How Much Is Too Much Contact?

How many touches does it take to make a sale? The simple answer is more than you think. According to our non-scientific focus group of the teams I work with, the average is 8 touches. And that is eight touches to make the first contact. It takes eight contacts or touches to get an initial meeting with a new prospect. But the initial meeting is merely the beginning. Consider the prospects you are calling on. Do you think they are waiting around to hear from you and only you? The first contact gets us nowhere. One contact is useless. People are busy and not thinking about us the way we think about them. While our job is one hundred percent of what we do, it is less than five percent of what your prospect thinks about, on the regular.

What happens next is one of two paths. Either we reach out again after a couple of days, or we drop them and move on to someone else to repeat this insanity. From your prospects point of view, they have barely even noticed you. Looking at it from our side of the coin, we are worried about what the prospect might think of us. Are we pestering them? The truth is you are not even on their radar, yet. Remember, they are not thinking about you the way you are thinking about them. You are not a thought at this point. Timing has not met opportunity. Here is where most sellers will drop the call pattern. They will move on to someone else, again to repeat the insanity. We give up way too soon, sometimes when we are close to the pin. As Thomas Edison wrote, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

Yet, some will press on and make a third attempt at contact. Those at the top of the profession will vary their ask. Those struggling to make it will call with the same delivery and patterned question. They are uninteresting and in the valley of sameness of every other salesperson. The key to your contact outreach is to have a theme for your outreach but not a boring, rote pattern. I have told you many times, If you sound like everyone else, you will get treated like everyone else. And you, you are different. So be different. Find a way to stand out from the crowd. Work on your business reasons for this call. Are you calling because the prospect is a number on a list, or do you have something of value to offer? Do you have something of interest to your prospect? Would you return your own call based on the ask?

For sellers who make the fourth call, please realize you are only now beginning to be noticed. Your prospect has thought for a split second about you. But nothing more. Press forward. Most of us were raised to be polite, so, in our minds, we think we are hounding someone at this point. But if the prospect wasnt aware of the first three attempts, does the fourth one put you in stalker territory? Keep calling. Keep trying to make contact. That is if you have something of real value. If your goal is to sell what you have and not help the customer, you may be in the abyss of sameness that keeps your call from being noticed. Do your best to stand out.

What sane seller proceeds to the fifth contact? Well, it should be you. If you know that you are not on the radar screen at this point. Contact them again. Provide a curiosity point of value. Remember what the goal of the outreach is. You are not selling by telephone; you are making contact to get the appointment. Sell the appointment. Sell the idea of meeting with you as having a value that could not be learned on the internet. Sell the idea of what meeting with you could mean to their business. But treat it like a commercial. Do not give them a laundry list of choices, but one compelling reason to meet with you. Remember that too many options fatigue the thought process. Give them one compelling reason to meet with you.

Not getting anywhere after five attempts. Try another method. I am a fan of third-party referrals. Reaching out to someone in my network who knows that person and will vouch for me. You may have another preferred method, and that is fine. What I have found is when a third party does the ask it has more staying power. When people commit to something to someone else, it is more likely to have legs. Telling a third party they will meet with you gives a thin veil of accountability. Yes, it is guilt and shame. But this is a method that works more times than it does not. Besides, you have made it to round six. Wouldnt it make sense to keep going?

You are getting closer. Would you dare call again? I would say, Yes. Now you have broken through. You have spent time and effort to get on this persons radar. Why would you give up now? Remember your theme: You are there to help. Reach out again. Create a sense of urgency about the contact. Have a timeline or end date on the help provided. Deadlines can sometimes move people off of the high center. This is not a threat, mind you. This is a gentle reminder that time is sensitive and expiring. It puts a sense of urgency on the delay. But be mindful that your prospects sense of urgency and yours are not yet aligned. So, call again.

In all my years of doing this, I have only had one complaint call about persistence. And my answer to the prospect was, I bet you would love to have someone like that selling your product. Think of all the extra business you would get. Complaint handled. It may have produced a job offer for my seller. Time-sensitive and pattern outreach does not have a limit. If something is a good idea, in your mind, continue to pursue it until you get an absolute no. Or the timeframe for execution has passed. Good is good. No one will be upset with you by providing them an opportunity to better themselves.

One thing I have done in cities where I work is visit the local chief of police. I will ask that person to sign a letter stating, No one on my staff will be investigated or charged for making too many phone calls to the same person in a short period for business purposes. Now, this is a tongue-in-cheek letter I will get, but I hand it out to the staff. I absolve them from the internal guilt some feel when calling the same prospect over and over again. I will also remind them almost all sales begin with some kind of cold outreach. This outreach eventually gets warmer, as prospects know who you are and what you represent. This is the job. This is where it starts. It starts with consistent and persistent contact.

Think about this. The average company closes on or about 20% of its leads, and a good company can close on or about 30%. And your buyers prefer the first contact to be by telephone. On average, 49% of buyers in all businesses prefer that initial contact be made via cold call. Despite the internal wiring inside your brain, prospects may be more receptive than you imagine to cold calls. The higher up the food chain you go, the more this preference increases. C-level executives prefer this method of contact at a 57% clip. Tell me again how the telephone is ineffective in the digital age.

What about blocking time for prospecting? Thirty years ago, that time was first thing in the morning. At least it was for me. Yet, in todays business climate, the end of the day is more effective. According to Outplay, the best time of day is now between 4:00 pm and 5:00 pm, in the prospects time zone. This time has 71% more conversions. That is when compared to the second-best time which is between 11:00 am and 12:00 pm. That is unless you are calling a restaurant that serves lunch. What is the worst time of day? That would be 1:00 pm. The best day of the week is Wednesday, while Monday morning and Friday afternoon are terrible. Go figure. Check your prosecting call blocks in your weekly calendar. Can you move your schedule around to take advantage of this statistical probability?

There are some words you should avoid. And avoid it like the plague. Is now a bad time? The answer to this question is always Yes. This is a person who was not expecting your call and has a schedule of their own to keep. You have now stated the obvious and given them a reason not to talk to you. But I see sales helpers all over the globe recommend this as an opening diffuser. I would submit to you that it is a door closer rather than an opener. Understand you are most likely interrupting their day. Be judicious with the time commitment. Get to the point. Remember why you are calling. It is to secure an appointment, not make the sale over the telephone. You have an invitation to an exclusive party. Ask for their attendance and confirm the date. That is not a length-of-time commitment.

Outreach calls to secure appointments fail more often than succeed when they are over five minutes in length. The failure rate is three out of five or sixty percent. The odds are already stacked against you. Dont make it worse by being too wordy. Be brief and be more effective. You have not earned the trust of the prospect and so you have not earned the right to take up more of their time. You earn that in the appointment. Remember why you are there. You are making the call to secure the meeting, not to make the sale. That need not take more than five minutes. Keep your call short. Go buy an old-fashioned egg timer. Use it to make your calls.

Think about the balance of your call. Who uses all the words? Heres a hint, it shouldnt be you. If you are using all the words, there is no room for conversation. A conversation involves two people, otherwise it is a monologue. Who wants to listen to that? Who would agree to an appointment with the promise of more of that? Be careful of your I statements. If the exchange drifts to a more self-centered nature as you apply your I statements to every sentence, expect it to go poorly. Research from Gong.IO suggests that we statements are more powerful and inclusive. It seems more like a partnership than an invitation to a sales call.

Here is another debate. To leave a voicemail or not leave a voicemail that is the question. According to MarketSplash, only 15% of customers listen to voicemails from numbers they do not know. Years ago, I would have recommended you not leave a voicemail. Continue to call and make contact. Today, I will say, It is most likely a good idea. But make sure the voicemail is compelling and has a clear action task assigned to the prospect. Otherwise, it will fall into the vast wasteland of the 85% unlistened-to, unreturned voicemails left by salespeople. Again, when you sound like everyone else, you get treated like everyone else.

This statistic gets worse if the only thing you do is leave a voicemail. This should not be your only form of contact. Create multiple touch points besides the telephone. This is not as a substitute for calling. And dont be surprised if your return contact comes from the other form of outreach. Consider that a win. While a large percentage of people prefer first contact to come via telephone, most would rather respond to you via e-mail. Or respond via some other form of contact. This does not absolve you from using the telephone. Use all potential forms of contact in your outreach. This is what helps you stand out in a crowded field. It gives the illusion that you are everywhere and can handle any challenge.

Research from Salesforce highlights 52% of customers expect a personalized experience from businesses. Part of that personalization is respecting how often they wish to be contacted. Prospective clients are turned off by salespeople who appear desperate to close a sale at any cost. Instead, clients prefer to do business with those who focus on building a partnership, not just making a sale. Studies show that clients respond best to communication that is spaced out enough to give them breathing room. Yet frequent enough to keep the sales relationship alive.

Many a sales expert emphasize the power of subtlety in ongoing client communication. Customers are more receptive to gradual interactions rather than high-pressure sales tactics. That is according to a study done by LinkedIn. Think of each interaction as part of a story rather than a demand. Every touchpoint should feel like a natural conversation rather than a calculated sales pitch. Consistent contact builds trust over time. It keeps communication channels open, making clients feel valued rather than targeted. Data shows that companies with a strong focus on gradual, consistent outreach tend to see an 18% higher rate of engagement than those that lean toward intensive, frequent contacts. Add this to your outreach plans for your sales franchise, this year.

My new book 21st Century Sales Success is now available on Amazon. If you like what you have read, please consider ordering a copy or two. You can always send one to a friend. Order your copy here: https://bit.ly/21stCenturySalesPB