By Gary Courtenay on 15/11/2007 10:11

I was working with a colleague that manages our databases the other day and found myself struggling to explain what exactly I was looking for in the figures we were examining. In essence we were comparing the most recent year’s sales figures with the previous year in an effort to determine the performance sales in the financial year we had just completed.

We had talked a lot about attrition and how to deal with it and had even installed a fairly sophisticated system to manage it and thus reduce the levels of attrition. In essence, at some stage almost every business looses customers or has customers that start to spend less with them or spend less often, this is what I mean in this instance by the term ‘attrition’.

Whilst pondering it dawned on me that growth is simply the exact opposite of attrition i.e. when we grow we attract new customers or we sell more to our existing ones (thus either increasing our AOV (average order value)) or increasing the frequenc ... Read More »

By Gary Courtenay on 08/11/2007 15:00

Probably more sales are lost due to a failure to follow up enough than any other reason.

The rule of 6 touches tells us that most of your prospects will remain as just prospects unless you put the effort in to achieving the amount of touches necessary (in your particular industry) to convert them into customers.

Usually it pays to do whatever it takes to move your prospect to a point where they either say yes or they say no to your proposition and certainly this applies to most face to face selling scenarios. There are exceptions to this rule though as some prospects won’t make good customers and once you have gathered sufficient information to be able to clearly categorise them as ‘poor prospects’ you may choose to cease marketing them at all. 

With this in mind gather key information from your prospect as rapidly as you can and as near to the start of the relationship as possible. This will enable you to properly qualify them s ... Read More »

By Gary Courtenay on 07/11/2007 17:21

It is often stated in sales and marketing circles that on average it takes six attempts to sell to somebody before they buy. This is because generally people won’t buy until they trust you and usually it takes time to create and develop trust.  Each time you make an approach they see that you are consistent and that you’re in it for the long haul and eventually they feel like they know you even before they’ve made the decision to buy.  In many cases you will even find you can get on first name terms with some prospects, even before they eventually become your customer. 

Be aware that all touches are not equal

These approaches are often referred to as ‘touches’ and the good news is these touches don’t all have to be made face to face and in person. Mail shots, letters, postcards, emails, faxes, phone calls and sometimes even text messages all count as ‘touches’. However of all of these methods technology h ... Read More »