We are often asked, how many times should I follow up before I close a deal?
Let’s break that into two parts:
1) How many calls should you make to set an appointment?
2) How many calls should you make to close a sale after the 1st appointment?
We have closed deals that have resulted after 41 call attempts to set an appointment, we have still set appointments after 64 call attempts. Is that our recommendation? No. Somewhere there is a “Pest Factor” that kicks in and people start screening your caller ID.
36.51% of our appointments are set on the 1st call.
60.58% of our appointments are set on the 1st or 2nd call.
90% of our appointments are set with less than 7 call attempts.
95% with less than 12 call attempts.
97.5% with less than 19 call attempts.
How Many Calls Does it Take?
The key seems to be to make contact early and set the appointment before the 7th attempt.
Our average sale takes a total of between 8 & 12 calls to close, including the calls to set the appointment.
The other key seems to be to continue adding value or leaving interesting and compelling messages […]
Face-to-Face Closes 2.5x Better, But Inside Sales Makes 7x More Calls
19 March 2010 — Ken Krogue
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I just got a tip from John Sutton, a friend of mine at Sendside, who read a survey on a United Airlines flight last week from the United States Travel Association that found business leaders estimate face-to-face selling converts 40% of prospects to customers, while virtual selling (Inside Sales) converts 16%.
That means face-to-face selling closes 2.5 times better than remote selling. We found roughly the same ratio at Inside Sales about four years ago. Our current ratios place remote closing ratios around 18.5%, so the gap is narrowing.
Inside Sales teams cover way more ground in terms of prospecting than true face-to-face salespeople. In fact, very few face-to-face salespeople actually prospect in a face-to-face mode any more, so the here is where the numbers skew.
Almost all face-to-face (Outside) sales reps have switched to an Inside Sales model for their prospecting, and they pick up the phone to set their appointments.
We have found that lead generation reps (with power dialer technology) make 7 times more prospecting calls than manually dialing.
What does this mean?
It points […]
The debate on leaving voicemails has been around as long as voicemail has been around. What is the answer to the following questions?
Should I leave a voicemail?
How often should I leave voicemails?
How long is the optimal voicemail?
How do voicemails respond compared to email?
Should I leave a voicemail? Yes, in face you should leave 3-4 before you slow down. Then you can leave a voicemail about every month or two.
How often should I leave voicemails? During the initial phase we have found about 2-3 days between voice messages for the first two weeks works the best.
How long is the optimal voicemail? There is a good book called, “How to Get Your Point Across in 30 Second-or Less.” From the title you can guess that best practices seem to be 30 seconds. 18 Seconds is optimal. Every second after 30 seconds the net response rate drops 2%.
How do voicemails respond compared to email? That is based purely on how well your email responds. Our tests with voice message call back range from 3% to 22%, with 4.8% being the average.
NOTE: We have gotten heavily into voicemail as a media for marketing as a result of our patent-pending invention that allows our customers […]
I don’t know about you but when I get a fancy email I know that somebody is trying to sell something and I rarely open it; unless I specifically remember asking for it.
If I get a short, simple email from a person that I know, I open it.
I like emails that are clear. I think clarity trumps persuasion.
At InsideSales.com we research everything. We drive each other nuts with testing and research. So we researched fancy emails with colorful graphics and nice HTML design versus a simple email from an average (but pleasantly persistent) salesperson. We even left in occasional grammar problems or spelling errors. Why? Because IT IS REAL. It’s from a real person, not a marketer.
The simple email wins every time. Often by 30-50% and sometimes by at least double the response rate.
Be real. Keep it simple.
A return to telemarketing in b-to-b :: BtoB Magazine http://bit.ly/aYPdWX #
RT @CHRISVOSS Google Wave – Its Gonnna Be HUGE! | THE CHRIS VOSS SHOW http://bit.ly/3VBU6z #
Marketers: ‘Twitter is your small forward, Facebook is the point guard’ http://bit.ly/9SEMtv #
Research by Dr. James Oldroyd shows a higher close rate for companies that break their sales model into specialties – http://bit.ly/98QV3Z #
Just got back from being at the Big Business Expo for two days, haven’t been in two years. Most of the people came for the food. #
