Tweet

Twelve Touches Before They Buy

Guest post by: Chellie Campbell

Article Overview: When you think about “selling”, do you get excited and happy? Do you look forward to calling a prospective client who just might buy your products and services?

Twelve Touches Before They Buy

“I don’t care how many degrees you have on the wall, if you don’t know how to sell, you’re probably going to starve.”—George Forman

When you think about “selling”, do you get excited and happy? Do you look forward to calling a prospective client who just might buy your products and services?

Or do you wrinkle your nose, back away, shake your head, and think, “That’s the worst part of being a small business owner”?

Do you really think sending emails is going to fill up your schedule with paying customers without ever having to talk with a prospect? How many emails do you get every day? How many people are in your database and how many emails do you think they get every day? What’s the compelling reason they should buy from you and not your competition?

Don’t get me wrong – emails are an important part of your marketing strategy. But only a part. It takesabout 12 "touches" before someonefeels safe enoughto buy from you. They have to hear about you, meet you, talk to you, read about you, talk to you again, see you speak, read your article, get a couple of emails, talk to you again, visit your web site, read your book, talk to someone else about you, and THEN they may be ready to buy your stuff!

Recently, I asked Joel Libava, The Franchise King, what was the number one reason most business owners were unsuccessful. He answered bluntly, “They can’t sell.” Nancy Sardella, owner of Worthwhile Referral Sources, told me about her experience attempting to franchise her networking business: “I sold franchises all over the country,” she told me. “I trained them on all the systems and gave them a complete script for how to make sales calls to get members. And they still couldn’t do it. I ended up closing the franchises and focused on running my own local operation.”

One reason many small business owners can’t sell is because they have the wrong attitude about selling. They think a sales call is asking people to give them money. Especially when you’re in a helping profession - making a call to someone to ask for money is hardly an empowering psychological position.

But they have it backwards. Selling is what you do to serve the customer. You are searching for the people who need what you have and helping them to have it. There are people praying for a great coach, or chiropractor, or real estate professional, but they don’t know who to hire and they are afraid of making a mistake. Making a sales call is the sacrifice you make on behalf of someone else out of your sincere desire to help them.

Make Gold Calls, Not Cold Calls

Cold calling sounds like what it is—harsh and cold. But since the money is in the phone, I call it “Gold Calling.” I painted gold dollar signs on my telephone which reminds me to dial the golden phone. All the money you want is waiting for you at the other end of the phone, but you have to pick it up and reach out and touch someone.

Cold calling works. But the percentage of sales is very small in relation to the number you of calls you have to make. So I prefer to network. Then all of my calls are “gold calls”. I’ve met these people already and we have a mutual interest in each other. This is a much easier phone call to make than a cold call to someone you don’t know.

Making calls to people after a networking event is the single most important action missing from most business owners’ game plan. They are happy to go to the meetings, eat, and say hello to people. They think the idea is to give everyone their business card. They have the illusion that if people are interested, they will call.

Why People Don’t Call You

Let me give you a tip: They aren’t going to call. Why? Because they have a life, they need clients themselves, they have another appointment, it’s their mother’s birthday, they have to wash their hair. They have fears. They have objections: You’re going to charge too much, they really should remodel their house first, it’s their daughter’s birthday tomorrow, maybe you aren’t really the best one for the project, they’d have to convince their Significant Other and that might mean an argument and that would lead to problems and oh it’s just easier to forget the whole thing…

Calling strangers on the phone is scary—that’s why it’s a sacrifice. You don’t know how you are going to be received. What if they’re angry and mean to you? What people want most in the world is love and acceptance and the biggest risk when you call a stranger is that you not only won’t get loved, but you’ll get screamed at.

So you can see how most people find it much easier to just wait and dream that their phone is ringing off the hook with people calling to give them money…

“Let me Tell You About Me!”

Then there are all the people who do pick up the phone and make the sales call, but who do it badly. They call and immediately start talking about themselves: “Hi, this is JimmyBobLinda. Let me tell you about me!” That’s an immediate turn-off. And right then, when their prospect is turned off, they launch into a long presentation about themselves. You instinctively know this person is focused on their own needs and problems and not on serving you.

Some people give up on making calls, asking, “Why can’t I just send an email?” If you’re getting all the clients you want from your internet marketing, fine. It helps if you’re famous, have a best-selling book, have at least 10,000 names in your data base. But if you don’t, and you weren’t in “The Secret” or on “Oprah” or “Larry King”, you get clients because people know you and trust you. They want to work with you because they like you and they believe you like them. You aren’t going to be able to establish that with most people in a generic email. An email is the ultimate “Let me tell you about me!” pitch.

Call people, but don’t try to sell people your product or service in the first minute. Get to know them. Ask them about themselves. Ask questions to find out if they might be someone who needs what you have. Wait until they ask you before talking about your product or service. Then they are a willing listener and you have an opening to interest them in what you have to offer.

But no business is going to get transacted after a networking meeting unless someone makes a phone call. Somebody has to go first. And since you’re reading this, that somebody is you.

And let me give you another tip: What goes around comes around. If you want people to return your phone calls – return theirs!

Related Articles
  “Twelve Major Benefits For Being Well Organized, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
  Service Over!
  What Goals Should I Set and What Plans Should I Make?
  By my new way of calculating it, Apple is the number one computer vendor in the US
  The TwelveStep Program for Financial Stressaholics

Article Tags: coach, financial, happy, money, stress reduction



Related Forum Posts
She Wins, You Win: The Most Important Rules Every Businesswo - She Wins, You Win: The Most Important Rules Every Businesswoman Needs to Know Gail Evans, 2003 Also author of Play Like A Man, Win Like A Woman Inside jacket: Every time a woman succeeds in business, every other woman's chances of succeeding in business increase. Every time a woman fails in business, every other woman's chances of failure increases. Gail realized that one of the most important elements of the men's game, which was missing from the women's, was support: The boys know how to take care of one another. In order to create lasting success, women need to help one another and band together as a team. TOC The Woman's Team Why you must play on the woman's team How to join the team Tips for the team 1. Be a mentor 2. Rainmake 3. Uncover and share information 4. Keep quiet 5. Unite with all women at all times 6. Make team-related choices 7. Weave a female web Challenges of the Team Twelve team members to watch out for The eleven most common team questions (and answers) Conclusions Acknowledgements My own view Haven't read this yet, but it seems like she's advocating an "Us against them" mentality. Neverthless, networking with fellow women - and men! - only makes good sense.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Basic Operating Question (BOQ) for Empowerment

Are You An Accidental Consultant?

Unspoken Yet Important Rules for Book Proposals

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.