A huge reason I feel more salespeople are not successful is they give up too soon.
When I get asked this question by salespeople, my first response is, “You can contact them twice as much as you think they can.”
I say this because the tendency is to not contact out of fear of being seen as a pest.
The issue is not one of how many times should you contact a prospect, but it’s really an issue as to why you’re contacting them. If all you’re doing is saying “buy from me,” then in my book you don’t even have the right to contact them once
Only thing that approach is doing is helping to confirm in the prospect’s mind as to why you’re a jerk.
Reaching out to a prospect is all about providing them something of value. This means sharing with them insights they will be interested in.
Every communication, regardless of the form it takes — phone call, voicemail, email, mail, etc. — must be focused around providing value and demonstrating why you can benefit the prospect.
It’s important to always assume the prospect is receiving the communication you send them. If I’m a prospect you’re trying to reach and you send me the same information multiple times, you’re telling me I must not be paying attention and I’m stupid.
Basically what you’re doing is insulting the prospect. This is why you can’t look at what you communicate via your prospecting process as being nothing more than advertising copy.
Each communication you have, regardless of how you do it must contain a different insight. This approach is not as difficult as it may seem because you can typically use the same information / insight for multiple prospects.
You do want to remember to record what you send a prospect in case it does come up in a conversation with the prospect at a later time.
If you are looking for a simple follow-up approach here it is: Reach out to the prospect every 4 or 6 workdays and at a different time of day. This approach has you trying to reach them on a different day each week, increasing your odds of reaching them.
For more great prospecting tips, check out Breakthrough Sales University.
Copyright 2015, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.
