I don’t think I ever thought about it as a child but as an adult I’ve grown to be fascinated with numbers, from a numerology perspective.
For my wife and I, 28 is our number and I sometimes joke that I'll write a book one day called ‘The Power of 28.’ There have been way too many amazing (to me :) run in's with this number to list but here are a few favorites.
- First date: December 28th 2009
- Exclusively dating: January 28th 2010
- After searching for two years we found our dream home – you can guess what the address was
And when my wife asked me to write something on the bottom of her wedding shoe I racked my brain thinking how can I write something meaningful enough for the occasion and on such a small surface ! After some serious thought this is what I came up with…of course.
In professional life I’ve had many discussions and read many articles on the topic of lead nurturing. Everyone wants to know how many touches does it take to go from prospect to Sales-Ready lead ?
At the end of the day, and my fascination (obsession) with numbers aside, I know that no such magic number exists here. But I do believe there are magic behaviors. Here are three that I believe are necessary if your team wants to seriously nurture a lead.
Persistence. It certainly takes more than one outreach in this business. The folks your reaching out to have plenty going on and they don't even know you so you need to be in it for the long haul and consistent in your outreach.
Thoughtfulness. When you put yourself and/or your company ‘out there’ in front of a lead you are giving that lead the opportunity to form an impression. Whether they respond or not, it needs to be a positive one.
Purposefulness. Relationship building takes precious time (that thing no one seems to have enough of). If you are ultimately seeking a lead's time you must be mindful of what you share with them and what they’d like most from this new relationship.
I've noticed that some people respond to 'data-supported' statements, others take better to a softer approach and still others most appreciate it when messaging cuts right to the chase.
In marketing and sales we first make educated assumptions as to what should resonate with our target audience and then, as we actually get to know our leads we truly learn how to speak their language. So now, not only do you need to learn your significant other's love language, you need to learn your lead's love language too :)
But I think you'll be better for it.
After all, if you take the time to recognize what resonates with the leads you nurture, no matter how they engage, your team will eventually be able to craft messaging and an approach that gets closer and closer to feeding their minds and speaking to their (professional) heart.
As I type this I can't help but laugh at the words - this is way too deep for B2B marketing right ? But what is a 'lead' but an actual person with a potential need and what does the word 'nurture' really mean if not to purposefully encourage the development of, in our case, a relationship ?
So we might as well call it what it is: 'lead nurturing,' the thoughtful and purposeful process of forming relationships with other people.
That's as worthy an aspiration to work towards and strive for as I've ever seen.
Joe
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