Hello Reader,
In 2011, Google released some incredible research which I believe every Business Owner or Sales Professional should know.
Google Zero Moments of Truth identified that for a person to feel comfortable buying from you, they need 7 hours of content across 11 different interactions across 4 different media.
Why does this matter and why is it linked to week 7 of the Ultimate Sales Plan email series?
Hello to all those new subscribers. Here are the past 6 weeks of emails which cover everything you need in place to create a sales plan that WILL achieve results.
So, engaging with prospects takes time. Just to back up the 7/11/4 research, a further study done by the Institute of Sales and Marketing shows that only 10% of people in sales make more than 3 contacts with the prospects they have. And yet 80% of sales are done on that 5 to 12th interaction.
So week 7 is all about persistence.
But not persistence in an annoying way that makes other people feel you are a pain in the backside.
Persistence with value and showing that you care.
A few months back, I shared with you a story of a friend who’s a sales guy for a company that sells farming and agricultural products. You can read the full story here. Would Stuart have won the business if he had given up after the first rejection?
No, he wouldn’t and it’s why we have to show persistence when we are trying to win new business.
Here is how you should approach it. There are 2 elements to it.
Point 1
Firstly, set yourself a schedule to engage with your prospects over a set period of time. Let’s say that the average time it takes for a prospect to work with you is 4 months.
This means you have to engage with them for that period of time with regular insights and points of value.
Create a schedule like the one below where you have in place a schedule to engage with each prospect each week. Use different forms of media (email, social, call) each week to make contact and try to grab the attention of the other person.
The likelihood of them responding after one email is small but by Month 2, week 4 when they may have had 8 different engagements your chances of success rise.
Can you guarantee that it will work? No, because not everyone we speak with will engage with us. But if you do take this approach with the 40-60 targeted prospects that you have, then I guarantee that you will pique their interest and potentially open up a door.
Point 2
Implement the strategy above, but ensure that the way in which you do it, shows your persistence is with value. Can you (within your communications) share some of the content that you created in week 4?
Here is an example of an email which you could send that is value-adding and that shows the prospect that you understand their position and challenge:
You can amend this for social media, or maybe a call or video prospecting message, but the essence is the same.
When we engage on a regular basis with valuable content and insights that show we understand them and their roles, it makes prospects intrigued.
We are all interested in what is RELEVANT to us and when we feel people are trying to help it warms us to them even if we don’t know them.
So, don’t give up too soon. Show some persistence and accept that things may not happen for a while. But if you have followed the first steps of choosing the ideal customer, have identified their problems and created some content that gives them ideas on how to solve this then it will work.
It’s the core outline of how to turn people who are cold into buyers who are sold!
Google don’t get much wrong, and their 7-11-4 model (engaging consistently) is how to generate business.
This approach will generate business. It does work. It will generate results.
Interested in having access to all of this Sales Plan knowledge and my energy and experience to get results? Join my Sales Plan Course and become part of the community of business professionals who are getting great results by working with me!
So ,we are nearly done. The final part of the plan is ensuring that once you have got a response and engaged with a prospect that you maximise this. We don’t want to do all of the hard work of finding them to then lose them in the first meeting!
That is why we need to build rapport in first meetings and that’s what next week’s email will cover.
Until then, keep smiling and stay focused on becoming a fly on the wall of the brain of your buyer.
James