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A hat trick and 7 touches

March 23, 2012

A first time occurence for me and Business Network SW today!

An Exeter based buisness owner was referred to Business Network SW by a fellow business owner – not a member – a visitor from an event in 2009

What followed was

A Twitter follow, enquiry and joining the LinkedIn group  – a hat trick – the first time that has happened for me!

Did I respond correctly?- acknowledging the follow, welcoming to the group, responding to the enquiry or was it respond to enquiry, welcome, acknowledge follow – I guess it depends what you ‘open’ first!

This then sparked a thought –

The ‘Seven Touches’ that lead to the golden sale

If you’re able to understand the importance of seven touches within your sales process your well on the way to getting the sale.

One of the clichés out there in the marketing world is that it takes at least seven touches to convert a cold customer to a sale. This is actually true.

Basically the more touches or contact you can have with a prospective customer in as many ways as possible, the more likely you are to build strong relationships and in turn sell your product or service.

The problem is that most “sales focussed” organisations stop after the second or third try. This could be for several reasons such as the process being outside their comfort zone, or perhaps they did not receive a very warm reception the first time or they have just plain and simple forgotten to call the prospect back because there are no system in place. This last might sound stupid but in reality is farm more common that it sounds. How many times have you lost that scrap of paper with someone’s number on it or let time pass by and then realised it would be embarrassing to call this far down the track so never reached for the phone.

It all comes down to having the right systems in place which in turn should mean that prospecting does not have to be uncomfortable. By having a systematic approach you’ll ensure that the prospect see’s you or something from your company on a consistent basis. It may differ for the product or service you’re selling depending on the price and how often it’s needed but the basic stay the same.

My example

Touch 1 – My response after being contacted on Twitter – Thank you for the follow – #BNSW http://business-networksw.org for latest events and news

Touch 2 – my response to the completion of the enquiry form on website – again a thank you and an invitation to the next Exeter event

Touch 3 – my response to the group request on LinkedIn – personalised – it would have to be!

Welcome to the group! A Twitter follow, enquiry and joining the LinkedIn group  – a hat trick – the first time that has happened for me!  Feel free to participate, engage and discuss  “Enthusiasm is contagious. It’s difficult to remain neutral or indifferent in the presence of a positive thinker.” 

Touch 4 – a thank you to the person who referred

Here’s to a mutually beneficial and successful Touches 5 to7!

Here’s an example of seven touches

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