Cultivation Marketing
We’ve talked about the great importance of personal attention, nurturing, and follow up before the sale, but what about the importance after the sale?
In the fast paced environment of sales, usually we are focused on closing the next big deal, generating and purchasing the best leads, and constantly trying to outdo ourselves. This is a good practice to follow, but it is still vital to make sure that people who we have already closed, (the ones paying our bills) are completely happy, especially when there is a chance for a resale or a referral. This notion seems pretty straight forward, but let’s face it, investing time and money on things that can’t really show a blatant quantifiable return, is tough to swallow.
At Leads360 we recently undertook the task of doing some “cultivation marketing,” a term I coined that really encompassed what our ultimate goal was. For a second, imagine that you are a farmer who grows a type of plant. You first have to prepare the soil, plant the seed, and the nurture it to get it to grow. Once the seed turns into that plant though, there is much to be done. You have to make sure weeds don’t overtake it, insects don’t destroy it, and that is gets adequate water and light. Finally after all your hard work, the plant bears fruit. I am positive that you have heard this tired analogy to the sales process before, but bear with me as I take it a bit further. What happens after you have harvested all the fruit? Do you neglect the plant and let it die, now that you have enjoyed what it has yielded you? The farmer understands that although the plant may be initially finished with providing, if maintained, more fruit can be taken next year, and more importantly the plant can spread its seeds ultimately creating new plants. Going back to the sales process, this means that “cultivating” the existing sale can help secure another sale from them in the future, and increase your chances of that company referring you to a friend.
Next week, I’ll explain how Leads360 is taking on this challenge, and talk about the important considerations that should be taken when committing to cultivation marketing.
