We have seen a dramatic shift in how technology buyers educate themselves about new solutions in the last few years. Once very dependent on sales professionals for most of the education process, buyers instead use search techniques, email, blogs, video, webinars, and social media for this process. That said, there are a few compelling reasons to integrate human touchpoints into your lead-to-close process. The live touch makes significant contributions in the following areas:

Qualifying a Prospect

Using the live touch allows the marketer to assess the digital behavior that triggered the call and potentially determine precisely where the prospect is in the sales cycle. Using the live touch for prospect qualification also mitigates one of the major disconnects between marketing and sales. Often the sales teams are flooded with “leads” only to find that those leads are not qualified. They can quickly become turned off and assume that leads they get from marketing have little value. The live touch provides a more profound qualification of leads before they are delivered to sales diffusing the potential disconnect between sales and marketing.

Developing A Relationship

People buy from people, not from marketing automation systems. In building awareness, trust, respect, and brand recognition with your prospects, live conversations are essential. The telephone call provides a two-way dialogue and interactive exchange with the prospect.

As with Prospect Qualification, sales can understand the prospect’s interest, needs, and business pains through the live touch. In addition, sales can develop a better awareness of the prospect’s role, challenges, and relative areas of interest for appropriate follow-up and the type of follow-up preferred by the prospect. When executed professionally, this primary building block leads to one-on-one email communications, web meetings, face-to-face appointments, and, ultimately, the sale. All prospect communications must provide something of value, show thought-leadership, and be relevant to their needs by vertical, industry, or solution.

Collecting Business Intelligence

 The collection of business intelligence is critical to the lead nurturing process. Information garnered through outbound calling and Internet research will enhance your messaging, content development, and touch calendar, guiding your lead nurturing strategies. The type of BI collected will vary by industry, the solution, and the target contact. Through outbound calling, marketers learn about competitive solutions in place, relevant contract expiration dates, the current IT environment and its limitations, future plans, and identification and validation of decision-makers and influencers of the buying process.

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