Generated some leads that are interested in your services? A lead may not be a guaranteed sale but through a process called ‘lead nurturing’, you may just close the deal.
In our previous article, we’ve defined what lead generation is and how ERP systems affect the process. Now, the next step is lead nurturing.
What is Lead Nurturing?
According to an article by Impact Plus, “Lead nurturing is the process of building relationships with your customers and ushering them through the buyer’s journey toward making a purchase.”
Prospects may land on your business’ ads, social media posts, blog posts, or websites, but if they aren’t immediately engaged and don’t know what to do next, you’ll lose them.
Once you’ve made first contact with a prospect, lead nurturing is all about communicating how your product or service will add value to their business as well as guiding them to the next steps.
Not convinced of the importance of lead nurturing? Here are some statistics that might change your mind:
- Lead nurturing results in 50% more sales-ready prospects [Source: Marketo]
- Lead nurturing improves email response rate up to 4–10 times more than average [Source: Active Marketing]
- Lead nurturing results in 45% greater ROI [Source: MarketingSherpa]
- Lead nurturing has led to 47% larger purchases [Source: The Annuitas Group]
How does an ERP system help nurture leads?
While ERP systems are known for facilitating the sales process such as order placement, invoicing, and shipping, lead nurturing is also a step that benefits from the features of ERP solutions.
ERP systems align sales and marketing
Sales and marketing work hand in hand in growing a business’ clientele and it’s important that all their efforts are aligned. An ERP system serves as a central database where both teams can see what each department is doing, from email exchanges to reports and results of their campaigns.
Communication and collaboration are also much smoother, ensuring that your team’s processes are as streamlined as they can be.
ERP systems empower sales team
When a sales team is equipped with the right tools, they can achieve their goals more easily.
With a trusty ERP system in place, a big bulk of the administrative tasks involved in sales are automated and sales reps are always sure that they know where to find the information they need within the system.
ERP systems allow for lead segmentation and scoring
Some sales experts swear by the importance of lead scoring to improve the quality of leads and to ensure that your team only nurtures good leads.
By customising different attributes of contacts within your ERP system, you will be able to categorise leads to the products they may already using or have shown interest in, their budgets, and much more.
ERP systems improve communication with leads
In the CRM module of an ERP system, users can easily record and track communications among representatives and customers. Some ERP systems also have email marketing features that ensure that you can stay at the top of your prospects’ minds.
Timely follow ups and targeted, personalised emails can make all the difference in improving engagement with leads.
ERP systems automate processes
Importing contacts from different lead generating channels into one system? This is just one of the many steps that you can automate with an ERP system.
Sending out email blasts to prospects and even generating reports on your sales and marketing campaigns can also be done automatically within the system to lessen the administrative load of sales and marketing reps.
There you have it, that’s the advantage that ERP systems provide for lead nurturing. If you’d like to discover more about the sales management process of the products we offer, watch some of the videos that we have on the AlphaBiz Solutions YouTube Channel.
Check out our ERP systems and see which you think will be the best fit for your envisioned sales process and we can help you out!
You can also consult with our expert team by booking a demo or reaching out to us on our contact page.
