As you nurture your leads, it's important to remember what "nurture" means. Because the last thing you want is to treat leads too aggressively, and so create a sense of alienation, before passing them along to Sales. In a helpful post at Marketo, Maria Pergolino identifies 10 faux pas to avoid. Here are a few:

Bombarding leads with repeated telephone calls. "There's a fine line between nurturing a sales lead and harassing a prospect," she says. "Constant phone calling is a sure-fire way to get a qualified leads running for the hills." According to Pergolino, it's also common sense to honor the wishes of a lead who wants to be removed from your call list. "There's virtually zero chance a lead will convert to a sale after his or her explicit request is ignored," she explains.

Assuming a level of familiarity that doesn't exist. As you develop relationships with potential customers, you'll likely establish a friendly rapport. "But it's important to remember," she notes, "that no matter how strong the relationship, overly personal discussions—i.e., politics and religion—should be saved for home."

Asking for too much, too soon. Don't request information you don't need so early in the process—for instance, asking where invoices should be sent.

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