Manufacturing Salespeople— It’s Time to Let Your Prospects Nurture Themselves

Manufacturing salespeople, I’m going to tell you something that may shock you. It’s time to take a more hands-off approach to prospect nurturing. I know, I know, that goes against everything you’ve been taught. However, just like you cannot expect to get married on a first date, you cannot expect to meet a prospect and close a deal immediately. The biggest mistake I see salespeople making is not customizing the sales approach based on where the prospect is in the buyer’s journey.

Not everyone is ready to buy, especially when you are approaching your quota deadline and fielding update requests from your sales manager. So, what are manufacturing salespeople to do to stay top of mind to their prospect and develop a relationship that ends in a sale? Also, what about all the TIME it takes to follow up with key prospects? Use the 3 key steps below to streamline your sales cycle and customize your approach to each prospect’s stage in the buyer’s journey more efficiently.

3 Key Steps to Streamline Prospect Nurturing Quicker and More Efficiently

• Targeted a specific type of buyer (prospect persona)

Need help? Why Developing Buyer Personas is Invaluable for Manufacturers

• Developed relevant and interesting content

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• Setup an automated way to personally communicate while you do another task

I know, the 3^rd point is daunting to most manufacturing salespeople.  Have you not found a way to clone yourself? Would be nice, right? Read on to hear how you can essentially “clone” yourself and multi-manage your prospect nurturing.

“I Like Pizza” Watch the movie Multiplicity. Not all clones are created equal!

Well, it is possible to save time and clone yourself, if executed correctly! Automated email sequences are the closest thing to cloning in the sales world and it works amazingly for us and our clients.

What Are Automated Email Sequences?

Email sequences are a pre-written, customizable series of emails and task reminders. Turn repetitive tasks, such as follow up reminders into simple, easy-to-launch messages. We utilize sequences to following up with prospects when they do the following: download an eBook, we see them at a trade show and think they can benefit from our media interview services, we identify a prospect that should parlay company announcements into published industry news stories, or even when we are trying to reconnect with a lead we have not spoken to in months or even years.

At any time, our agency may have multiple, buyer’s journey staged sequences with 4 or more emails, timed to send over a series of days. We can set reminders to call or even remind us to send a LinkedIn invite to prospects once emails have been automatically sent. Sometimes we get a response from a prospect on the very first email, which prompts an immediate conversation. Other times, the entire series plays out and we get nothing (which is good!)

Why You Should ‘Go For the No’

What’s good about hearing nothing back from a prospect you may wonder? Ever heard of ‘going for the no’? Not everyone who you meet in a target industry or who views your website is a prospect. The technology we use allows us to see if a prospect has opened an email and if they have clicked a link we provided. This inside knowledge of the prospect’s behavior, such as a download or reading of an eBook makes the follow-up call so much easier and more focused on their behavior.

Now sit back, use data to help you identify the best-performing sequences and bam, a successful use of your time and the perfect appearance of professionalism from your new cloned self.

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