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1. How-To Guide
Alignment with Lead Nurturing
Executive Summary
The sales team complains that the tradeshow, web, or other leads they get are junk. The
marketing department says the sales team doesn't even call the quality leads they produce.
Does this sound familiar? The basis for this common rift is a poor lead generation,
qualification, scoring and nurturing program.
This How-To Guide will outline the following:
 What is lead nurturing
 What are the benefits of lead nurturing
 Action plan for getting started
If you already have a deep understanding of lean nurturing, this guide isn’t for you.
Instead, we recommend that you conduct a benchmarking exercise so that you can create
a game plan for improving your lead nurturing capabilities. To learn more, read our
Revenue Marketing Transformation Guide.
What is Lead Nurturing?
Lead nurturing is about building solid relationships through consistent and meaningful
conversation with the right people regardless of their timing to buy. The intent is to raise a
company’s profile, making it more likely that a prospect will select your product/service
over your competitors when it is time to buy. The technology used in lead nurturing
encourages organizational alignment because it facilitates the pre-qualification of early
stage leads before they are handed over to the sales team.
1 © 2012 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

2. How-To Guide
What are the Benefits of Lead Nurturing?
 Reduction of Missed Opportunities
Although many sales reps give up on an opportunity after one unsuccessful sales
attempt, the stats show that people who take a vendor demo usually end up buying
inside of 18 months.
 Better Allocation of Resources
By plugging your longer-term opportunities into a lead nurturing program, you can
automate a 'drip-style' email marketing campaign that provides useful information,
webcasts, or other valuable material that will help your prospect make a decision.
This is more cost effective than having a sales rep call every 2 months to 'check-in'.
 Sales & Marketing Alignment
Working together to establish a lead scoring & nurturing system will better qualify
opportunities, set proper expectations, and avoid the syndrome of fighting about
how ineffective the other side is being. Assess the level of alignment between both
functions by using our Sales & Marketing Alignment Tool.
Action Plan: Getting Started with Lead Nurturing
1. Start Scoring Leads - use Demand Metric's Lead Scoring Template to help you
analyze leads and identify strong prospects. The best possible score for a lead is 100,
which is based on 6 criteria for evaluating explicit and implicit need for your product
or service. Be sure to engage a leader in the sales department for this alignment-
building project and consider using our Qualified Lead Definition Tool.
2 © 2012 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

3. How-To Guide
2. Evaluate Nurturing Tools – use Demand Metric’s Lead Generation and Automation
content area for help selecting and implementing a marketing automation system
and to figure out how you can create leads for your sales team. A few popular
templates from this section include:
 Marketing Automation Vendors Matrix
 Marketing Automation Business Case
 Marketing Automation ROI Calculator
 Marketing Automation Vendor Evaluation
3. Create a Drip Campaign – use Demand Metric’s Lead Acquisition Model to outline
and communicate your lead generation and nurturing process. Create your first drip
campaign by writing a series of emails that will be sent to prospects on an on-going
basis.
4. Measure the Results – Measure the results of your first drip campaign and adjust
your strategy accordingly. The goal is to create a sophisticated lead nurturing
program that includes multiple tracks for different buyer personas and buying stages.
For more information, read our Content Marketing Plan Methodology.
Bottom Line
Avoid the common rift between sales and marketing by taking a collaborative approach
to lead nurturing.
3 © 2012 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.