As often as you are able to deliver new insights that your prospect finds interesting, you can contact him/her. Contacting a prospect is never about sending the stupid note that says, “did you see my list email?” or worse yet, “I’m just checking in to see if you’re ready to talk.” Excuse me, but “checking in” is what you do at a hotel, not with a prospect!
What you can’t afford to do in prospecting is fall into the trap of believing if you try to contact them more than a couple of times, you’re bugging them. Or, since they haven’t responded yet, they must be disinterested. Both of these are beliefs you can’t allow yourself to accept. The only belief you can have is one that believes in your ability to help them see and achieve what they didn’t think was possible, and therefore, it’s your responsibility to reach out to them. If you fail to reach out to them, you’re doing a disservice, because you’ll never be able to help them. If you want to be successful with your prospecting, that is the one belief you must carry with you at all times.
How to Simplify Your Prospecting, 5 Steps to Follow:
The number of times and the methods of contact you use to contact a prospect will vary based on what you sell, your buyer, and their frequency of purchasing from you. Don’t think that the mode of communication you prefer is the same as your prospects. You may love social media, but that does not mean your prospects do. You might detest email or the phone, but I hate to break it to you, those might be the best tools for your prospects. The key is using multiple tools at different times of the day, multiple days of the week.
The biggest trap salespeople fall into is relying too heavily on social media. LinkedIn is a prime example of a tool salespeople love to use for prospecting. To be very blunt, the active people on LinkedIn fall into the following four categories: salespeople, HR, recruiters, unemployed or soon to be unemployed people. Most other people do not have time to be on social media, because they’re busy working! Unless you sell to one of these groups of people, don’t kid yourself into thinking its where your prospects are. I work with a wide variety of business leads, key decision makers, etc. and the last place they choose to invest their time is on social media.
Let me share with you a sample cadence that I use at the beginning when working with a lot of clients and salespeople. Typically, I start with this framework and then tighten, tweak, and adjust it as both me and the client begin to define the prospect and the specific messaging. Here it is below:
Sales Cadence:
18 Touches over a period of 75 calendar days to include 10 phone calls, 6 e-mails, 2 text messages.
Sample Cadence:
18 Touches / 75 calendar days (45 working days)
1. Day 1: Email
2. Day 3: Phone
3. Day 4: Phone
4. Day 5: Email
5. Day 10: Phone
6. Day 12: Email
7. Day 15: Phone
8. Day 18: Phone
9. Day 21: Email
10. Day 23: Phone
11. Day 25: Text
12. Day 28: Phone
13. Day 32: Email
14. Day 35: Phone
15. Day 38: Text
16. Day 41: Phone
17. Day 44: Email
18. Day 45: Phone
The specific number of leads a salesperson can manage is determined by the amount of time they have to prospect each day. The key is don’t start what you can’t finish! If you can’t work a lead all the way through to the final step, don’t even start. A salesperson doing nothing but prospecting is capable of 100 – 175 contacts per day, depending on the technology tools they’re using. This means that by using this 18-step cadence, a full-time prospecting person should be able to add 10 – 20 new prospects to their pipeline each day.
If you’re only prospecting 3 hours a day, the number of new leads you can drop into your cadence will be no more than 5. The key, regardless of the time you spend prospecting, is to know the amount of time it will take to keep all of the prospects in your pipeline. Do not over stuff your pipeline to start! This is one of the biggest mistakes people make, and then they wonder why they’re not getting any results. It’s simple! They’re not getting them, because they can’t stick with their plan. Remember, the majority of the conversations you have with a prospect will not occur until you get past 10 touches. If you think your prospect will respond to your first email or be sitting by the phone ready to take your first call, you’re wrong. Sorry, but it just won’t happen!
As your leads move through the process, some will fall out and others will begin to engaging. However, for those who get to step 18 in this process with you without any communication, here are the rules:
· If the lead gets to step 18 with no contact, put them aside for 90-120 days and then being the process over again.
· If the lead has no potential and there’s a clear indication that the prospect is not interested, move them to your email list to receive your marketing emails. This is a good way of not letting them fall off the radar completely. Do not plan to put them back into the cadence until there is a reason i.e. something has changed.
· If the lead is in the “working stage” showing potential, work these steps as long as necessary.
· If the lead becomes a client, success!
The key is make sure each message is different. In my next blog, I’ll break down for you what makes a great email, text, voicemail, etc.
In the mean time, if you have not read High-Profit Prospecting, I suggest you do so now. Buy it here!
If you want coaching or your sales team needs more direction and training, I suggest you call or email me immediately. Let’s talk! You can’t wait until late in the year to realize you have a problem. Jump on getting the solution now – that’s the only way you’ll be in a position to have the year you and your team needs.
Copyright 2020, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Result
