Do you remember the childhood game "Mother, May I?" The object of the game was to be the first to move from point A to a designated point B. The trick is that forward movement is attained only after permission is requested by asking: "Mother, may I?" and granted only after a gatekeeper of sorts responds with: "Yes, you may." Ah, the lessons we unwittingly acquire in those early years.
In business today, more savvy--and consequently, more successful--agents understand that forward gains are more easily made when permission has been first asked of and then granted by prospects or clients. And further that no aggressive selling should take place before this has happened.
This isn't an entirely new concept. Lots of gurus are talking it up these days. It's a concept given birth by Seth Godin, president and founder of Yoyodyne Entertainment and author of Permission Marketing. In his book he expertly defines permission marketing as the natural successor to interruption marketing, that style of advertising where companies interrupt their prospects in their daily routines, TV, driving, etc., with an assault of continuous and often overlapping messages. The result of interruption marketing, he says, is that the customer retains only a miniscule amount of information and often no lasting impression.
I believe that with permission marketing, the challenge is to persuade only those viable customers and prospects to "raise their hands" or volunteer their attention. It works like this. You tell prospects a little something about your company and its products; you offer something of value if they tell you a little something about themselves. You give them a little more; they tell you a little more--and over time, you create a mutually beneficial learning relationship that leads to a true dialog and fosters the desired sales activity. It's a commonsense process, yet one that many find difficult to apply.
I suspect it may be because "nurture" is part and parcel of the process. Many companies find nurturing an elusive concept and one that is initially hard to understand. It's a bit easier if you think about it in terms of its highest purpose, which is to gain and keep permission from highly desired prospects and clients so you can educate, influence and finally serve them.
Here's where the lesson of our childhood game comes into play. If you apply the nurture process and permission marketing concepts, the question becomes: "Customer, May I?" Nurturing is, therefore, everything that you do to encourage prospects and clients to answer that question by saying: "Yes, you may."
Just about every contact you make, every offer you extend to your key constituents on your company's behalf has the intention of ultimately persuading and influencing their purchasing decision. That includes letters, e-mails, gifts, bulletins, newsletters, promotional mailers, etc. Typically, all of these contact events include an invitation of some sort whether subtle or overt: Consider our special services ... we have eight customer lines so call anytime to learn more about what we can do for you ... discover how good our one-to-one service really is."
Letters and e-mails can say the same things in less obvious ways. Essentially, these messages are asking for permission to stay in touch, educate, influence or serve.
Once the contact is made, watch for and carefully react to any sign that permission has been granted. A lead from a trade show or a call back from a direct mailer is a permission signal. But if the sales and subsequent relationship could be compared to a crackling fire, these initial small gestures of permission are merely flickers. Any good scout will tell you that it takes work to produce a fire from just the first flicker. You blow on it, add kindling and nurture it into life; you give it time to grow.
Don't dally about on this issue. It's just as damaging to receive permission and then fail to nurture properly, or at all. Surprisingly, many leads often go completely unanswered. Like interrupting the flow of water and nutrients during the growing season, ignoring permission granted is especially unfortunate because it wastes all the money and resources you put into the initial marketing effort and sadly it abuses the permission granted.
Without software tools, following up persistently and appropriately on every lead has been difficult. There simply wasn't an effective process for capturing and tracking such vital information. Of course, today, that's no longer true. Technology makes staying in touch fairly simple if we're willing to utilize it in this capacity. A simple note saying, "We have your inquiry and it's been passed to John Doe for follow-up," engages the Nurture process and ensures that requests are answered.
Getting and keeping permission requires you to deliver an ongoing suite of messages to your prospects and clients that instill trust and intimacy. Both trust and permission are multiple contact sports. If you hope to take your small flickers of permission and make them grow into roaring fires of awareness and of preference, create a symphony of gestures that earn permission and use the tools of communication to cement permanent permission and a top-of-mind position.
Questions or comments for Jim Cecil? Nurturing tips and details are available at: www.nurturemarketing.com. *
The author
Jim Cecil and his team create sales and marketing strategies for agents that cause prospects to call them first and not forget them. Feedback is welcome at www.nurturemarketing.com
or (800) 474-7951.
©COPYRIGHT: The Rough Notes Magazine, 1999