To continue our exploration of engagement, we’re letting you in on a little secret. Today’s simple piece of advice might surprise you, but it works every time. Companies want to keep leads engaged from the first point of contact to closing the sale, but with the twisting shape of today’s sales funnel, that can be hard to do. To keep prospects engaged, get them thinking for themselves. This strategy is key:
Sales and marketing teams should present questions to prospects rather than push their products in one-sided conversations. Brand interactions with leads should be dynamic and engaging, just like a discussion with a friend. These questions can be posed in a number of different formats, but the goal is the same: in the end, the prospect identifies his needs and guides himself to your company’s product as the solution.
In-person conversations with sales representatives almost always include a pitch. It’s up to your company to make the interaction more human by focusing the conversation on the prospect’s needs. How? Ask questions. Discover their pain points and offer solutions.
Though lead nurturing has evolved in a variety of ways in the digital age, phone calls aren’t dead, especially in B2B. Professionals responsible for B2B purchases take their investments very seriously and are often willing to devote phone time to understand a product further. In this case, the same thing applies. Ask questions and focus your approach on the customer’s needs.
In B2B marketing, a lot of conversations happen over email. This often starts with email marketing strategies and evolves to more personal engagement with customer service or sales representatives. These email exchanges should be initiated by your company to engage prospects and demonstrate that you care about their perspective. Use email to conduct personal, one-person surveys that can improve your product offerings and approach. Leads will appreciate the personalized attention and become more likely to buy from your company in the future.
Social channels are an excellent place to pose questions to leads. They might be in the form of personalized responses to individuals, or simply broader questions as part of your social content strategy. Either way, your company is likely to get high response rates. People like to engage; you simply have to provide a platform for them to do so.
Image via (cc) Richard Stebbing
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