Today, you may have less money to spend on acquiring new customers. So why not maximize the value of each lead by spending more time marketing and building relationships with people who already know your brand.

In a down economy, branding through lead generation can be very effective. Did you know that 53-88% of b-2-b companies are willing to switch providers? And that most are indifferent to their current providers? That’s a huge opportunity if you can:

• Identify those prospects.
• Pay close attention to them.
• Seduce them with value.
• Gain a meaningful relationship.
• Hang in there until your prospect is ready to make the change. (It’s what we, at Introworks, like to call the “elusive” moment.)
• See the strong ROI over a period of time: 25% short-term leads,75% long-term leads, 100% brand impact.

The twenty-five, seventy-five rule.
Twenty-five percent of all leads are short term. The good news is they’re ready to make a decision right now. The bad news, they may only be using you as bid just to compare prices. The truth is, the best business comes from the other 75%—long-term leads that are in the 3-24 month cycle. But nurturing long-terms leads can be a big struggle for a company. You simply can’t impulse a prospect to change providers. The long sales cycle is the months/years it takes for the prospect to be in the right position to buy. Once they reach that “elusive” moment, the switch can happen quickly—many times within one to two months. To get to that point, you need to reach out to them with “value” touches (White Papers, Webinars, phone calls and surveys) in order to move the lead forward, generate conversation and establish a relationship.

Rules of thumb:

• With Email Marketing, you must have a good list, relevant message and it should direct prospects to a landing page. (Good enticements can be surveys, White Papers and Webinars.)
• Show value at every touch point.
• Capture the lead.
• Follow up with a phone call.
• Use a good CRM system (score and rank them)
• Communicate with prospects 12-15 times per year.

Show them you’re an expert—that you’re really interested in their business and they’ll reward you with that business. Now go get ‘em.