Analysis of prospect data is key to creating follow-up strategies and tactics that maximize the return from each sales lead. 

Today, most prospective buyers begin their home search on the internet because it is the best portal for specific home, project, and general market information.  Use of the web to gather information and email to correspond with sales representatives have the added benefit to consumers of buffering direct contact with sales representatives.  Consumers are generally more comfortable working with a sales representative after they have decided they are interested in the project and are ready to seek more detailed information.  Sure, there are still spontaneous shoppers who drop-in to sales centers or call the sales center for information.  But, the trend is clear, most serious buyers are doing their research and comparing properties before they make direct contact with project sales representatives.  Recognition of this buyer trend requires that sales and marketing place a high importance on nurturing buyers through a series of strategic communications that establish value and develop buyer trust in the project and its sales representatives.

Data-mining and lead incubation are part science and part art.  Mining the database to identify potential qualified prospects that are systematically nurtured requires adherence to established protocols.  Data collection begins with tracking website browser activities of individual visitors and the aggregate of all visitors; time spent on the website, viewing specific pages, floor plans, amenities and any other measurable browser activities.   In addition, data can also be collected by tracking response patterns from registered prospects to broadcast database communications.  Tracking response patterns can identify the information or promotional messages that are most effective.  Finally, more detailed and personal data is collected through the sales team’s correspondence with prospects via email, phone or site visits.  The aggregation of all data sources and continual analysis, which is translated into user friendly reports, will lead to new insights into prospect tendencies that become catalysts to creative thought and more relevant prospect communications.

Often the art of sales is thought of as an individual sales person interacting with and influencing another person.  The art of nurturing buyers (lead incubation) is the collaborative effort of the development team, sales, and marketing influencing many prospects with a multi-dimensional communications strategy.  Prospects receive messages from different team members in various formats.  The array of different forms of buyer communication must be timely, relevant, and meaningful to prospective buyers to be effective.

Lead nurturing begins on the website.  The marketing message must resonate with prospective buyers and the quality of content needs to reward them for the time spent on the website; when both of these objectives are accomplished the process of establishing value and credibility has begun.  Periodic updates to the website, broadcast email (HTML) to targeted registrant segments, and special events are a few tactical methods that continue the nurturing of process.  The objective of each broad based tactic should always be designed to prompt a prospect inquiry to the sales team and thereby provide another opportunity to move a prospect through the sales process.  In addition to communications that emanate from the marketing team, the site sales representatives also systematically communicate with prospects through personalized email, phone calls, and various outreach activities.  The opportunity to convert prospect interest to sales is optimized when all channels of buyer communications are managed through a Customer Relationship Management system (CRM).

CRM can be defined as a broad term that covers concepts used by companies to manage their relationship with customers including capture, storage and analysis of customer information.  CRM systems used in residential project marketing are either individual software installations with synchronizing capabilities or a web-application, the latter of which is broadly considered the preferred technology solution.  Like any technology used to support the project, it is important that the CRM solution fit the project requirements, which requires that a person highly experienced with CRM implementation be the lead in the identification of the CRM solution.

The project team will rely on data collected in the CRM system, but the sales team will be responsible to enter most of the data and will be the heaviest users of the application.  It is therefore very important that the entire sales team is properly trained and receive ongoing support during the initial learning curve.  The sales team will also need hands-on guidance and oversight to ensure that CRM is used to its full potential and that data entry consistently follows protocol. 

Mining the project registrant database and the lead incubation process require a well-planned communications strategy that is effectively implemented.  The developer will realize the maximum return on the dollars spent to create awareness and generate interest in the project by allocating sales and marketing time and resources to the nurturing of leads into qualified prospects.  Following a program to optimize every lead to its highest potential will result in achieving maximum sales velocity with the lowest possible promotional costs.

Published on May 15, 2007

“Lead nurturing” is commonly referred to in marketing publications and blogs, and frequently discussed at B2B marketing events. Defined as “a relationship-building approach utilizing multiple media to provide relevant information tailored to prospects while engaging in an ongoing dialog until qualified prospects are ’sales ready,’” lead nurturing has become an integral component of an overall marketing strategy.

Though there is an ever-growing incentive to implement an effective lead-nurturing strategy with business partners and prospects, determining which specific tactics to use can prove challenging.

Listening to industry experts can be confusing and, in many cases, inadequate. Recently, I had the opportunity to listen to one of the industry’s best-known speakers explain the lead-nurturing tactics that he has implemented for one of his clients. He defined lead nurturing and its benefits perfectly. However, as he described his specific tactics, it became evident that he was inappropriately grouping all prospects into one “nurturing funnel” and treating all prospects in the exact same manner.

For instance, he suggested calling all the prospects initially to tele-qualify them (a good first step!), but then he suggested putting all qualified prospects on the exact same schedule to receive the same emails monthly, calls quarterly, etc.

Part of the definition of “lead nurturing” is to “provide relevant information tailored to the prospect.” Assuming that prospects have unique needs, priorities, and timeframes, scheduling batch communications is far from ideal.

For the past 15 years, I’ve worked in the marketing services industry. Part of my job entails consulting with companies about their marketing-lead strategies. Increasingly, it seems that companies are starving for information on how to implement successful lead-nurturing tactics.

One such company asked for my opinion on its internal group’s lead-nurturing strategy. Its strategy involved using the phone (no additional media) to call each prospect every nine months to check in on the prospect’s progress. Since lead nurturing should include multiple media and the contact strategy should be customized based on the prospect’s situation, calling everyone in the same time intervals typically does not produce the best results.

Most marketing executives understand that lead nurturing is an effective way to cultivate prospect relationships and ultimately drive sales. Unfortunately, experts in the field have published very little in the way of practical suggestions for implementing and improving a lead nurturing strategy.

To help fill this knowledge gap, I have developed a list of six real-world tactics designed to help make sense of the otherwise daunting task of lead nurturing.

Useful tactic #1: Find out what is important to your prospects.

Call and ask pointed questions. Doing so will provide the information necessary to appropriately categorize each prospect. For instance, if you sell storage solutions, you should ask your prospects to explain their top storage environment challenges (answers may include security, reliability, scalability, etc).

Asking meaningful profiling questions will allow you to better understand prospects and categorize each, in order to move forward with a relevant nurturing strategy.

Useful tactic #2: Develop a marketing matrix based on key categories and align your existing content.

For instance, using the storage example noted above, build a matrix showing each major storage challenge and the content that you have that illustrates how your company can solve or assist in meeting the challenge. Look at your content, including product briefs, case studies, whitepapers, on-demand webinars, etc., and organize everything within the matrix.

Also, look at third-party content, which is a great way to add to your nurturing strategy at little or no expense.

 Useful tactic #3: Contact your prospect at the opportune time.

When determining the frequency of contact, consider four important items:

• 1. Always look for direction from your prospect (e.g., “please call me back in two weeks”).
• 2. When appropriate, recommend your next contact based on the buying stage of the prospect (e.g., “based on what you’re telling me, I think it makes sense to contact you again in April”).
• 3. Consider the receptiveness of each of your prospects. If they are hungry for information, shorten the intervals between communications.
• 4. Finally, look for triggering events. For instance, you can use a service such as Hoovers to receive alerts when your top prospects are in the news. Certain newsworthy events, such as a major acquisition, may serve as an opportune time for you to contact your prospect.

Useful tactic #4: Do not spend time and money creating graphic-rich HTML emails.

A nurturing strategy is based on a relationship-building approach. Therefore, the best way to integrate email is to develop plain-text email templates that can be quickly customized and sent from your nurturing agent to the appropriate prospects.

It is important that your emails be perceived as relevant one-to-one communications and not come across as mass-marketing or advertising pieces.

Useful tactic #5: Pay attention to your email bounce-backs.

A bounce-back may mean that one of your key prospects has left the company. Turnover can mean a change in priorities, new projects, and new challenges. You should react to a bounce-back with a telephone call to check the status of your nurtured account.

Useful tactic #6: Categorize your prospects.

Create three major groups so you can measure and monitor your prospects’ movement within your nurturing funnel:

• 1. Passive prospects are those who are qualified to buy your products/services but do not have a defined need.
• 2. Active prospects are those who are qualified and have a potential or defined need.
• 3. Sales-ready prospects are those who meet the definition of a lead for your sales team.

The goal of your nurturing strategy is to move prospects from passive to active to sales-ready.

* * *

These are just a handful of the most important tactics necessary for success. As you continue to refine your lead nurturing process, be sure monitor your progress by asking yourself two simple questions:

• 1. Are we providing relevant information with each communication?
• 2. Are we successfully moving prospects through the sales funnel?

If you answer “yes” to both of these questions, you are on your way to effectively incorporating lead nurturing into your overall marketing strategy.

Kathy Rizzois vice-president of marketing for TeleNet Marketing Solutions (www.telenetmarketing.com), which she cofounded in 1999.