How to Engage Prospects That Are Not Ready to Buy Yet

We’ve all been there before. The proposal is excellent, the prospect is qualified, but they’re still not ready to buy from you. As frustrating as it may seem, there are still a lot of things that you can do to make the sale.

Here’s a valuable tip we, lead generation services experts, can give you: A prospect that isn’t ready today might be ready tomorrow. Always remember that!

Now, Let’s look at the guide that examines strategies organizations can start doing today to eventually turn these prospects into high-value conversions.

Nurture Them

Part of lead nurturing is getting to know your prospects even better through research and communications.

Apart from lead generation, having adequate systems for lead nurturing helps to make sure that even the toughest prospects have a high chance of being converted.

What does a proper lead nurturing strategy entail?

Proper research to find out what their pain points are
Communication at every stage of the buyer’s journey
Strategically-timed follow-ups that follow a system
Analysis of the prospect at every stage in the funnel
Custom solutions for prospects if the need arises

These are just a few of the things that you can do during lead nurturing, and they all come together to help your prospect navigate the next stages in their buyer journey with you.

Educate Them

The aim of everything that you send to your prospects should be to add value to their lives, and what better way of giving value than through free education?

Whether it is a free eBook, fun facts, industry directories, case studies, or whitepapers, they all help to add value to the life of your prospect.

When you do this, you don’t even have to sell your product directly. Instead, you are marketing your organization as one that cares about the lives of their consumers. IN turn, you also establish yourself as a thought leader and an authority in your field.

Your prospects are more likely to trust in your expertise in the future, and it keeps the relationship that you have with them warm.

However, keep in mind that if you want to be more productive, make sure you’re educating them depending on where they are in the buyer journey.

If they are first starting out, it will make sense to send them materials that are related to their interests. As they progress through the pipeline, you can change it up a bit and start providing successful case studies of how other people have used your product to achieve success.

It doesn’t even have to be new material. You can always repurpose existing content for different industries or share another article from an authoritative third-party source.

Retarget Them

Retargeting is a great way to remind prospects about your brand without having to contact them directly.

A popular way to do it is to use a “Custom Audience” on Facebook Ads manager. All you have to do is to input the email addresses of prospects you want to retarget into a custom audience, add an ad, and you’re ready to go.

These ads don’t necessarily have to be salesy, and you don’t have to invoke a hard sell in your approach. Instead, aim to nurture, educate, and provide value to your prospects.

Make sure that you use highly relevant material in your ads for them to resonate with your target audience.

Schedule Follow-ups

If they happen to say “no” to you the first time because of particular constraints, ask them when they would be ready to look at the proposition again.

This allows people who might have given you a hard “no” to continue to stay in your funnel until they’re ripe for the picking. It’s an excellent method because it allows a prospect to be off the hook with you, but yet ensures that you have a meeting scheduled with them in the future.

Maintain the Relationship

If you manage to score a meeting with them and establish rapport, aim to keep that relationship going by checking on them and staying in touch. A lot of sales have piggybacked off of successful relationships with prospects.

A “just checking in” email is a great way to touch base with a prospect. You can even compliment a post that they shared or ask them for advice.

However, make sure that you are genuine with your communication because a genuine sale requires a genuine connection.

Ask Them What They Need From You

It doesn’t hurt to ask them what else they need from your end to seal the deal.

Some of the prospects that you interact with might like your solution, but they would still have to sell the idea to members of their team. This frequently occurs in organizations with a lot of DMUs (decision-making units).

If this is the case, ask them if they need anything else from you. Remember, they are technically trying to sell your product internally. It pays to help them out.

Also, by doing this, you open the door to a deeper connection with your client. It shows that you are willing to go the distance and that you are concerned about them.

There are still a lot of things that you can do today, regardless if the prospect isn’t ready to buy from you yet. It all depends on what strategy you want to take. Remember, just because they’re not ready, doesn’t mean they don’t want to buy from you at all!
Sometimes all they need is a little lead nurturing.