Once your B2B lead generation strategy starts paying off, you’ll start to see a full pipeline of new leads for your business. But, your hard work doesn’t stop there. You’ll need to pick the best time for sales follow up before they convert into paying clients or customers. When and how you follow up with your leads makes all the difference. Follow up too soon, and you might scare your sales leads away with your sales pitch. Follow up too late, and they might have forgotten all about you, or worse, hired someone else. Here’s how to fine-tune your lead follow up strategy in order to land the most wins and ensure you’re following up with sales leads at the best time! The Importance of Lead Nurturing & Sales Follow Up Once a lead ends up in your pipeline, you’ll need to “nurture” them until they’re ready to close.
Lead nurturing is important because it keeps your brand on your prospect’s mind, gives you an opportunity to handle objections, and ensures that you know exactly where your sales leads are in the sales cycle. When you end your Phone Number Database initial meeting, a lot of the time you will set a date for your second meeting. If you simply set an arbitrary follow-up date – with no nurturing in between – you run the risk of pitching to them too soon or too late. You also don’t give them a chance to build a connection with you, ask questions, and come to trust your brand. To help prevent this, follow the three steps listed below and you’ll be golden! Step 1:
Score Your Leads If you don’t have a system for scoring your leads, now is the time to start. Scoring your leads allows you to identify the leads that are most likely to convert, and then set them as top priority. Many businesses use a “qualified”, “not qualified”, and “not enough information” structure to determine whether a sales lead is a good fit or not. Then, they might apply a score of “cold”, “warm”, or “hot” to identify which leads are most excited about their offer. Once you categorize your leads this way (perhaps within your chosen CRM tool), you can make it a priority to follow up with the hottest, qualified leads first. Then, you can nurture your “warm” or even “cold” leads until they either drop off or express more interest in your offer.