Spooky Truth Nuggets About Lead Nurture

Two horrifying and controversial assertions in honor of Halloween... [MarketingProfs DemandGen Today] October 2022 [Your monthly issue of DemandGen Today!] Happy October, Friend! October is a magical time of the year—crunchy leaves on the ground, cooler days, and pumpkin spice evenings. Spooky season is my favorite time of the year. So, to celebrate, let's talk about something scary... I have a horrifying and controversial statement to share in honor of Halloween! Nurture is not a sales function. I heard that gasp... Sales has a very specialized role: Its job is to help complete the conversion. To help leads make the right decisions about the products and services that you have to offer. Sales answers leads' questions and gets the deal across the line. It's not Sales' role to nurture the lead and follow up for months. Now, that is a statement I often make at conferences, and the reaction from the audience can be spectacular. People get angry and defensive. I don't want to make you angry or frustrated; quite the opposite... we're here to help you convert. And the data supports that spooky little truth nugget about nurture. Follow-up is fundamental to the success of conversion. And nurture forms part of that follow-up. Unfortunately, 48% of salespeople never even make a single follow-up attempt (source: Invesp), and 44% of salespeople give up after one follow-up call. Which is a shame—because 80% of sales require five follow-up calls (Invesp), and 81% of sales happen after seven or more interactions. Follow-up and the nurture of not-quite-ready leads are often the first activities that are dropped by a sales team when things get busy. And Sales should be busy—selling (i.e., not nurturing)! Instead, your demand generation team should be looking after the nurture. The definition of demand generation is "everything you do to get and keep a customer." So part of that is ensuring that nurture happens at the right time, and supporting Sales to do what it's best at doing: getting the conversion. Enter sales enablement—our hero! The stats are in your favor here: 76% of companies report an increase in sales of 6-20% after implementing sales enablement initiatives. I know that sales enablement content is often frowned upon because the sales team doesn't use the lovely content you create. And that's because they shouldn't need to! Here's your second spooky nugget: Your sales enablement should be automated. Bottom-of-funnel content should drip out over time once a lead becomes Sales-qualified. Those emails, blog posts, and videos should support the sales team's follow-up efforts and help nurture leads through your final sales stages. A Sales-qualified lead is still a lead and so falls under your marketing team's lead management function. The reward is well worth the effort: Companies that automate lead management increase their revenue 10%, on average, within nine months. So here's a little question for you: How does your sales nurture look? Have you mapped out the content that your leads need to make a buying decision? How can you enable Sales to make the very best conversions? I hope this issue has given you good thrills! Have a happy spooky season! *** P.S. This week, I'll be at the MarketingProfs B2B Forum, in person, in Boston! I'll be speaking about all things demand generation, as well as running some facilitated sessions. But you can also attend (or watch—the event will be livestreamed!) a range of sales-related presentations. See "Top Sales Picks," below. [Kenda Macdonald] [Kenda Macdonald] Demand Generation Consulting Practice Lead MarketingProfs [B2B Forum Top Sales Picks]( Check out the sales-related presentations at [MarketingProfs B2B Forum](, Oct. 13-14, in Boston (and via livestream): Storytelling: [The Emperor Has No Content Without Good Storytellers]( with Ursula Ringham Technology-centric customer journeys: [Integration 101: Technology and the Customer Journey]( with Pam Didner Lead generation best-practices: [Lead Generation Best Practices (Learned From 500+ Website Redesigns)](/NTJYbTBEQWQ4OFVNbGFqbG5ramliVWk2SjJEZERWKzF0RkpzMGVSYjZ6UmNQUXFaZVpydHZUSG1aOHVBQjFCUnRWZnFIS01kS3ozMmlNbjlnQlc3V0tiNUNwMWt6enV2TW9BVlNVck9ZWUovb0pkMWw5K05hQT09S0/) with Andy Crestodina Prospect experience: [Mastering the Prospect Experience: Increasing Loyalty and Conversion Throughout the Buying Journey]( with Matt Heinz B2B referral generation: [Innovative Strategies to Amp Up B2B Referral Generation]( with John Jantsch [Master Your Demand Generation Nurture]( Are you giving good nurture? Most companies aren't. But it could be the key you're looking for to unlock demand gen success. Join Kenda Macdonald for this actionable webinar to learn how to create three types of nurture that work for you, your sales team, AND your leads. [Don't miss this upcoming webinar ►](jVLSEXLPxFe/NTJYbTBEQWQ4OFVNbGFqbG5ramliVWk2SjJEZERWKzF0RkpzMGVSYjZ6UmNQUXFaZVpydHZUSG1aOHVBQjFCUnRWZnFIS01kS3ozMmlNbjlnQlc3V0tiNUNwMWt6enV2TW9BVlNVck9ZWUovb0pkMWw5K05hQT09S0/) Demand Gen Resources [Webinar] [How to Create a Sales Enablement Process That CONVERTS [Webinar]]( [Article] [Why It's Not Your Sales Team's Job to Nurture Leads [Article]](ZKJL7zY2tj/NTJYbTBEQWQ4OFVNbGFqbG5ramliVWk2SjJEZERWKzF0RkpzMGVSYjZ6UmNQUXFaZVpydHZUSG1aOHVBQjFCUnRWZnFIS01kS3ozMmlNbjlnQlc3V0tiNUNwMWt6enV2TW9BVlNVck9ZWUovb0pkMWw5K05hQT09S0/) [Webinar] [Closing the Gap Between Sales and Marketing [Working Webinar]*]( [Article] [How to Identify and Maximize Sales Enablement ROI [Infographic]]( [Virtual Event] [Marketing and Sales Enablement Friday Forum [Virtual event]]( [Podcast] [B2B Marketers, the Customer Journey, and Sales: Pam Didner on Marketing Smarts [Podcast]]( [Article] [The Top Challenges B2B Sales Reps Face Early in the Sales Cycle [Research]]( *For MarketingProfs PRO members only [MarketingProfs] Your DemandGen Team Your team for this issue (in alphabetical order): Megan Cordero, production director; Vahe Habeshian, publications director; Kenda Macdonald, demand generation consulting practice lead. 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