Loading I own a Treo 650 Cell phone. Nothing too fancy and it gets the job done…
The other day I was looking at my phone log and surprisingly enough it goes back over a year. So I was looking at the dates and times I was calling people over a year ago. I was trying to remember why I called this specific person and that specific person and it just reinforced the fact that time flies and the different projects we work on always blend into something else.
The dozens of phone calls, emails, meetings, and projects brought up feelings and it was hard to believe that this stuff happened a year ago.
Now you might be asking why am I bringing this up.
Slow down, stop for a second, and look at your emails you sent a year ago. Look at work you were doing a year ago, or your calendar. It will amaze you how different things can be. Who is in your life now?
Now let me ask this. How many leads or deals did you let slip through the cracks?
How many unconverted meetings or sales appointments did you have to where you NEVER followed up with them. The fact is often times our prospects are not ready to buy when we want them to buy. They are ready when THEY are ready to buy.
48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect
25% of sales people make a second contact and stop
12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop
Only 10% of sales people make more than three contacts
2% of sales are made on the first contact
3% of sales are made on the second contact
5% of sales are made on the third contact
10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact
Why is this? Several reasons. Psychological issues because people are bombarded with your message and probably are not listening to your message the first time.
Secondly, people’s lives change. Life is a moving parade, so if you are not following up with your prospects you are missing out on a large percentage of sales because the timing is now better for your prospects.
I realized this even more when looking back at the phone logs.
I suggest you do this experiment yourself.
Do you have a system to continually touch people in that it gives VALUE to them.
Make yourself valuable.
-Matt
It is indeed amazing how fast time does go. I had never seen those statistics before regarding how important follow-up is, but I guess it does make sense. I myself hardly ever buy on the first time now that I think about it. But then again, I rarely go to the first person I ever talk to or look at. This is something I definitely need to implement.