Google+ The Marketing Survivalist: November 2009

Not Everybody Needs Nurturing

I applaud the efforts marketers are putting into nurturing programs. It will allow them to make better use of their marketing investments and leverage their salespeople’s time more effectively. However, not everyone needs nurturing. No matter how long your sales cycle is, with the information available to buyers on the web, some people will be ready to engage the moment they contact you.

A couple of days ago, I was shopping for a service and clicked the “contact us by e-mail” button on the web page. The e-mail form asked for my information. I give credit to the company for not asking for my physical address. There was also a field that allowed me to comment so I briefly explained what I was looking for and asked someone to get back to me.

After hitting the submit button (yes, it did ask me to “submit” which is something I hesitate to do.) I got a response telling me that I had been added to their e-mail communications program. That was a little strange since this was a “contact us” form and not an “add me to your mailing list” form. But, being a marketer myself, I wasn’t too concerned and I assumed since I asked to be contacted in the comment field that someone would be getting in touch with me.

After two days and one promotional e-mail from the company later, no one had contacted me. Luckily for this company, I do need this service, I’m unhappy with my current provider, and they were recommended to me by someone I trust. I found a contact at the company (the CEO) and emailed them directly. Within a couple hours I got a response and everything is going smoothly now.

The point of my story is that nurturing is great, but make sure you are not losing potential opportunities in your zeal to implement nurturing best-practices. You may think this couldn’t possibly happen in your organization, but sometimes the people who field your frontline calls and e-mails don’t have the business experience you do. It’s easy for me to imagine a new marketing coordinator being told to enter every contact into the lead nurturing program. As they try to do the best job they can following your orders, they don’t realize the obvious – that I was ready to engage. Digg Technorati Delicious StumbleUpon Reddit BlinkList Furl Mixx Facebook Google Bookmark Yahoo

Working with your (internal) editor

I’ve been doing a ton of writing for clients – brochures, presentations, website content and such. It’s a lot of fun, but writing for someone else is so much different that writing for yourself.

I start out the same way. First, I turn the little editor in my head on low and just let the words flow. Without a gate on the words I put on paper, I can come up with some clever and funny phrases. (At least I think they are.) At this stage I meander a bit but I don’t worry about it. Fixing that comes in the next step. For now, I’m just having fun.

Then I turn my editor up a little bit and look for the pieces that don’t support my, or really my client’s, main message. It never fails. The first bits to go are the clever little phrases that I love so much.

“But they will catch the prospect’s attention,” I argue with this second-level editor.

“But they detract from the message,” she (or is it me?) argues back. “Save it for your blog!”

She always wins. Actually I let her win because it’s good for my business.

Finally, I turn the editor on high and look for words that are not quite right, grammar mistakes, and cumbersome phrases. I really dislike this editor because she hates everything I write. I don’t always let her win because I know that sometimes the client and I are smarter than she is. But, more often than not she has a point and my writing is better when I take her advice.

All the best!

Melissa

P.S. My mental health is just fine and I am not really sitting at my computer arguing with myself – most of the time. Digg Technorati Delicious StumbleUpon Reddit BlinkList Furl Mixx Facebook Google Bookmark Yahoo

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