Small children are masterful salespeople.
“Daddy, I want an ice cream”. “No”. “I want an ice cream”. “No”.
They’ll ask. And ask. And ask. More and more insistently until the parent either gives in or snaps!
An older child could be just as persistent, but bide their time, making casual references to whatever they want and picks their moment. They may offer to do a deal by providing value first. “I’ll do this if you get me that”. Often they succeed.
In both cases persistence is the key.
Now obviously as an adult it’s not good form to act like a small child, badgering prospects. Nothing is guaranteed to turn them off more.
However, there are lessons you can learn.
The first “no” often just means, “not right now”. The timing might not be right or a myriad other reasons. But it’s not final.
Keep asking (without being a pest) and should circumstances change, your prospect may well buy.
Provide value first.
No one wants to be “sold to”. So find ways of adding value to each interaction with your prospect. Find out what’s happening in their world. What challenges are they facing? What interests them. And this could be personal as well as professional.
Then with every contact point, share valuable information or an insight that helps them in some way.
Don’t just ring them and say, “I’m calling to follow up!”
Now, I’m willing to bet most people reading this won’t make the effort to keep in touch.
It’s human nature. We all want to move onto the next thing. The new contact we’ve just made.
However, by doing so, we miss out on a veritable gold mine.
Let’s look at it from two points of view.
If it’s a prospect:
- At any time only 3% of your prospects are ready to buy right now if you present an offer to them.
- A further 7% are open to the offer and will give it active consideration.
- 30% aren’t talking about the issue, even if they’re looking for a solution in the back of their minds.
- A further 30% think they’re not interested – but could become so over time.
- And the final 30% are definitely not interested, no matter what you tell them.
But how will you know who falls into which camp?
The answer is you don’t!
So you must consistently keep in touch. Keep adding value. And when they’re ready, they’ll buy.
In our own experience, clients come on board anywhere from initial contact, weeks, months to years down the track after consistently reading our newsletters.
The second view is that of your network.
The average person is personally connected with at least 250 people. If you include social networks like LinkedIn, Google Plus and Facebook, it goes into the thousands.
Connections that could refer you on.
But most won’t. Simply because you’re not in their consciousness.
So make it a point to go back to your connections at least once every 3 months and just touch base. See how they’re doing. What’s happening in their world. Tell them what’s happening in yours.
Just doing that could trigger stuff both ways.
Make 5 or 6 quick calls a day. Send some emails. Watch status updates on LinkedIn. Comment on posts. It really doesn’t take much and the results could well astound you.
Want help creating an action plan to keep in touch? Call us and we’ll help you create a lead nurturing and follow up system which will enable you to close more business.
