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THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK How to follow-up with a prospect when they’re not ready to buy!
One of the most common questions I hear from B2B solution providers is how to follow-up with a prospect when they aren’t ready to buy.
If your content marketing strategy is working, digital advertising coupled with technology is reporting detailed information on who is engaging with your content to include their name, company, title, level of responsibility, the content with which they engaged and when, and yes, often contact information.
That last piece of data is so intoxicating that many B2B marketing and sales teams ignore everything else and go right for the sales pitch and they wonder why the “lead” is ghosting them.
Following up with a ready to buy prospect who is requesting to be contacted is rarely a problem. It is those prospects in the early stages of their journey who are trying to understand the issues they face and establish goals and a strategy to overcome them that are challenging.
Here is an approach that works well!
Effective B2B content marketing programs employ a variety of content that spans the entire buyer’s journey. Tag your content as early, middle, and late buyer’s journey to help understand where the prospect is in their journey based on the content they engaged with.
Examine all the data you receive when someone engages with your content and pay particular attention to where the prospect is in their journey.
Develop follow-up messages that deliver more of what the prospect expressed an interest in and do it in a personal way—not sales pitches, but more thought leadership, articles, best practices, and case studies. If you really want to connect with your prospect, create follow-up messages so that they come from the author of the original content they engaged with.
Measure the results by tracking what else the prospect engaged with.
When this is done well, trust is built between prospect and seller and when the prospect contacts the seller, they already believe you can help them.
The sale becomes a natural result of a trusting business relationship established with helpful content and effective follow-up aligned with the buyer’s journey.
I hope you have a great week!
--Perry
Visit us at follow your buyer for more.
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Perry Rearick
Chief Editor | Follow Your Buyer
prearick@followyourbuyer.com
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