Telemarketing Lead Generation Blog

The Human Touch of Lead Nurturing

Posted on Jun 16, 2008 by Kathy Rizzo, Vice President Marketing

Have you ever developed a meaningful relationship with someone without ever speaking with him/her? Most likely the answer is no. When developing a relationship – in personal or business life – it’s critical to engage in verbal communication in order to exchange information, build trust and create an intangible bond. So why do some companies develop “nurturing” processes for their top prospects and omit the human touch? If you rely solely on Internet and email based communication to nurture your prospects then you are missing a critical element.

Consider the definition of Lead Nurturing:

In a complex sales cycle, Nurturing is a relationship building approach utilizing multiple media to provide relevant information to prospects and engage in an ongoing dialog until qualified prospects are deemed “sales ready”.

When you realize how important relationships are to securing business (critically important if you are selling a service or solution!), then it becomes obvious why human touch is so important when engaging in a nurturing strategy.

Another way of looking at the value of human touch is to consider the opportunities that you miss simply because the prospect is too busy to go on the Internet and search for your content, download your whitepaper or respond to your email. However, if you personally reach out to your prospects via well-timed phone calls, you make it easier for your prospect to focus on the problem and take action. This is especially true when your telephone calls are relevant, focus on what you already know and provide value to the prospect.

Here are some items to consider when you integrate telemarketing (human touch) into your nurturing approach:

Contact your prospects at the opportune time. When determining your frequency of contact, consider these important items:

1. Always look for direction from your prospect (i.e. “please call me back in two weeks”).
2. When appropriate, recommend your next contact based on the buying stage of the prospect (i.e. “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.

Keep in mind the 4 goals of each telemarketing contact:

1. Provide information that is deemed valuable & relevant to the prospect
2. Expand the prospect profile by learning more about their current situation and environment. Get them talking!
3. Learn about changing business priorities and critical business issues that will affect purchase plans
4. Determine if “Sales-Ready”

Be strategic and think before you dial. Examine the following before picking up the phone…

• What is the extent of the prospect’s previous interaction within the nurturing strategy?
• Consider details of previous nurturing touches: conversations, e-communications, content downloaded, events, etc.
• What do we already know about their situation?
• What else does our sales representative need to know in order to successfully engage in the sales process with this prospect?
• How can the call convey value to this prospect?

A nurturing telemarketing call is very different than a tele-qualification phone call. When integrating telemarketing into your nurturing strategy, pay special attention to the required skill level of your agents. Calls are not scripted and skip logic does not apply. The agents must be trained on your solution, understand buyer challenges and must have adequate tools (content!) to convey value to the prospects. Most importantly, your agents must have excellent communication skills in order to develop a relationship with your prospects, allowing them to view you as a credible source and viable solution for their business situation.

Tagged: lead nurturing, lead generation, telemarketing sales leads, telemarketing leads, nurturing telemarketing

• Anabel Foucart, Program Director
• Ashlea Harris, Vice President of Program Management
• Chris Engel, Vice President Information Technology
• Dana Gill, Program Director
• Jason St Onge, Account Executive
• Jon Plant, Account Executive
• Jon Plant, Program Director
• Kathy Rizzo, Vice President Marketing
• Laura Johnson, Program Director
• Melissa Joffrion, Account Executive
• Mike Usry, Account Executive
• Sharon Dahlhaus, Account Executive