Nurturing Prospects
You need prospects that are qualified, informed and ultimately motivated to buy when they are ready to do so.
Nurturing is what you do to let them get to know you, your solutions and how to buy from you. Motivating is the activity you take to offer call to actions and to actively ask them to consider your solutions.
You have to let them get to know why you are mission critical to them so that one day you become their best decision to solve that problem – or deliver their ultimate pleasure (depending on what your offering is).
From today until that day when they are ready to buy is the time you fill with nurture.
In a personal friendship it might be meeting at the pub with the gang, watching the match and discussing it on social media or when you next see them, you have lots of those friends and they are important to you and you keep tabs on them and their news. You might know about their family, or you might just have a friendship because of a joint interest so although you see their family news on social media it might not react with you, but you will register with news on the interests you share and the affirmation of shared values etc.
It is no different in business, it is just being human in a different context. You take time to show why you should be in their world, you speak their language and talk about stuff that matters to them, you hang out in the same places and you enable them to keep tabs on your news (by sharing lots of it in the world they inhabit). Turning up consistently in their world and being the best you can be, so they get to know what you stand for (please don’t keep changing every week).
Superpowered Nurture
The human connection is your superpower (yes that is you) especially if “you” are your business or a major part of the narrative. Getting to know you is really important as it accelerates things in huge leaps. This is the phone, in person, networking and includes events (real life and virtual).
Conversations cut across the cynicism and distrust that needs removing for any relationship to flourish.
I think webinars and workshops and corporate hospitality style events are really powerful and might be the way to get a level of conversation with a group of like-minded people. If you can put yourself out there to talk on your specialist subject and hold an event it is huge proof of your passion, expertise and all the magical stuff around being their expert advisor, no one would believe that you were going to put yourself up to talk about something you don’t know anything about or don’t care about. Similarly entertaining has great ROI and ticks lots of boxes. An afternoon with a lovely lunch at a race meeting just works to build great business relationships.
Motivation
Ultimately, we want a prospect to take action and move closer to buying from us. So, amongst the nurturing we give calls to action and show them how to buy. That action might be what happens after a prospect saying something like “that sounds interesting, tell me more”.
Nurturing is vital to the process, but motivating is the magic step change you need.
It happens when you can create the perception of a clear point of difference in their mind (not in yours), it has to be something that they recognise. This differentiation/USPs (call them what you want) might be in the product or service, it might be the narrative, or it might be a bit of both.
Whatever it is, it is your USPs get you away from being one of many, it can’t be what anyone else can say.
How important is working up your USPs? If your prospect can say “it’s ok we have that in hand thanks” you aren’t going to motivate them to do anything, they probably won’t even consider you if you are the cheapest.
Your unique message might not be the easiest thing to develop, it is much easier to just shout louder and more and more people on repeat but cultivating your own little hill that you die is one that will get you results.
Finding relevant motivating USPs:
- Go and look at your competition and what they offer.
- How do they present their offer (narrative).
- What are the buying behaviour traits of your target market?
- Are there any gaps where their needs are not being met?
- Define the specific benefits you offer, ask “why does this matter” about everything.
From all of the above, consider what sets you apart.
Now, consider what little tweak could really make it stand out (maybe an optional extra should be part of the main offering).
Experiment:
Test and measure a few hypotheses about potential USPs and go and speak to your market about them to see how they are received. Work a campaign around a very tight set of criteria/messages you want to get across and find different ways to talk about those key messages, messages need repeating to land. You don’t need one thousand different messages you need different ways to show, tell, reinforce a few messages.
All I can say is if your prospect can say “its ok we have that in hand thanks” you aren’t going to motivate them to do anything. They probably won’t even buy from you even if you are cheaper.
Find your USPs and your unique approach might not be the easiest thing, but it is the one that will get you results.
It’s for you to do the hard work but I know of some really good help if you need it!