I ran across a post at TSL Marketing's blog, entitled "Lead Nurturing in 5 easy Steps" that outlines 5 things that Sales folks can do to nurture their leads -- those that aren't ready for the sales conversation quite yet.
It occurred to me that the first 4 items of the 5 mentioned, could be done easily with Marketing Automation software -- whether the lead nurturing is managed from Marketing or Sales (and I've seen it done/owned in either of these, depending upon the structure of an organization), and achieve the same results -- Here is my take on how:
1. Marketing Automation integrated with CRM allows for knowing whether a lead/contact is in a nurturing stage or is an actual opportunity that can be worked by the Sales person.
2. Staying in tune -- if Marketing IS planning any of those events, then emails should be going out to all leads (where it's relevant), and Marketing Automation software 'should' be able to be "sent from" and "signed by" the sales person for that lead -- without that sales person actually having to do anything. If the lead responds, the reply email would go directly to the sales person. Imagine the time savings if the sales person didn't have to put all those individual emails together!
3. Spend 1 hour a month -- With a great marketing automation system, tracking the responses to efforts, and interactions, the lead could essentially "self-select" into Nurturing sequences that keep the lead in touch -- and all of which could go out from the sales person (automatically) - again, without the sales person having to formulate all of them individually. This occurs to the lead as a personally sent email -- saving that 1 hour per month for working on leads that are in the sales conversation now (and could cover many more leads in the funnel).
4. Personalize Emails -- All of the emails going out of the marketing automation system can be personalized, and sent from the assigned sales person -- building relationship all along the way.
Again -- the 5 easy steps for lead nurturing are good, but if they can be implemented with/by Marketing (or Sales if that is where lead nurturing is managed), using available marketing automation software, then the hour each week can be spent touching base with those leads that are ready to buy!
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