We have all heard the Woody Allen saying, “80% of success in life is just showing up.” I would like to append his quote so as to remove any ambiguity. “80% of success in life is just showing up, again and again and again!” I read the following statistics recently and felt compelled to share them with you,
48% of sales people don’t follow up
25% make two contacts with a prospect and stop
12% make only 3 contacts and stop
10% of sales people make more than 3 contacts
Now compare the above with the realities of sales:
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 forth contact
80% of sales are made on the 5-12th contact – depending on the many variables of a particular sale such as size and frequency of the transaction, geography, seasonality, etc.
Nevertheless, the data is staggering. Most outbound sales efforts are meaningless in the absence of a process that allows for sustained contact with a qualified prospect. The truth is that just because you are ready (because you have a quota to fill or payroll to meet) doesn’t mean that the prospect is quite there yet. Consider that most of the time you are typically talking to the 90% that aren’t ready. That doesn’t mean you drop them in the everlasting search for the 10% that are ready now. It means that you must engineer your sales process so that you can have a meaningful and value-steeped contact leading up to their preparedness. If you wait till they are ready – then you are coming into the process too late and will likely have to be competing on price.
Stay relevant and when they are ready – most of your work will have been done!
To your Success!