You’ve captured new leads, great! But now what?
It’s not enough to simply generate interest. We’ve written an article about where to find leads and how to trigger them. But chefs, bakers, and catering managers need time, trust, and timely support before they’re ready to buy. They are probably not going to change their menu todays. Maybe they even have plans for the season of this year, so you need to be the most relevant food brand whenever the purchase decision comes closer. That’s where lead nurturing comes in.
This article explains how to make the most of your new leads, what data to capture, how to track behaviour, and how to recognize the signs that a lead is ready to convert.
Start with the Right Information: What You Must Store
Not all leads are similar. To nurture them effectively, you need more than just an email address. But in some flows, starting with the email address is already a good step. You know that you have access to his mailbox and possible his attention now, and you can start sending messages to get to know more about this person.
“Hello uh, new contact!
Would be nice if we can call you by your name next time, do you mind giving us some information about yourself?”
“We’ve just ordered new birthday presents, but we don’t know when your birthday is… yet. Please tell us when your birthday is and to where we can send our surprise on your next birthday!”
This is actually a very straightforward, but polite way to get more data. Just asking and giving a reward in return. Maybe you would not think, but a getting a “personal” email with your name above, is a reward as well for the relevant leads! It feels like a connection.
This is called progressive profiling and it is done a lot in lead nurturing. You start with the basics and you will make your offer more and more relevant based on the information that you get from this contact. And when this contact is comfortable enough with you, you can ask him to provide the next piece of information, of course with a matching reward for the contact.
A good profile for segmentation consists of a.o.
– Basic Contact Details, such as Name, Company name, Email address, Job title
– Segmentation Details, such as Type of business, business size, product interest, wholesaler
This data is stored in fields in your CRM, and they are usually connected with fields in forms that the contact can fill in itself. The contact and segmentation data are very useful for “lead grading”, to what extent is this lead relevant for me? Is he working at the type of restaurant that I want to target, is he a decision maker, does his business is big enough for us to focus on. These kind of questions make a rule-based decision tree that provides insights if this lead has a Grade A status, or a Grade C. (or Gold/Silver/Bronze, High/Med/Low). Grading is about quality of the business environment.
Then we store behavioural data, from the start through the process of nurturing.
– Source of the Lead, for example media channel, campaign, date
– Digital Behaviour, such as website visits, clicking behaviour, number of contact moments
Behaviour reveals intent. You can’t grab a phone and call every lead immediately. Not because of your limited sales team, and not because the lead is not ready to buy and does not want to defend himself yet against your sales offer. An irrelevant sales offer can be the reason why you lose a lead. But by closely watching their actions, you can prioritize who to follow up with. That is done by lead scoring. Every action that a lead can possible do in your emails, on your website, via other platforms that you can track, are given a certain score.
A lead score is the sum of all points awarded by doing preset nurturing activities over e certain time. Limit the time to be sure that you do not follow up a lead that has only shown intent years ago!
Behavioural information is stored without the collaboration of the contact. He does something, but he is not aware of giving information. This information will be stores in your CRM in tags, or records, or labels, depending on what CRM that you use.
Overview: The differences between Lead Grading and Lead Scoring
Lead grading
– Evaluates who the lead is
– Based on your match with lead profile and business profile
– Used to filter high quality leads
Lead scoring
– Evaluates what the lead does
– Based on digital actions
– Used to track readiness
Handoff to Sales or Automate the Sale
Once a lead is ready, he scored a good amount of lead score points and he is graded as a potential lead, you have two main options:
- Hand Over to Sales
If a demo or a sample could help to introduce a product that is unique or very innovative, the lead score above a certain level could indicate that one of your sales reps should make an appointment with this lead. To talk, show, help with implementation of this new product in the outlets operations.
- . Automated Sales Journey
For smaller or standard orders, use automated email sequence will do. In Foodservice, the wholesaler as a distribution channel makes is somewhat harder to push sales, but you can support a first sale with a time limited cashback promotion, using direct links to the specific web shop pages at the most common wholesalers. Easy access to a local wholesaler or direct web shop is very important. The key is seamless transition. Don’t leave a warm lead waiting.
Final Advice: Think Long-Term, Act When It Counts
Lead nurturing is about balancing patience and precision. Not every chef or baker is ready to change suppliers today. But when they are, you should be top of mind.
Start today by making your CRM suitable for long term nurturing and saving all the relevant information. Make a plan how to start collecting email addresses and all the other info that is needed in your scoring and grading.
We have done CRM projects for various customers and can give you a kickstart and some suggestion to start with. If you do not have the time but you recognize the urgence to start now, let’s get in contact! By collecting smart data, tracking behaviour, and acting on real signals, we can create conversion journeys that feel helpful and not pushy.
Are you already working in Lead Nurturing, but the results are lower than you expected? Then see our checklist of common mistakes and try to identify where your focus should be on for the upcoming weeks!