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| How to Sell Coach |
- 2% of sales are made on the first contact
- 3% of sales are made on the second contact
- 5% on the third contact
- 10% on the fourth contact
- and 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact.
Let's assume for a moment that these figures are true. That would mean that if you are persistent and get to the fifth call, you'll be knocking the vast majority of your competitors clean out of the picture.
That's one heck of a statistic. My own research and experience would suggest that undoubtedly, if you keep communicating with a potential customer in a meaningful way, your likelihood of getting a sale are significantly increased.
I feel that where people get confused with this is that the sales call series must have a clear progression for this to be successful. If you make twelve sales calls saying exactly the same thing, you are unlikely to move forward. But if you take something from each call, add to your knowledge of the customers needs and wants and tailor you next call based on your increased knowledge, then the statistics begin to make more sense.
The other factor however is what is the value of the sale and how much time you can realistically put in to getting it. There is a big difference between selling a low volume, low unit cost product against a multi million capital item. Having sold both, I can tell you my first sales manager would not have thanked me for making twelve calls for an item with was only ever going to make the company a couple of hundred. The flip side of that is one that will make the company a few million. For that I would be available 24/7 and make as many calls as I needed to to clinch the deal.
So there does have to be some rational thinking behind the number of calls to make. The simple truth is - at least one more that your competitors.
