Personalization: The Key to Lead Nurturing
Sales in today’s world is all about personalization. McKinsey says more than three quarters of buyers even feel frustrated when they experience what they feel is a lack of personalization from brands.
If you’re a sales rep or B2B marketer, you’ve likely already seen this — buyers want to feel like their entire brand experience, start to finish, was designed specifically for them.
Fortunately, technology makes this mostly possible for B2B companies to execute, but it’s a mistake to take a “set-it and forget-it” approach. Over automating is easily recognized by savvy buyers and it can make you seem disingenuous or worse — lazy.
The name of the game in 2023 for personalization in lead nurturing is to balance the technology of automation with the authenticity of real, human interaction. In this article, we’ll tell you how to do it.
Quick Takeaways
- The majority of B2B buyers will choose one vendor over others because it shows the strongest knowledge of their unique company and needs.
- Thorough discovery phone calls with your highest-potential leads are still an effective and personal lead nurturing tactic.
- Video prospecting is on the rise as one of the most effective sales personalization tactics available to B2B sellers.
- High-value content shared through both automated and individual custom messages is a time-effective way to personalize the buyer experience.
- Small personalized gestures still go a long way in the sales world and shouldn’t be a lost practice.
What does personalization look like in 2023?
Personalization is now an essential part of everyday brand/buyer interactions — customers don’t just like personalized communication, they expect it. B2B buyers in particular have high expectations for how their experiences will be personalized to their needs.
A recent survey found that 68% of B2B buyers chose a particular vendor over its competitors because they showed a better understanding of their company’s unique needs and tailored the buyer experience accordingly.
Big data and automation certainly make scaled personalization easier — without it, companies would have to choose between scaling their efforts and providing exceptional experiences.
The problem that’s arisen, however, is that some personalization tactics that were once novel (think first names in an email greeting or auto-generated follow-up messages customized by buyer behavior) are no longer so — they’re just run-of-the-mill.
To catch buyer attention and truly connect with them to make the sale, companies need to find ways to leverage automation without losing meaning and authenticity. This is most important during lead nurturing, when new leads are building their first impression of your company and deciding at every step whether they want to continue on in the buyer journey.
In the next section, we’ll look at four proven ways you can nail your personalization strategy to keep your pipeline full and win new clients.
How to Incorporate Personalization into Lead Nurturing
Discovery phone calls
Sales discovery calls aren’t dead. In fact, in a world where automated communication abounds, making actual phone calls is an approach that often stands out.
But as you probably already know if you work in sales, it’s harder than ever to get someone to actually pick up the phone. If your lead doesn’t recognize the number, they’ll likely ignore the call. Even more frustrating, some leads will recognize the number and still not answer, opting to stick with digital communication.
That’s why we recommend this tactic for your highest-potential leads — those that show the most real interest and purchase intent. Do your homework on those clients and call them armed with as much personalized knowledge as possible.
Be thorough in your discovery, encouraging your potential buyer to talk through their needs, challenges, and goals so that you can offer tailored solutions.
For the highest rate of success, use lead scoring to prioritize the best leads in your pipeline and the likeliest to follow through.
Video prospecting
Believe it or not, sales and customer conversation ranked as the #3 distribution channel for video in business — ahead of YouTube and online training videos!
This is no small part due to the changing nature of business. Interactions we once thought had to occur in person or on the phone are now easily conducted online. As a result, video (and video prospecting specifically) have emerged as new ways to keep a friendly face and real voice involved in the sales conversation.
At first thought, video can seem time consuming, but there are still ways to incorporate automation in the process. Video templates and pre-recorded intros or CTAs can be combined with personalized messages for each unique client.
Video can be especially effective at certain points in the sales process — like when a stagnant lead needs encouragement to keep moving down the pipeline, or as a quick follow up to a discovery call, or even incorporated into your lead nurturing email campaign with personalized solution ideas.
There is no one right way to do it, but the verdict is in: using video in the sales process is a win.
Sharing high-value content
Buyers love great content. They turn to it during the first phases of their research process (before they even think about reaching out to vendors) and it continues to be an essential piece of the puzzle after they’re well into the pipeline.
For B2B companies, content can be a time-effective but powerful way to personalize the buyer experience. It also boosts the ROI you earn on your content marketing efforts.
For example: If a buyer communicates a particular topic they’re interested in or a challenge they’re having, you can browse your content library for blog posts, infographics, webinars (and the like) that address it. Sending a quick email over with the content you found is a meaningful gesture from a buyer’s perspective.
You can also leverage content to personalize your lead nurturing strategy in a more automated way. For example, sending customized emails out to leads in various customer segments with content that’s particularly relevant to them.
Making meaningful gestures
Part of being a great sales rep is always paying attention to what your potential buyers are saying, then reminding them that you noticed later on. At the core of personalization in lead nurturing is consideration in its most traditional sense.
For example: If you’re on the phone with a lead contact and they mention their kids, or a hobby they love, or a certain event happening at their company — remember it. Take note. Be sure to mention it again the next time you talk.
It sounds obvious — the ABCs of being a good sales rep — but believe it or not, in the hustle and bustle of the business world today, that kind of attention and those kinds of gestures can be forgotten.
To personalize your lead nurturing strategy well, remember the little things and always follow through.
Revboss’s outbound email software and lead generation services are custom-built for startups, consultancies, marketing agencies, and other B2B organizations. Schedule a quick call with us and find out how we can help you win more clients.