How far do you go to get a sale?

Written by Paul Routley

I’m in a slight state of shock as I write this article…the reason for my dismay comes from a discovery I made recently when I was buying something for the business. When it came to concluding the deal, the choice of who I gave my business to was so easy, it was frightening! It wasn’t because they were the cheapest, it wasn’t even because they offered the best product… the reason I gave them my business was because they were the only company that were actually trying to win my business!!!

Let me explain, I initially made 16 enquiries to various companies that offered what I was looking for. Let me ask you firstly how many responses did I receive back from these 16 enquiries? 16? No, not even 10, I received just 9 initial responses. So 7 companies didn’t even bother to respond to my enquiry? Incredible isn’t it that 7 companies didn’t even bother to respond to an enquiry. The field from which I was going to make my choice, was almost half the size I expected it to be. From the 9 that responded, they all sent me their respective literature and quotations, however, after taking the trouble to make the initial call and send me literature how many followed up with a phone call? Just 3! That’s right just over 30% followed up with a phone call!!!

So out of the remaining 3, how many called back a 2nd, a 3rd or even a 4th time to keep the lines of contact open? Just 1, 1 sales person kept at it, they kept in contact, they kept persevering, they took the occasional “can you call back another time” response, they kept in touch and their perseverance paid off. It wasn’t a tough choice - in the end, this keen and hungry individual won the deal through sheer persistence and also demonstrated that they valued me as a potential customer.

This does not come as a complete surprise to me that most people don’t go far enough to follow up sales enquiries, after all we have just come from a boom period where clients and enquiries are plentiful, but now where are we? Which ever label you want to put on the circumstances we find ourselves in, the fact is that enquiries and clients are not as plentiful as they were a year ago, so we all need to think about the way we follow up enquiries and where we want to be. Do you want to be the 6 that sent information and failed to act, the 2 that didn’t take enough action to win the business or the winner that kept going until they won the business?

Let me ask you a question, how many contacts do you think it takes to secure the average sale? You might be surprised to hear that it takes between 5 and 9 contacts to secure this, something to consider next time you do not follow up a potential customer; that extra call might just put you ahead of the competition.

© Real Selling 2010