How Many Contacts Do You Need to Make a Sale?
In a cutely titled post called “Six Degrees of Customer Separation,” my cyberfriend Sean D’Souza opined that it’s going to take six contacts before his prospects become customers. And that he actually doesn’t expect (or even particularly desire) a sale right away. Other experts use Jeffrey Lant’s “Rule of Seven” contacts.
I take a heretical view of this. Here’s the comment I posted on Sean’s article.
Actually, the answer is (like so many things) “it depends.” I actually talk in my book Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First about how to bring the six or seven impressions down to just one by laser targeting the intersections of prospect’s need/desire, frequency, and message. In other words, if you make exactly the right offer to the right person at the right time, you may only need one impression. If you have something that’s just not of interest, no amount of impression will shift. Example: as a 36-year vegetarian, I am not motivated to buy anyone’s burger by any amount of marketing. Only a sudden and very urgent need (like genuine starvation in a prison cell somewhere where meat was the only available alternative) would move me into the customer zone.
But in truth, it works the opposite way, too. I have had people who were on my newsletter list or in a group I participate in for several years, or who saved a newspaper clipping and then two years later, contacted me—and became clients. In some cases, there may have been 100 or more contacts; in some cases, only one, but with a big time delay.
No hard-and-fast rules, in other words–which is one more reason to…
Yeah, these 10 ways to, 8 laws of, 5 rules of etc. have become a real marketing cliche. In services, however, you do need to do a number of things right – good speeches, good website, good literature, good delivery, good seminars…… the key, though is that these things are not necessarily cumulative – you need to treat each one with the seriousness that it might be your ONLY contact with a prospect.
Excellent point, Malcolm. And I visited your site, was impressed by the commitment to ethics and the overall philosophy–very much in keeping with what I advocate in Principled Profit.
Yeah, these 10 ways to, 8 laws of, 5 rules of etc. have become a real marketing cliche. In services, however, you do need to do a number of things right – good speeches, good website, good literature, good delivery, good seminars…… the key, though is that these things are not necessarily cumulative – you need to treat each one with the seriousness that it might be your ONLY contact with a prospect.
Excellent point, Malcolm. And I visited your site, was impressed by the commitment to ethics and the overall philosophy–very much in keeping with what I advocate in Principled Profit.
Yeah, these 10 ways to, 8 laws of, 5 rules of etc. have become a real marketing cliche. In services, however, you do need to do a number of things right – good speeches, good website, good literature, good delivery, good seminars…… the key, though is that these things are not necessarily cumulative – you need to treat each one with the seriousness that it might be your ONLY contact with a prospect.
Excellent point, Malcolm. And I visited your site, was impressed by the commitment to ethics and the overall philosophy–very much in keeping with what I advocate in Principled Profit.
Yeah, these 10 ways to, 8 laws of, 5 rules of etc. have become a real marketing cliche. In services, however, you do need to do a number of things right – good speeches, good website, good literature, good delivery, good seminars…… the key, though is that these things are not necessarily cumulative – you need to treat each one with the seriousness that it might be your ONLY contact with a prospect.
Excellent point, Malcolm. And I visited your site, was impressed by the commitment to ethics and the overall philosophy–very much in keeping with what I advocate in Principled Profit.
Yeah, clearly it depends; I’d agree that the 10 ways to…., the 8 surefire laws of…., the 6 ironclad rules of….. kind of approaches have become slick marketing banalities of themselves. I
Yeah, clearly it depends; I’d agree that the 10 ways to…., the 8 surefire laws of…., the 6 ironclad rules of….. kind of approaches have become slick marketing banalities of themselves. I
Yeah, clearly it depends; I’d agree that the 10 ways to…., the 8 surefire laws of…., the 6 ironclad rules of….. kind of approaches have become slick marketing banalities of themselves. I
Yeah, clearly it depends; I’d agree that the 10 ways to…., the 8 surefire laws of…., the 6 ironclad rules of….. kind of approaches have become slick marketing banalities of themselves. I
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Reading: How Many Contacts Do You Need to Make a Sale? – https://tinyurl.com/ybpsph7 by @shelhorowitz
Reading: How Many Contacts Do You Need to Make a Sale? – https://tinyurl.com/ybpsph7 by @shelhorowitz
Reading: How Many Contacts Do You Need to Make a Sale? – https://tinyurl.com/ybpsph7 by @shelhorowitz
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How Many Contacts Do You Need to Make a Sale? https://tinyurl.com/ybpsph7
How Many Contacts Do You Need to Make a Sale? https://tinyurl.com/ybpsph7
How Many Contacts Do You Need to Make a Sale? https://tinyurl.com/ybpsph7
How Many Contacts Do You Need to Make a Sale? https://tinyurl.com/ybpsph7