Are You Giving Away 60% - 80% of Your Revenue by Ignoring Contact Nurture?

I hate transactional selling; it really sucks. Salespeople and companies that only want to sell are not what the market wants anymore. Think about it, when you meet a high pressure, pushy, transactional sales person, what do you do?

There is a problem brewing, and it's been building for a few years now: people are sick and tired of dealing with companies that only care about making the next sale. As a consumer, I know what I know I want, is authentic, quality, trusted, and fair relationships with people who have my best interests at heart.

The start of this journey when we want this type of relationship, always comes back to how you build and manage your relationships. The healthier your methodology for this, the more your clients and the market will love you and buy from you. But, and it's a big but, there is a huge elephant in the room.

The disconnect between marketing, sales, and management in many businesses leads to a focus on transactional sales, if you are no use to me in the short term, goodbye. The drive for short-term profits is causing all the focus to be on immediate revenue rather than building long-term relationships with contacts. It’s not controversial to say that sales and marketing often seem like they’re not working for the same company, but the real issue doesn’t lie with either department, it lies with senior management. If your teams aren’t working well together, that’s a management problem. The question is, how is this impacting your revenue? If you’re not addressing it, what are you losing? And if you do address it, what are the upsides? Yes, if you re-read that, you will see that the CEO and MD can actually increase revenue by 60 to 80 percent. Think of the analogy of a doctor, if they are not doing their jobs well in the surgery, the senior management steps in. Why would this be any different in sales and marketing? If its now working, they are not playing well, then you need to step in.

For the last 20 years, we’ve been in an order-taking sales world, marketing generates leads, sales takes them, and if they can’t close the deal right away, the lead gets discarded, and they move on to the next low-hanging fruit. Yes, the lead goes into a database, maybe even gets a monthly email if you’re lucky, but ultimately, the focus shifts to the next inbound lead.

But moving forward, it’s not going to be that easy. The cost per click is already skyrocketing, and it’s only going to get more expensive as companies scramble for a bigger share of a shrinking pie. People are searching less on Google and using other platforms that are quicker to build, go viral faster, and will profoundly disrupt the existing ecosystem.

The key to navigating this new world of lead generation is to truly take care of your base of contacts. Every contact you bring in, every lead you’ve engaged with, whether they’re ready to buy now or in the future, whether they could become a partner or be an influencer, they all need consistent, systematic interaction.

The benefits of nurturing done well are clear:

1. More referrals
2. Stronger relationships and trust
3. Entering the sales cycle at a healthier stage
4. Mutual understanding of each other’s products and services

This year, 63.6% of my personal revenue came from referrals, 27.3% came from networking, and 9.1% came from personal contacts. I say “my revenue” rather than the company’s because it’s easier to reflect on one person’s experience. And the reason my revenue from referrals and networking is so strong is that I’ve strategically stayed front of mind with people from day one, ten years ago. Interestingly, we don’t do email campaigns, though we probably should, but that’s a different conversation.

So back to nurturing contacts. If sending emails isn’t nurturing, what is? For me, nurturing is all about staying front of mind and building genuine, human-to-human relationships. It’s not transactional. It’s about investing real time, consistently, over years, and crucially, you do it without expecting anything in return.

Reflect on why we don’t do this more often:

1. We’re too transactional, focused on sales in the next six months, not thinking years ahead.
2. Our bosses push us for immediate revenue.
3. We care too much about ourselves and don’t give back.
4. We don’t see the importance.
5. We’re lazy.
6. We don’t allocate the time.
7. We don’t know how to do it.

Here’s how to get it right, in three phases:

Phase One: Clean Your Database Take the time to organise everyone you’ve met over the last 5-10 years. In those contacts lies the future of your business revenue. You already know people who could buy from you, if you sort it out properly. Set aside 6-8 hours to clean your base.

Phase Two: Categorise Everyone Identify who they are, what they do, and why you want to stay front of mind. Are they a prospect, an influencer, a partner, or a guide? Tag them accordingly, so you’re ready for the next step.

Phase Three: Build a Set of Nurture Methods This includes both one-on-one interactions and broader activities. The key is to tailor these methods to your audience. For example:

1. A call
2. A message on WhatsApp, email, or LinkedIn
3. A coffee meeting
4. An invitation to an event
5. Sharing relevant content
6. An invite to a webinar
7. An email newsletter
8. A conversation about the industry
9. Sharing their content
10. Liking and commenting on their posts

These ten actions take effort, but they range from a distant interaction (such as liking a post) to a personalised reach-out.

Now that we’re thinking about our base of contacts, the question is how we stay front of mind and build trust.

A case study comes to mind: A few years ago, I had a client, a company with billions in annual revenue but only around 400 target clients in Asia. The CEO was old-school, valuing authentic human connection. He wanted to be front of mind for any project his clients had, which ranged in size from $0.5 billion to $1.5 billion.

We mapped out 2,000 people to interact with, identified people within the organisation who could execute the touchpoints, and set up the CRM to support this. The strategy was simple: have a coffee twice a year, say hello regularly, stay front of mind, and build trust over time. No revenue targets, no spamming, just consistent, genuine interaction.

It took four years to see the impact, but eventually, revenue increased by about 200%. The pipeline was full, they turned away more opportunities than they pursued. This all stemmed from consistent human interaction and staying front of mind.

It works. It’s highly effective. The relationships you build with your clients will be stronger because of it. You’ll spend less time slogging through lead generation, and your business will be far more sustainable in the long run.

For the last 20 years, sales and marketing have struggled to align, and I don’t blame them. Managing salespeople can be like herding cats, it needs structure, KPIs, and discipline, and many sales managers just aren’t capable of this. Marketing has enough on its plate without having to fix sales too. This is a CEO and MD problem, they need to fix it. If they don’t, the next 20 years will look the same at best.