The basics of prospect cultivation
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A lead follow-up plan is only as good as it's ability to convert prospects to actual clients. That's why any business without strong prospect cultivation techniques isn't likely to go far. Sure they may be able to generate tons of leads for themselves, but really, what's the point if they can't convert them to clients?
Prospect cultivation isn't rocket science. It really comes down to treating your leads the way you would want to be treated. It means not being too pushy and aggressive. It means contacting them regularly (but not too often!) until they're ready to buy. It's important to build a relationship and become the trusted expert of your industry they turn to by providing the information they may need.
If you were a real estate agent with seller leads, you probably wouldn't be calling them once a month just to ask to list their home. Instead, keeping good prospect cultivation techniques inside, you add them to your follow-up campaign. This involves sending them weekly emails with market updates, open house tips, home value tips and an occasional CMA on their home.
The agent comes across more as a helpful expert than a pushy salesperson - THAT is what prospect cultivation is about. You build up trust and a relationship with each lead. Every company should have a follow-up plan for each type of lead they have (prospective client, past customer, etc) and fine-tune that plan down to a science.
One thing that can throw a wrench in prospect cultivation efforts is the sheer number of leads to follow up with. For a company dealing with hundreds of thousands of leads, a systematic plan is a must. Sales people can't just randomly contact leads with no rhyme or reason.
Luckily, that's where a beautiful thing called technology comes in - automated follow-up software to be exact. Otherwise known as a customer relationship manager (CRM) or contact management system (CMS) these programs can help manage and automate your follow up. This helps cut down on confusion and time-wasting on your sales floor.
All the many different programs available for prospect cultivation tend to have similar features: email drip campaigns, task scheduling and alerts, calendars, etc. The email campaigns allow you to automatically send informational emails to leads on a regular basis. They often incorporate a sales call and script into the schedule as well.
A company can often get a CRM system built to it's own specifications and have it include many other features. Unfortunately, many companies today don't even realize what CRMs are available, and if they do they don't realize what a difference it could make for their business. If you're not utilizing some sort of automated follow-up system, chances are your prospect cultivation is suffering.
Article Source: Articlelogy.com
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