Well done! You generated 1000 MQLs this quarter… now what? They must be nurtured!
The majority of the time, a trade show delegate, webinar attendee or whitepaper reader is not ready to buy right now. While they may look like an ideal customer firmographically, sadly not all CTOs of Financial enterprises want or need your products right now.
The reality is, these prospects are interested in learning more. By attending a tech expo or downloading a tech whitepaper, they have shown intent to learn not intent to purchase. So why do tech brands continue to schedule sales calls at the beginning of their nurture process? Instead, let’s give the prospect what we know they actually want: knowledge.
By sending educational content (thought leadership, industry analyses, product breakdowns, independent reports) during your nurture process, the prospect will see your brand (and reps) as industry experts and figureheads of knowledge. It is this process that garners trust and positions your brand as a suitable supplier when considering your products/services. The reverse is true for premature sales calls.
Research shows that of all buyer personas, IT decision makers are the least receptive to early-stage sales calls. Instead, they prefer to consume lots of content (17 pieces on average), read tech-specific forums and ask for peer-to-peer recommendations when making a complex B2B purchase.
Results indicate that tech brands, with a well-planned content matrix, convert significantly more leads when adopting “the educator” approach over “the salesman” approach.
Maximise the effectiveness of your lead generation efforts and increase ROI by tweaking your nurture strategy. In the beginning of your nurture process:
- Call less, email more;
- Sell less, educate more;
- First earn trust, then earn business.
The customers will buy when they are ready. Until then, have fun building the relationship.
I’m Ryan Young, Managing Director at My Outreach, a lead generation company helping B2B tech marketers to generate demand and grow their customer base. We use a hyper-modern approach to lead generation utilising the latest technology available to the industry. If you need support with your demand gen goals, get in touch today and I’ll be happy to talk with you directly.
