Reach Out and Touch . . .
by CEO on June 10th, 2014
In my last blog I talked about ‘touches’ – studies have shown that it takes at least 10 touches to close a deal. So, what does that mean?
Recently, I did a workshop on follow up and found that most of the attendees thought that reaching out to touch a prospect or client meant only two things:
1) Calling them
2) Meeting with them
In actuality most sales professionals are probably doing more than they think. However, you probably don’t have a repeatable system – so how do you know? And since there’s no system, you have to come up with a ‘new system’ for every single prospect. That’s stressful!
Below is a sample system after meeting a prospect (not just anyone) at a networking event. Your system might be very different (depending on your product, service, or industry) but below is an start that you can use.
1st touch: Event – meeting them, qualifying them, getting contact information (business card). [I have a spreadsheet and I track where I met them. This gives me the ability to see what events I’m getting the best results from]
2nd touch: NTMY email – NTMY: Nice To Meet You [I have this as a systemized signature email (ie: basically the same email that goes to everyone with possibly a minor change or two, it does include a subtle CTA (Call To Action)]
3rd touch: phone call – ask for 2nd meeting (an appointment or coffee)
4th touch: Confirmation email – confirming your appointment or requesting a time (depends on what happened in previous call)
5th touch: Appointment – answer questions, create rapport, begin relationship, reconfirm interest (at the appointment it is purely get to know them. It’s not about you. Ask a lot of questions about them and their business.)
6th touch: Request to connect – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc
7th touch: Follow up email – recapping your appointment, giving information they requested, confirming or requesting time to show product/service
8th touch: Product meeting – attends a meeting to ‘sample a product’ or see your office (this would be dependent on your business)
9th touch: Thank you email – another signature email that includes benefits and sales info (how to buy, benefits of buying, etc)
10th touch: Rinse & Repeat – whatever of these touches might need to be repeated and repeat and repeat
Don’t over complicate it but DO systemize it. There are two simple rules for the system:
Rule 1: Write it down in a place where you can add, delete prospects easily from the system (I recommend a spreadsheet but I’ve seen people that use sticky notes on a wall. Doesn’t matter as long as it works over and over)
Rule 2: You can’t change the system for every individual. If you change your system it’s only because you realize that (over time) you have one of the following:
a) Something in the system is causing stress. This usually means that you’re just not doing it. Get rid of that touch. Replace it with something else that doesn’t cause you stress.
b) Something in the system is missing. Your doing something regularly but it’s not being captured in the system and it’s causing you stress because you may not know exactly where to ‘do’ it at.
by CEO on June 10th, 2014
In my last blog I talked about ‘touches’ – studies have shown that it takes at least 10 touches to close a deal. So, what does that mean?
Recently, I did a workshop on follow up and found that most of the attendees thought that reaching out to touch a prospect or client meant only two things:
1) Calling them
2) Meeting with them
In actuality most sales professionals are probably doing more than they think. However, you probably don’t have a repeatable system – so how do you know? And since there’s no system, you have to come up with a ‘new system’ for every single prospect. That’s stressful!
Below is a sample system after meeting a prospect (not just anyone) at a networking event. Your system might be very different (depending on your product, service, or industry) but below is an start that you can use.
1st touch: Event – meeting them, qualifying them, getting contact information (business card). [I have a spreadsheet and I track where I met them. This gives me the ability to see what events I’m getting the best results from]
2nd touch: NTMY email – NTMY: Nice To Meet You [I have this as a systemized signature email (ie: basically the same email that goes to everyone with possibly a minor change or two, it does include a subtle CTA (Call To Action)]
3rd touch: phone call – ask for 2nd meeting (an appointment or coffee)
4th touch: Confirmation email – confirming your appointment or requesting a time (depends on what happened in previous call)
5th touch: Appointment – answer questions, create rapport, begin relationship, reconfirm interest (at the appointment it is purely get to know them. It’s not about you. Ask a lot of questions about them and their business.)
6th touch: Request to connect – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc
7th touch: Follow up email – recapping your appointment, giving information they requested, confirming or requesting time to show product/service
8th touch: Product meeting – attends a meeting to ‘sample a product’ or see your office (this would be dependent on your business)
9th touch: Thank you email – another signature email that includes benefits and sales info (how to buy, benefits of buying, etc)
10th touch: Rinse & Repeat – whatever of these touches might need to be repeated and repeat and repeat
Don’t over complicate it but DO systemize it. There are two simple rules for the system:
Rule 1: Write it down in a place where you can add, delete prospects easily from the system (I recommend a spreadsheet but I’ve seen people that use sticky notes on a wall. Doesn’t matter as long as it works over and over)
Rule 2: You can’t change the system for every individual. If you change your system it’s only because you realize that (over time) you have one of the following:
a) Something in the system is causing stress. This usually means that you’re just not doing it. Get rid of that touch. Replace it with something else that doesn’t cause you stress.
b) Something in the system is missing. Your doing something regularly but it’s not being captured in the system and it’s causing you stress because you may not know exactly where to ‘do’ it at.
