We've got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can't just accept it and leave it on the cupboard or just think it's going to get on by itself.

You've got to keep feeding and watering it. You've got to really look after it and nurture it. 
John Lennon 

I found this post from Modern BtoB Marketing Blog this weekend and was delighted to learn a new perspective on Nurturing Customer Relationships.
Clearly starting seeds from scratch means special attention to the environment of seedlings. They need nourishment, light and cultivating from the very start.

Good Nurturing

Jim

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January 27, 2010

Introducing Seed Nurturing

This is where seed nurturing comes into play. Seed nurturing is the process of building relationships with qualified prospects before you have their contact information.

It comes down to is this: prospects are educating themselves long before you actually identify them by landing on your corporate Web site as anonymous visitors, and researching your products and services through third-party resources, word-of-mouth recommendations, and social media sites. Just because you can't identify these individuals doesn't mean they aren't qualified prospects — and because of this, you must nurture them just as you would the known contacts in your database.

If you succeed at this, you will stay top of mind with your prospects as they educate themselves and move through the early stages of their buying process. As a result, they will come to you when they are ready to engage with a sales rep, and you will create a steady flow of highly qualified inbound leads. If you ignore the requirement to build relationships with these very early stage prospects, you're yielding this opportunity to more agile competitors who will scoop these savvy prospects out from under you. Patrick Donnelly Modern B2B Marketing Blog