Lead Generation on the Web

Lead Nurturing

Okay, so you've built up this entire system and you've enticed someone to your landing page and they filled out the form. Now what?

Well, if you're like most everyone else playing this game, this person's contact information goes into a database of some kind and just sits there. Maybe it gets added to something like salesforce.com or a tool like Constant Contact. Maybe a salesperson jumps on the lead right away, maybe she doesn't.

The problem is that a vast majority of the people who fill out forms on a web site aren't ready to buy. They really aren't leads at all—they're suspects. They need to be nurtured. You really don't know too much about them at this point anyway. They may have said they were a high-ranking VITO (very important top officer) in command of the budget, but for all you know, they could be the summer intern doing some preliminary research for their boss.

Unfortunately, too many sales organizations take the myopic view that anyone who fills out a form to read a white paper better be ready to buy right now, or there's no point spending extra money and effort to close them. That's just nonsense! At the same time, though, you have to know when to give up on someone.

The best way to respond to this whole conundrum is with a repeatable system (no surprise there!). If you have a repeatable system in place, you can keep people coming back for more without breaking a sweat—you'll be able to profitably increase their trust (and your value!) without breaking the ...