buy they automatically see you as the expert and therefore the obvious choice!

6. Consistency is key.

Ensuring that you maintain relevant communication and consistent connection with leads plays a huge role in the lead nurturing process. 

Did you know that 81% of sales happen after seven or more interactions (techjury.net)? 

In fact, according to a genius.com study, 66% of buyers indicated that “consistent and relevant communication provided by both sales and marketing organizations” is massively influential in their decision making process. 

This is where combining the speed of response time, value enhancing content, relevant information, and accessible expertise come together to seal the deal. 

When you are showing up for your leads in all of these different areas, your buyers will have the assurance that they need to open their wallets.

7. Shorter sales cycles. 

From the initial contact to the final sale, nurtured leads have a 23% faster sales cycle (Market2Lead found ).

Which equals money in the bank 23% faster! 

Taking the time to establish an effective marketing funnel that nurtures a lead all the way from point A to Z is an incredibly valuable tool, and this statistic is evidence enough. 

Putting in the work up front will not only vastly increase conversion rates, but also increase the speed at which those leads convert into sales! 

8. Larger purchases!

That’s right! 

Not only are you more likely to convert a lead into an actual buyer through effective and intentional lead nurturing, but those leads have been found to make 47% higher purchase than non-nurtured leads (Annuitas Group).

When a buyer is given all the information they need, and has time to develop trust in your business prior to the sale, they are willing to spend more money and feel confident in doing so.

9. Success beyond the initial purchase.

While this might seem shocking, only 29% of businesses nurture their existing customers beyond the initial purchase (demandgenreport.com). 

Assuming that there is a high satisfaction rate amongst the existing customer base, this means that over 70% of businesses are overlooking a major sales tool that is already at their disposal! 

Continuing to nurture existing leads opens the door for new sales in two ways. 

1. You have successfully built trust with a customer that you now have the opportunity to educate on other services and products that your business can offer them. 
2. They become an amazing opportunity for new lead referrals. 

Whether you accomplish this through a rewards and incentive based referral program, or simply through sharing reviews, a past customer remains a wealth of new opportunities and leads. 

This can be especially true if you are continuing to offer valuable content that can be shared and passed along by your past customers through email or social media, gaining your business fresh attention and new leads.

The Bottom Line:

Now more than ever, having a lead nurturing strategy implemented in your business will be a game changer. 

Don’t continue dragging your feet in hopes that simply having leads trickling in will be enough! 

Take the time to create a plan that truly serves every potential customer you encounter (And sets you leaps and bounds ahead of your competition too!). 

Consistently show up for them with authentic value, and make that connection! 

Guide them through the sales journey. 

Build a relationship with them, become someone that they can trust, and watch the sales numbers speak for themselves! 

The return on investment is undoubtedly worth it.

If you’ve read this far, and haven’t jumped up out of your seat to start implementing these new lead nurturing principles into your business yet… What are you waiting for?