While at the Eloqua Experience conference this past week, I had a chance to pick up a copy of the Lead Generation guide by B2B magazine. In the issue, I found an intriguing article. It was on lead recycling... Since this is right up my ally, it was of particular interest to me. "Lead Recycling Means Nothing Wasted."It's only natural that anything on nurturing aged leads tips my interest. One of the biggest challenges I face as a "lead recylcer" is the lead quality issue. Since we are B2C house, our sales team often believes that leads previously dispositioned as "not interested" or "no-money" are really dead leads, unworthy of even the worst sales reps attention. This causes me to spend alot of my time educating the sales team with facts such as our conversion metrics, inbound opportunity and other industry information such as this.
When I returned, I immediately PDF'd the article and sent it to key sales and marketing stake-holders in our organization. No comments back yet, I'll let you know how that goes...
The article is pretty straight-forward really focusing on the fact that "aged-unconverted prospects are often more closer to purchasing than new leads". I'd like to say that again... "aged-unconverted prospects are closer to purchasing than new leads".
With the use Google and social networking communities, our consumers are more educated than ever. The sale is less emotional, more informed. Business consumers are actually less likely to convert on the first attempt than ever before.
One difference between our consumer marketing and the B2B space... I've found that 80% of all consumer buyers who purchase on the first attempt, always purchase within the first four weeks. We have a short sales cycle. If you keep in mind that less than 5% will even convert, that means there is a large opportunity with aged-unconverted prospects.
Studies have proven that 80% of those who don't purchase, will end up buying a product in that space within 18 months. The question becomes, will they purchase from you...or your competitors? If you have a one year lead nurturing program, you can significantly increase your conversion on those initial leads generated. Think about it, your lead generation dollars are already spent, the more you can convert from those, the better your front-end ROI. Unless your goal is to generate interest in your space, and provide buyers for your competition...
If you're not nurturing your leads, you should start immediately. If you're not sure where to start, just do what you can to get something going. With platforms such as Eloqua, and Insidesales.com you can have some significant wins without a huge commitment.
$$ Go Green $$
The article is pretty straight-forward really focusing on the fact that "aged-unconverted prospects are often more closer to purchasing than new leads". I'd like to say that again... "aged-unconverted prospects are closer to purchasing than new leads".
With the use Google and social networking communities, our consumers are more educated than ever. The sale is less emotional, more informed. Business consumers are actually less likely to convert on the first attempt than ever before.
One difference between our consumer marketing and the B2B space... I've found that 80% of all consumer buyers who purchase on the first attempt, always purchase within the first four weeks. We have a short sales cycle. If you keep in mind that less than 5% will even convert, that means there is a large opportunity with aged-unconverted prospects.
Studies have proven that 80% of those who don't purchase, will end up buying a product in that space within 18 months. The question becomes, will they purchase from you...or your competitors? If you have a one year lead nurturing program, you can significantly increase your conversion on those initial leads generated. Think about it, your lead generation dollars are already spent, the more you can convert from those, the better your front-end ROI. Unless your goal is to generate interest in your space, and provide buyers for your competition...
If you're not nurturing your leads, you should start immediately. If you're not sure where to start, just do what you can to get something going. With platforms such as Eloqua, and Insidesales.com you can have some significant wins without a huge commitment.
$$ Go Green $$
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