Buyer: No

Seller

: Here are some facts on our shoes and why they are better than others.

Buyer: Hmmppff… ok

Seller : Here are some promotions and discount coupons which you can use later this year if you ever need shoes from us.

Buyer

: Alright but I don’t need them now

Seller: We have just launched a completely new line of sports shoes since and thought  you may want a copy of our latest catalog

Buyer: Intertesting

Seller: Here is an interesting article on the history of shoes which we thought you may like

Buyer: Do you still have that promotion you sent me two months ago? I’m going on a hiking trip and wanted to have a look at what you have that could work for hiking

Seller: (Smiles wide and knows he could make a sale here)

This may not be an everyday business to business marketing scenario but the fundamental rules remain the same. This is in its simplest form what  is all about. You can’t force someone to buy something when they don’t need it and yet, just because he/she doesnt need it now, it doesn’t mean they may not buy from you when they do need it. Knowing who your prospects are is the easy bit. Knowing when they are ready to buy from you and when they are ready to be pitched to is where

plays such an important part. It’s essence is about being able to build and maintain a relationship with the buyer through regular communication and then being able to tell when they are “sales ready”. It’s what a B2C mom and pop shop would do with their customers in a shoe store for example like the scenario above with a smaller number of customers where its possible to manually keep in regular touch with them. Where the number of prospects increase and physically keeping in touch with thousands, tens of thousands or more prospects becomes unthinkable that lead nurturing technology really comes to the rescue. Automating the process and being able to scale it to a larger number of users needs marketing automation or  however the basics remain the same.