Timing is Everything

One sales related question that is impossible to answer is how often you make your outbounds or reach outs to your prospect database. The reason it is virtually impossible to provide a blanket response is because people are different.

The highly aggressive salesperson may contact a higher percentage of people but may turn a higher percentage of them off with his tyle.

The laid-back salesperson may develop a relationship quicker and establish trust but will connect with a smaller percentage of prospects.

And this does not take into consideration the personalities of the prospect with each person having their own preference of how they would like to be contacted and how often. At the end of the day, no prospect WANTS to deal with a salesperson or a business owner selling their product and service. They enter the sales process begrudgingly to fill a need.

Regardless of the pace and frequency of your outbounds, there must be a process of how and when you are reaching out and it must go on indefinitely. Your prospects are NOT going to call you.

I have engaged with sales professionals on more occasions than I can recount to discuss “Where we are” with a particular prospect. It is not uncommon to hear responses like:

·       They are going to issue and RFP soon, we will be invited.

·       They have our information, they said they will reach out when the need arises.

·       I spoke to them last week, they told me to call them next month.

·       I have not reach out in a while, I have left so many messages I was afraid I was getting annoying.

Ever hear any of these responses?

These are responses that are passive and demonstrate the lack of a plan. Consistent and persistent follow up is imperative to engage with prospects and enter them into your sales process.

Consistent outbounds, regardless of the number of times you have reached out to each prospect, is of utmost importance because TIMING is EVERYTHING!

If you speak to your prospect today, everything could be good, they have no problems with their current vendor. You tell your prospect you will reach out again later. They have no loyalty to you, even as a backup plan currently. A week later, they have an issue with their current vendor that makes them think they should consider other options. The next day, your competition calls them and suddenly they are willing to meet to discuss their needs.

Even IF they reach back out to you to let you know they are willing to meet, you are playing catch up because your competition is setting the bar as far as expectations go.

·       If you are waiting for an RFP, some other company is working with them to develop the RFP.

·       If you are waiting for them to reach out should the need arise, they are not going to. Even if they will contact a few vendors should the need arise, how do you know your product or service is in alignment with their needs so that you are on the short list of companies they will contact?

·       If they tell you to call back later, they are simply trying to get your off the phone.

·       Afraid to annoy them? Tweak your process to make it less annoying but if you are not contacting your prospects to ask for their business, you are not getting their business. You get 0% of the meetings you do not ask for.

The moral of the story is that your prospects are conducting their business each day and they are impacted by the market, their customers, their suppliers, and their employees. Every day is different than the day before so they may not have a need for your products and services today but that could be different as early as tomorrow.

You MUST have a consistent and persistent outreach process if you want to connect with your prospects because timing is everything and not having a process and a cadence is the only way to guarantee you miss the mark.