Prospect nurturing is a vital component of the sales process. Competent salespeople know that prospects have to be nurtured and followed up with once they’ve been pitched, but most sales people don’t realise is that prospect nurturing starts before the initial pitch is even made.
If you’re spending time to create an effective sales pitch, wouldn’t it be worth spending some on making sure your leads are ready and receptive to hearing it? Your direct marketing, prospecting and lead warming efforts all contribute to nudging the prospect in the right direction so that they’re in the right mind state when they hear the first pitch.
Building Trust with Prospects
In today’s information age where it’s easy to find anyone’s email or phone number with just a few keystrokes, its important to understand that everybody has been pitched plenty of times, and chances are they’re tired of it.
Ensuring that a high level of trust and rapport is built with your business before you or your salespeople pitch them can make all the difference between a successful first pitch or them hanging up the phone. Trust can be built by providing prospects with information about your business or service before they’ve even heard from a sales person, this gives salespeople a basic level of familiarity to build on when they contact the prospect directly.
An informed prospect is more likely to be receptive to a call from a business name they can recognise.
Building Value with Prospects
Free trials and test periods are commonplace these days, and have been for quite some time. Prospects are used to getting something before they sign the dotted line, but are they used to getting something before they’re even pitched?
Giving value to a prospect before they’ve even been pitched will only help the case when they pick up the phone or arrive at that first meeting. Sharing knowledge is an easy way to show goodwill to a prospect, and also to demonstrate they’re dealing with a business that knows what their talking about to the point they’re confident enough to give some of that knowledge out for free.
Consistency
Prospect nurturing is a valuable tool in any sales person’s toolbox, but it’s no good if its not used regularly. Prospects need to be reminded that you’re there, and that doesn’t just mean following up once they’ve been pitched. Regularly providing trust and value building content to prospects helps to keep them warm while they wait in the pipeline.
Sales are often a case of being able to pitch at the right time when the prospect is in the right mind state. By consistently nurturing prospects, providing them with value and reasons to trust your business, you can keep them in that mind state so that they’re ready for your sales pitch.
Part of a Sales Strategy
At Sales Inc. we analyze companies’ entire sales process from start to finish, and prospect nurturing is a key component of that. We develop a comprehensive prospect nurturing process tailored to your specific customer base, along with training on how to pitch and prospect your leads.
Contact us today to discuss how we can help with your business development strategy.