The American Writers and Artists Institute (AWAI) is the premier organization to teach writers and copywriters how to be persuasive. They did a study and surprisingly found out that follow-ups a such a vital key to closing sales. To quote them:
The general consensus among sales experts is that(1):
- 2% of sales are made on the first contact
- 3% of sales are made after 2 contacts
- 5% of sales are made after 3 contacts
- 10% of sales are made after 4 contacts
- 80% of sales are made after 5-12 contacts
How many times do you follow up?
Over the years I’ve landed $890 million dollars worth of projects. I can only remember one instance of selling a company the first time I approached them. Most of the time it required quite a few follow-ups.
I attended a $5,000 per person marketing seminar a number of years ago. The seminar leader was talking about the importance of following up repeatedly. There were about 200 people in attendance.
To drive home the point he asked everyone to stand up. Which we did.
He then asked all those who signed up for the seminar after the first email to sit down.
A few people sat down.
He then asked them to sit down if they responded to the 2nd, 3rd, etc.
He stopped asking after he got to the 7th email response.
He then said look around the room.
Half the room was still standing.
He would have lost half of his revenue had he stopped at 7 emails.
He sent a total of 15…I actually responded to the 12th email.
Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up…
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