Keeping the momentum: Nurturing prospects through a long sales cycle.

If, like many of our clients, you have the unenviable challenge of managing a long sales cycle for your products and services, we empathise with you.

We often talk about the long-term relationships we hold with our clients – with the majority of them being with us for more than five years - and nowhere do these long-term relationships bear more fruit than in the area of lead nurturing.

The reality is, there are rarely quick-win solutions in the sales environment and despite never-ending pressure to show results, the long-term view, in our experience, certainly bears the fruit of investment.

Lead nurturing isn't of course a new phenomenon; however committing the time and funding to long-term, engaging, methodical initiatives – both internal and external – can be rare.

One such initiative, Oracle's 'Enterprise Architects Club', focussed on a hard to target segment, is now in its fifth year. Our solution, a club where like minded people could come together, discuss innovation, share ideas as well as war stories, network with peers, and learn about the latest developments in technology, has become one of Oracle's most successful and long running lead nurturing programmes. This achievement was largely due to building on early successes and enhancing the programme; always harnessing the long-term vision and commitment of the client.

Sometimes a client-focused programme on which to hang the momentum isn't the solution. Sometimes the solution is closer to home – your own people. Mobilising your sales force so they are willing and able to demonstrate relentless intent can be as effective. A good example of such an initiative focussed internally, and very much taking the long view, is 'Winning at Marsh'.

A new sales leadership at insurance firm Marsh approached UpStage in 2009 to help develop, articulate and instil a revitalised sales culture with EMIEA sales leaders being accountable for performance.

A three-day sales leader's workshop was conceived for 200 participants across the EMEIA region. Marsh, understanding the long game, could see the benefits derived from this change dialogue and wanting to reinforce and build on past successes have subsequently run two more annual events. As well as these evolving milestone events there are regular, relevant touch-points for the sales force throughout the year. Three years down the line, we've just helped our client to celebrate the EMIEA sales force out-performing their North American counterparts for the first time.

These are just two examples of big strategic investments by our clients but strong sales leads and demonstrable ROI are achieved by combining relentless creativity with sustained engagement.