Your offering may be so good that some prospects may fall in love with it the moment they see it for the first time or hear about it for the first time. But even amongst them, only a few of them are going to buy everything they fall in love at that very moment.
Reason?
There are many reasons, but let's just say for the sake of simplicity that it's NOT the right time for them to make the purchase.
It's not just a question of whether your offering is RIGHT for them; it is ALWAYS about whether your offering is RIGHT for them RIGHT at this moment
So, one option is to just focus on people for whom your offerings AND the timing are RIGHT for them. With this option, there is only one thing that is guaranteed: you will be out of business in a short period of time. There is no business that can survive with this kind of idealistic expectations.
What is the next best option?
It is to serve those for whom the offerings and the timing are right and then focus on nurturing those for whom the offerings are RIGHT but the timing may not be right.
Note: It is important to drop prospects for whom the offerings are NOT right. By going after them, you will not only annoy them, you will also be very tired.
Lead Nurturing is a topic that has been written a lot about, but it's always worth revisiting. Here are a few things to remember as you put your lead nurturing programs in place:
1. It's always about THEM
It is tempting to send out something that will show how cool you are. For example, you opened a new office or you hired a senior executive or there or you reached some milestone such as completing 3 years of your existence. You might even issue a press release. But, unless you can make what you send out RELEVANT to your prospects, you are in trouble. Before you send out that next email or newsletter, check for WIIFT (what's in it for them) and if you don't have a good answer, it's probably not a good idea to send that message.
2. It's about EDUCATION
With the power of Google, your prospects can find whatever they want. But because there is SO MUCH of information scattered everywhere, good information that is educational AND is packaged well will always be in demand.
I know it works because we at WittyParrot have generated a ton of engaged leads with the two books we have released so far. The first book is called "Building Highly Responsive Sales Teams" and the second book is called "Sales and Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot". When you look at these eBooks, you will notice that the content is rich, the design is good and the first book could have been one that could have been sold for a fee.
In both cases, our goal was to EDUCATE and not to sell.
3. It's about SOCIAL PROOF
Stories about how others used your offerings and what benefits they derived will be interesting for prospects as long as there is some education for them buried within these stories. If the stories of social proof have no educational element, then they are reduced to marketing brochures that people are not interested in looking at.
These stories should also bring out CLEAR BENEFITS that your prospects would want to achieve as well.
4. It's about HELPING
Last but not the least, the keyword is HELP. When your intent is to serve, your actions automatically become those that are of helping nature. The nurturing lifecycle is your opportunity to showcase how much help you can provide. The more valuable your help, the more opportunities it will create for your prospects to seriously engage. In addition, always remember the golden rule - people buy from people they like. Providing valuable help along the way will go a long way to strengthen that bond so that WHEN they are ready, you will be their first choice.
If you are interested in other articles in this series so far, here they are:
A is for Alignment (title changed)