Follow Up is Free and Profitable
Follow Up is Free and Profitable
The National Sales Executive Association conducted a survey on how many sales you can get depending on how many times you contact your prospects. These statistics emphasize how important it is to have sales persistence.
• 48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect
• 25% of sales people make a second contact and stop
• 12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop
• Only 10% of sales people make more than three contacts
But,
• 2% of sales are made on the first contact
• 3% of sales are made on the second contact
• 5% of sales are made on the third contact
• 10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
• 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact
These statistics astound me and I spend a lot of calls and emails following up. I confess that sometimes even I fail to follow up more than three times. So why do we not follow up enough?
• Too busy, didn’t get to call
• The person’s name did not make it to a ‘touch today’ list
• The time allocated to make follow up calls got allocated elsewhere
• Don’t have a single ‘touch today’ list, it’s in several places
• Don’t have a series of things to propose that seems appropriate
• Don’t know what to say, when you’re just ‘checking back’
• Want to build the relationship, but not sure how
• Haven’t tracked how many times already called, is it too soon
• Haven’t set a follow-up action, don’t know what to propose next
Your own personal list is probably some of these and more. With 90% of the sales made after the third contact, it’s clear that this is the result of a relationship being built. Relationships take time and repeated contacts.
But consider this. Calling is free! You already have a phone, a long distance plan, and extra cell phone minutes. So there is nothing else to pay. Email is free since you already have an email mechanism. A card is less than a dollar even with today’s postage. For a great set of sample follow up letters see: Free Sales Follow Up Letters. So this kind of prospecting and following up is a real low-cost sales idea. That’s a great plus in this economy.
Persistence will make the difference in sales. Follow-up calls are necessary and effective. If you’ve been at it more than a couple years, you’d agree that it takes pigheaded discipline and determination to grow a business. This is a sentiment attributed to Chet Holmes, author of “The Ultimate Sales Machine” and perhaps anyone else committed to success.
So, I challenge you to make a list of people you haven’t followed up with and make some calls. Call me and tell me how it’s going.
Follow Up is Free and Profitable - To learn more about this author, visit Merra Lee Moffitt's Website.
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It’s a recession; we’re cutting our advertising budget even though we know we shouldn’t. We’re racking our brain to see what else we can do to drive sales without spending too much. Well here’s a free sales and advertising method. Follow up!
The National Sales Executive Association conducted a survey on how many sales you can get depending on how many times you contact your prospects. These statistics emphasize how important it is to have sales persistence.
• 48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect
• 25% of sales people make a second contact and stop
• 12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop
• Only 10% of sales people make more than three contacts
But,
• 2% of sales are made on the first contact
• 3% of sales are made on the second contact
• 5% of sales are made on the third contact
• 10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
• 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact
These statistics astound me and I spend a lot of calls and emails following up. I confess that sometimes even I fail to follow up more than three times. So why do we not follow up enough?
• Too busy, didn’t get to call
• The person’s name did not make it to a ‘touch today’ list
• The time allocated to make follow up calls got allocated elsewhere
• Don’t have a single ‘touch today’ list, it’s in several places
• Don’t have a series of things to propose that seems appropriate
• Don’t know what to say, when you’re just ‘checking back’
• Want to build the relationship, but not sure how
• Haven’t tracked how many times already called, is it too soon
• Haven’t set a follow-up action, don’t know what to propose next
Your own personal list is probably some of these and more. With 90% of the sales made after the third contact, it’s clear that this is the result of a relationship being built. Relationships take time and repeated contacts.
But consider this. Calling is free! You already have a phone, a long distance plan, and extra cell phone minutes. So there is nothing else to pay. Email is free since you already have an email mechanism. A card is less than a dollar even with today’s postage. For a great set of sample follow up letters see: Free Sales Follow Up Letters. So this kind of prospecting and following up is a real low-cost sales idea. That’s a great plus in this economy.
Persistence will make the difference in sales. Follow-up calls are necessary and effective. If you’ve been at it more than a couple years, you’d agree that it takes pigheaded discipline and determination to grow a business. This is a sentiment attributed to Chet Holmes, author of “The Ultimate Sales Machine” and perhaps anyone else committed to success.
So, I challenge you to make a list of people you haven’t followed up with and make some calls. Call me and tell me how it’s going.
Follow Up is Free and Profitable - To learn more about this author, visit Merra Lee Moffitt's Website.
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Casey GollanCasey Gollan, Business Coaching & Mentoring Programs. Add $1 Million to $10 Million in the next 1 to 3 years. Since 1996 Casey has to added hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses. Watch a free video see client results Business Coaching website. - Visit Casey Gollan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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