Have you just added 70 new contacts to your CRM following a webinar? Are you returning from a trade show with dozens of business cards from prospects? Have potential clients left their email addresses on your website this month?
Maintaining the relationship after this initial contact is crucial. This is now commonly referred to as lead nurturing . This step is often overlooked. Here's why it shouldn't be:
- This initial interaction was costly. Consider the price of your booth at the trade show. Factor in the time you spent preparing your webinar.
- Your prospects have short memories and forget you quickly . Even when they need you. Even when they showed enthusiasm during your interactions.
- The majority of your prospects don't feel an urgent need to buy your products or services. It's up to you to convince them .
How long do you typically wait before following up with a prospect? How often do you contact them? What do you do when they disengage? How do you understand their preferences? Do you send them personalized messages?
If you get stuck – or if an inner voice whispers to you: “I’m not doing enough” – your prospecting is likely to quickly hit a glass ceiling.
In this article, we will explain how to avoid this using PRM .
What exactly is PRM?
Unlike CRM ( Customer Relationship Management ), PRM (Prospect Relationship Management) remains relatively unknown in the field of relationship marketing. Yet, PRM is an effective tool for increasing your sales.
PRM is considered a subset of CRM. More specifically, CRM is used to manage and improve a company's relationships with all of its contacts: prospects, customers, and partners . PRM, on the other hand, is specifically designed for managing and improving relationships with prospects.
In other words, a PRM strategy allows you to focus on the specific expectations of your prospects. A prospect doesn't ask the same questions as your customers. They don't have the same problems or the same expectations. It is therefore much more relevant to build a full-fledged relationship .
How do you know if you need a PRM?
Now you know what a PRM is. But is it really worth changing your current processes? After all, you've already converted prospects into customers without a PRM.
You can absolutely function without it. But you risk missing out on many opportunities . Here are 5 situations that should prompt you to take action.
You often send the same campaigns to your entire database
A new offer? News about your company? You tend to share this information with your entire database. Here are two reasons why you're taking a big risk:
- Your customers and prospects are not receptive to the same information.
- Your prospects are much more volatile than your customers.
Sending untargeted campaigns to your prospects is likely to disengage them more quickly. Your prospects are information overloaded. And unlike your customers, they haven't developed any connection to your company.
It is therefore important to properly qualify your prospects and to emphasize the personalization of the messages addressed to them.
You don't know the level of engagement of your prospects
Do you know today who your prospects are most likely to buy your products or services? A prospect who responded to your last campaign is more likely than one who hasn't opened your emails for 6 weeks.
What happens when you don't have quick access to this information? You miss out on hot leads ready to meet with your sales team. You're also more likely to lose a prospect permanently because you haven't done anything to re-engage them.
To avoid this, implementing a lead scoring system proves very effective. These features are available in the Magileads platform .
Your prospects are "ghosting" you
Your latest lead generation campaign was a success. You collected a lot of contact information. The problem? Three-quarters of those contacts then ghost you. To use a common expression, your prospects are acting as if you no longer exist. This situation demonstrates that your prospecting funnel is ineffective .
Are you ensuring your prospects are properly onboarded? Have you planned a series of interactions in the days following contact acquisition? In other words, what are you doing during this period when your prospects are at their most engaged?
If you haven't automated this process, it's normal that a large portion of your prospects are slipping through your fingers. Using PRM (Prospect Relationship Management) is therefore a good option for sustainably growing your pipeline.
Your conversion rate is not satisfactory
Are your sales team struggling to convert prospects into customers? This could be due to poor lead qualification. You're having trouble identifying relevant contacts who are ready to buy your products.
PRM could be the lever you need to increase your conversion rate:
- Lead nurturing helps you move your prospects down the sales funnel.
- You accumulate knowledge about your prospects (progressive profiling) through the history of your interactions.
- Your sales representatives are better equipped to conduct their meetings.
Thanks to a customizable scoring system, the Magileads platform allows you to build a tailor-made PRM strategy.
Your marketing and sales activities are doing well
A PRM (Project Relationship Management) system isn't just useful when you have a problem to solve! Above all, it's a powerful lever for improving the efficiency of your marketing and sales efforts. It allows your teams to save time and increase their results. A PRM is becoming essential for any company that wants to optimize its prospecting activities.
PRM: How does it work?
For a lead generation strategy to work, you must first generate leads. Therefore, choosing effective prospecting methods . In the B2B sector, inbound marketing has grown considerably. This technique involves attracting prospects with content that interests them. The possible formats are numerous: webinars, podcasts, articles, infographics, etc.
You then need to qualify these prospects to differentiate their level of readiness and tailor your communication accordingly . This means first gathering relevant information using your contact forms and lead tracking tools.
Once you've gathered this initial information, your prospect is ready to be integrated into a scenario . A marketing scenario is a series of actions triggered based on conditional rules. For example, you might decide that if your prospect downloads your white paper, they'll receive additional content a few days later. Before scheduling these actions, you can create your " Customer Journey Map ." This is a visual representation of all interactions with your prospects.
Note that your prospects' needs, roles, and expectations can change along the way. The marketing department must be able to stay informed and adjust its strategies accordingly. It's crucial to ensure your data is always up-to-date. This is precisely what Magileads guarantees with its dynamic database of 20 million B2B contacts.
Do you want to implement an effective PRM strategy? Use the tools offered by Magileads
Recognizing the need for a PRM strategy , Magileads offers customized automated tools. These tools help you implement an effective acquisition strategy based on marketing tools . These include targeting , database enrichment, campaign scripting, and lead and partner scoring .
