On the heels of my earlier post about why B2B companies should make lead management and lead nurturing a key priority comes this fascinating article from DemandGen Report detailing a new survey from Aberdeen: “Lead Nurturing: The Secret to Successful Lead Generation.” Some of the key points to consider:
- * nurtured leads in Best-in-Class organizations delivered 47% higher average order values than non-nurtured leads
* 56% of survey respondents indicated that they currently lack a formal lead nurturing program, but superior performing organizations are 2x more likely to have such a program in place
* Landing pages and microsites are key to effective nurturing because they help capture vital qualifying data
* 28% of qualified leads are not followed up on by sales, down from the 60-70% figure reported in a similar 2005 survey
That last statistic is one of the most disturbing: “28% of qualified leads are not followed up on by sales…”
One way that we’ve tried to avoid this problem is by getting sales involved from the beginning of the lead nurturing process. Also, using automation tools with good visibility help keep track of what sales is doing and not doing.