Today’s B-to-B Marketing: It’s a Lot Like Shark Tank

Based on the answers to these and perhaps one or two other pertinent questions that would help you define your lead nurturing strategy (for example, industry or job title/function), leads should be scored and placed into an appropriate lead nurturing system that will help the marketer deliver ongoing content that will be most relevant to that prospect.

Best practices do NOT include asking questions about intent to purchase timeframes (God forbid you answer "in the near future" as that will guarantee an instant follow up call), budget size (really? Do you think I'll reveal that I have earmarked$100K on a form?).

Lead nurturing programs should include:

• Additional assets that can be distributed via email: Content can include a competitive review, an article that's relevant to the prospects vertical industry, research findings, videos that demonstrate how a product works, etc. These should NOT be sales literature but rather help the company position itself as an expert in their field. This in turn, helps build credibility and trust (key components in a B-to-B purchase).

• Invitations to webinars where a particular topic is explored. Webinars should include speakers from OUTSIDE the sponsoring organization to give the topic value and ensure the attendee isn't just signing up for a sales pitch.

• Invitations to breakfast or luncheon roundtable discussions: Bring in a speaker of interest and discuss a topic that is most relevant to your audience (especially if it's industry specific).

Over the course of time, you'll be able to ask additional questions / gain additional insights into your prospect pool that will help you become more familiar with them and the problem they're trying to solve.

After all, don't we all want to do business with people we know and like? The reality is, it is highly unlikely that I'm ready to buy after one simple download, so stop treating me like a piece of meat that has fallen into a tank full of hungry sharks.