This guest post is brought to you by Paul Mosenson.  Paul is the Founder of NuSpark Marketing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Consider the following statistics from Sirius Decisions:

Only 20% of leads are followed up on

• 70% of leads are disqualified due to budget, lack of timing, etc
• 80% of “bad leads” do go on to buy within 24 months
• 73% of companies have no process for requalifying leads
• 80% of sales occur after the 5^th contact

Where most companies focus on lead generation, or, generating leads into the “top of the funnel,” most companies do not have an adequate system to handle non-sales ready leads. With the emphasis on new sales-ready leads, those leads that are deemed “not-qualified” now can very easily be qualified within 6 months to 2 years provided they are nurtured through their individual buying cycles.  By nurturing, we mean communicating problem-solving content on an ongoing basis through email and or social media channels.  When prospects engage with a vendor by downloading content or viewing webinars, for example, they inch closer to their buying decisions and their “lead score” increases.  Once the lead score reaches a defined threshold, those leads are sent to sales for closing, because they are deemed sales-ready.  Without nurturing, leads leave the funnel, and those leads engage with competitors who provide value and content consistently.
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This guest post is brought to you by Howard Davidson.  Howard is Marketing Director for Piehead in Portsmouth, NH.

Conan O’Brien has some Chris Brogan in him. Conan is about to reach 1.8 million Twitter followers. He regularly gets 100,000+ views on his YouTube videos, like this one of a dancing taco during the recent 24-hour live feed to promote his new show on TBS. Conan, and his staff, embrace social media, to great fanfare and added exposure.

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