Nurture is the process of fostering development and success by providing care, support, and protection. This concept applies broadly, from raising children and cultivating gardens to developing a talent or helping a plan come to fruition.
The word "nurture" entered English in the 14th century from the Latin 'nutrire,' meaning to nourish. Initially, it referred to the training and upbringing of the young. A century later, the verb form emerged, relating to feeding and caring for something as it grows.
By the 18th century, its meaning expanded to include the figurative sense of furthering development. This evolution set the stage for the famous "nature vs. nurture" debate. This discussion questions the influence of genetics versus environment on human development.
Nurturing environments are crucial for healthy growth, shaping everything from personal traits to cognitive abilities. The support and care provided through nurture directly influence an individual's potential and overall life trajectory, making them ready to learn and thrive.
In outbound strategies, the distinction between nurture and nature mirrors the classic debate, focusing on either developing potential or targeting inherent fit.
The concept of nurture is universal, but its expression varies significantly across cultures. Different societies place unique emphasis on aspects like independence versus community support. These cultural nuances shape everything from parenting styles to professional development, reflecting diverse values and communication methods in how growth is fostered.
This is how you can apply nurturing principles to foster growth.
How does nurturing differ from lead generation?
Lead generation focuses on identifying potential customers. Nurturing builds relationships with those leads through targeted communication and valuable content, guiding them through the sales funnel until they are ready to convert.
Can nurturing be automated effectively?
Absolutely. Automation is crucial for scaling nurture campaigns. The right tools can deliver personalized, timely messages based on user behavior, maintaining a human touch while efficiently guiding leads toward conversion.
How do you measure the success of a nurture campaign?
Success is measured by more than just immediate sales. Track metrics like engagement rates, lead-to-opportunity conversion rates, sales cycle length, and the total revenue influenced by your nurturing efforts over time.
Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM) is the portion of the market you can realistically capture with your current resources, sales, and marketing.
Intent data tracks a user's online behavior—like searches and site visits—to identify signals that they are ready to make a purchase.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) software helps teams coordinate personalized marketing and sales efforts to land high-value customer accounts.
AppExchange is Salesforce's cloud marketplace, offering a vast ecosystem of apps and expert services to extend Salesforce functionality.
Loss aversion is our tendency to feel the sting of a loss more acutely than the pleasure of an equivalent gain.
An inside sales rep sells products or services remotely from an office, using digital tools like phone and email to connect with customers.
Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is the predictable income a company expects to receive from its customers over a one-year period.
Affiliate marketing is a performance-based model where affiliates earn a commission for promoting another company’s products or services.
CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) software is a sales tool for creating accurate, configurable quotes for complex products and services.
Account-Based Analytics measures engagement and impact across target accounts, not just individual leads, to guide B2B sales and marketing efforts.
Touches are the individual interactions you have with a prospect throughout the sales process, from emails and calls to social media messages.
Integration testing is a software testing phase where individual modules are combined and tested together to verify their interaction.
Account-based advertising is a hyper-focused B2B strategy that targets key accounts with personalized ads across multiple channels.
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Outbound leads are potential customers a business proactively contacts through outreach like cold calls, emails, or social media.
The self-service SaaS model allows customers to independently sign up, use, and manage a product without any direct help from the company.
Cost Per Impression (CPI) is the price an advertiser pays for each time their ad is displayed to a user, irrespective of clicks.
Single Sign-On (SSO) is an authentication method allowing users to access multiple applications with one set of login credentials.
Programmatic advertising uses AI and real-time bidding to automate the buying and selling of digital ad space, targeting specific audiences.
GPCTBA/C&I is a sales qualification framework for understanding a prospect's goals, plans, challenges, timeline, budget, and authority.
Corporate identity is the visual and verbal persona of a company, encompassing its logo, color palette, communication style, and core values.
Voice broadcasting is an automated system that delivers a pre-recorded voice message to a large list of phone numbers simultaneously.
Personalization in sales means tailoring outreach to a prospect's specific needs, interests, and context to make communication more relevant.
A trusted advisor is an expert who builds a deep client relationship by consistently prioritizing their best interests over any single transaction.
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) is a web security vulnerability that allows attackers to inject malicious scripts into trusted websites.
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Lightning Components is a UI framework for building dynamic web apps for mobile and desktop devices on the Salesforce Lightning Platform.
A Proof of Concept (PoC) is a small exercise to test whether a business idea or project is technically feasible and has real-world potential.
Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) is a business model where companies sell products directly to customers, bypassing traditional retail middlemen.
Rapport building is the process of establishing a connection and mutual understanding with someone, creating a foundation of trust and affinity.
A Data Management Platform (DMP) is a software that collects and organizes audience data from various sources for targeted marketing efforts.
A landing page is a standalone web page created for a marketing campaign. It’s where a visitor “lands” after clicking an ad or email link.
CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, is the code that styles a website. It controls the colors, fonts, layout, and overall look of a web page.
A dialer is software that automatically dials phone numbers for agents, boosting call efficiency and connecting them to live prospects faster.
Key accounts are a company's most valuable customers, vital due to their significant revenue contribution and strategic importance for growth.
Pipeline management is the process of tracking and managing potential customers as they move through the different stages of your sales process.
A custom API integration is a bespoke connection between software, enabling them to communicate and share data to meet unique business requirements.
No Cold Calls is a sales strategy that replaces unsolicited calls with warm outreach to prospects who have already demonstrated interest.
CCPA compliance is adhering to the California Consumer Privacy Act, a law that grants consumers more control over their personal data.
A sales dashboard is a visual tool that centralizes and displays key sales data, metrics, and KPIs to help teams track performance and goals.
Forecasting uses historical data to make informed predictions about future trends, helping businesses anticipate outcomes and plan accordingly.
Personalization is the practice of using data to tailor products, services, or content to an individual's specific needs and preferences.
Dark social is the sharing of content through private channels like messaging apps or email. This traffic is hard to track as it lacks referral data.
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A Champion/Challenger test pits a new 'challenger' against the current best-performing 'champion' to see which one performs better.
A touchpoint is any time a potential or existing customer comes in contact with your brand, from seeing an ad to receiving an email.
A sales funnel is a model illustrating the customer's journey from initial awareness to the final purchase, narrowing down leads at each stage.
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“Always Be Closing” (ABC) is a sales mantra meaning every action a salesperson takes should be with the ultimate goal of closing the sale.
Email verification is the process of confirming that an email address is valid and deliverable, which helps improve campaign performance.
Customer Retention Cost (CRC) is the total amount a company spends to keep an existing customer over a certain period of time.
A warm email is a message sent to a prospect with whom you have a pre-existing connection, like a mutual contact or a prior interaction.
The Challenger Sales model is a methodology where reps teach prospects, tailor their pitch, and take control of the sales conversation.
Trade shows are events where companies in a specific industry showcase their latest products and services to find new customers and partners.
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A competitive landscape is an analysis of your direct and indirect competitors, revealing their strengths, weaknesses, and market positioning.
Price optimization is the process of finding the ideal price for a product or service to maximize profitability or other business objectives.
A sales script is a pre-written guide of talking points that helps salespeople navigate conversations with potential customers.
Data privacy is an individual's right to control their personal information, including how it's collected, processed, stored, and shared.
A follow-up is a communication sent after an initial interaction to continue the conversation, provide more value, or prompt a response.
Sales productivity is the measure of a sales team's efficiency, focusing on maximizing revenue generation while minimizing the resources spent.
Regression testing ensures that new code changes don’t negatively impact existing features. It's a key step to maintain software quality after updates.
Consultative selling is an approach where salespeople act as expert advisors, diagnosing customer needs to provide the most suitable solutions.
Warm outbound is a sales strategy for contacting prospects who've shown interest in your brand through prior engagement, like website visits.
A demand generation framework is a strategic process for creating awareness and interest in your product, ultimately driving new business.
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An enterprise is a large-scale organization, often a corporation, defined by its complex structure and substantial number of employees.
Logo retention is a key B2B metric that measures a company's ability to retain its customers, or 'logos,' over a specific period.
A Representational State Transfer (REST) API is a web service that uses a simple, stateless architecture for systems to communicate online.
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Ransomware is a type of malicious software that encrypts a victim's files, holding them hostage until a ransom is paid for the decryption key.
Forward revenue is the total value of all active, committed contracts that are expected to be recognized as revenue in the future.
Product-market fit is when a product meets the needs of a strong market, leading to high demand, customer satisfaction, and organic growth.
"Smile and dial" is a high-volume sales tactic where reps make numerous cold calls from a list, often with little to no prior research.
The decision stage is where a well-researched buyer chooses a vendor. They compare specific products and pricing before making their final purchase.
Kubernetes is an open-source system for automating the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.
“No Spam” is a commitment to sending only relevant, solicited messages. It means avoiding bulk, unwanted emails to respect the recipient's inbox.
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A Marketing Qualified Account (MQA) is a target company that has shown significant engagement, indicating it's ready for the sales team to pursue.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a focused B2B strategy where marketing and sales collaborate to target and convert high-value accounts.
Scrum is an agile framework that helps teams structure and manage their work through a set of values, principles, and practices.
DevOps is a culture and set of practices that merges software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) to shorten development cycles.
Pipeline coverage is a key sales metric. It's the ratio of your total open pipeline value to your sales quota for a specific period.
The marketing mix is the set of marketing tools a company uses to sell products, defined by the 4Ps: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.
A Salesforce Administrator is a certified professional who manages and customizes the Salesforce platform to meet a company's specific business needs.
A tire-kicker is a prospect who shows interest in a product but has no intention of buying, wasting a salesperson's time and resources.
Closing ratio is a key sales metric that shows the percentage of leads or proposals that result in a successful sale.
Product recommendations are a marketing strategy that uses customer data to suggest relevant products, boosting sales and customer engagement.
Cold emailing is sending unsolicited emails to potential customers you haven't contacted before, aiming to start a business conversation.
Revenue Operations KPIs are quantifiable metrics that track the performance, efficiency, and health of a company's revenue-generating engine.
Cold calling is a sales tactic where reps contact potential customers by phone who haven't previously expressed interest in their product or service.
Buying criteria are the specific requirements and standards a customer uses to evaluate products or services before making a decision.
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A Point of Contact (POC) is the designated individual or department that serves as the main hub for information and communication on a matter.
Solution selling is a sales approach focused on understanding a customer's pain points to offer a comprehensive solution, not just a product.
A sales playbook is a guide that outlines your sales process, best practices, and tools to help reps sell more efficiently and consistently.
A soft sell is a low-pressure sales tactic that uses subtle persuasion and relationship-building to gently guide customers toward a purchase.
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The buyer's journey maps the path a potential customer takes, from first becoming aware of a problem to making a final purchase decision.
Digital advertising is the practice of delivering promotional content to users through various online and digital channels like social media or search engines.