Marketing is just like gardening, so how do you make a plant (and prospect) love you?

I’m reading this book, How to Make a Plant Love You, by Summer Rayne Oakes. It’s great. For all you plant parents out there, you should check it out. But it got me thinking how gardening is so much like marketing.

Cultivating plants is just like nurturing prospects. If you tend to them and they do well, they will thrive. Ultimately, a healthy plant (or a delighted customer) can reduce life’s stresses and improve your overall outlook.

Let’s dig in.

#1 Decide on the best time to plant your seeds.

If you start planting too early, you might kill them. Start too late, and they may not have enough time to mature.

Marketing: Like gardening, success stems from when and how you start. If you start forcing the prospect to decide far too early in the process, you’ve killed your chance. Starting too late, and you may lose them to the competition.

#2. Gather everything you need to ensure the successful growth of your seeds.

If you don’t have earth, water, and light, your seeds won’t germinate.

Marketing: If you don’t have the data on your prospects, they won’t even consider you. You need to know who they are, what pain or great aspirations they have, and where they go to find answers to their problems. Without the right information, the chances of them doing business with you will shrivel up and die.

#3. Provide the ideal conditions for growth.

Once you’ve planted your seeds, it’s time to make them comfortable. It’s time to give them what they need when they need it.

Marketing: If you’ve done your homework, and have a decent understanding of your prospect’s needs, then it’s time to make them feel comfortable and establish a level of trust. Now is when you can share helpful, educational, and timely information demonstrating your understanding of their situation. Show them you can help solve their problems. This is how you grow that relationship.

#4. Keep your seedlings healthy.

It goes without saying that your plants need the perfect conditions to stay healthy.

Marketing: having a healthy pipeline gives you the confidence to focus on the nuances that separate a good prospect from a great prospect. And we all know a great prospect has a higher likelihood of converting into a new customer.

#5. Transplant!

When your seedlings are about 2.5 inches tall and have roots protruding from the bottom, it’s time to transplant.

Marketing: if only it were that easy. Deals are often lost because we aren’t accurately assessing the prospects’ progress through the buyer’s journey. However, there are some indicators that the prospect is taking root and ready to transplant into a customer. Here are a few indicators that my favourite salespeople have shared with me:

• Are they asking about price or discounts? “Is this a quarterly or monthly contract?”
• Are they considering risk minimization? “What’s your customer support like?”
• Are they using possessive statements? “This will fit in well with our current systems.”
• Are they asking next step questions? “Where do we go from here?”

Remember, seeds sprout and grow into healthy plants by nature’s design just as prospects turn into delighted customers by marketing and sales design. So if you follow the steps above, you’ll be giving them a little support to ensure they (and you) are successful.

Happy growing!