Lead Nurturing

Developing and using a consistent approach to prospects that have expressed interest but are not ready to buy is important for any company. At SmartLead, we work with our clients to develop a customized solution for these “cold” leads to nurture them until they are sales ready.
Sample client programs we have completed with success include:

• Automated email messages that are sent on a regular schedule as part of the e-services package
• Promotional bulk email messages to promote specials and upcoming sales events
• Postcard mailings to prospects to promote new product lines or events
• Personalized sales letters and collateral
• Phone surveys to ensure the customer is still in the market and re-qualify him or her
• Promotional phone calls to encourage prospects to visit dealer locations

Why Nurture?

Lead qualification and nurturing can increase your “good” leads by 60%. For one of our clients, only 15% of their leads were considered “qualified.” Their sales people were bogged down with a large volume of leads, many of which they considered “bad.” As a result, our client set a goal to increase the percentage of qualified leads to 25% within 12 months.

To reach this goal, we instituted one consistent lead qualification process for all product lines and sales channels. The new process streamlined qualification questions and ranking criteria, improved inquiry data capture during inbound calls and trade shows, and introduced a structured lead nurturing program.

The new nurturing program incorporated integrated marketing techniques to contact prospects at regular intervals. For example, if a lead remained unqualified for 20 days, the prospect received a targeted e-mail using SmartLead’s e-mail marketing systems. If a lead remained unqualified for another 25 days, the prospect received a targeted phone call from the SmartLead Contact Center. We designed the continuous program to cultivate the prospect and move the prospect closer to buying.

As a result of these qualification and nurturing strategies, we achieved a 60% increase in qualified leads in one year from 15% to 25%.