Have you ever made a slew of cold calls or sent out a bulk mailing and wondered why so few sales resulted from your efforts?
You may be interested to know that, on average, it takes 9 touches to make a sale. If you made one phone call or sent out one introductory letter, you were only one ninth of the way through the sales process.
A comprehensive sales process will account for the number of touches expected to reach your audience. It would also account for the specific touch types that would be expected to work well in combination with each other e.g. cold calling in combination with email, direct mail and business presentations.
Dan McDade at Sales 2.0 expands on this sales rule of thumb:
…stopping at a single touch leaves anywhere from half to substantially more business on the table for your competitors to grab…
But you shouldn’t stop there. Our data also shows that the initial contact cycle; the first time you touch the market with those 9 individual touches, will yield only 40%-50% of the total opportunities…
Using the “one and done” approach, common in database marketing campaigns historically generates just one out of a potential 100 opportunities that are possible with multi-media, multi-touch strategy, multiple cycle campaigns against the same market.
Once you have resolved yourself to a thorough and varied sales process, it may also be time to consider whether or not your sales pitch is on message and your marketing tools have the ability to influence.
Photo credit (top): Nancy Rose
Great entry about individual “touches” for sales success. We do the same thing here at Salesconx with our clients. Keeping in touch with a short personalized email or even a quick call has made all the difference for us.
It’s something people don’t expect from us since we are a website for business referrals. Our new users are always pleasantly surprised that we call often to check in and to help with their deals on our site. It’s a great habit for small companies to get into and will make a huge difference in sales!
Gina
Marketing Manager
http://www.salesconx.com
Thanks for the comment Gina. It is interesting to learn of instances where this sales rule of thumb holds true.
In your case it would seem that your commitment to staying in touch with your customer plays double duty. It contributes to sales but also adds value in terms of customer service. Good job.