The great philosopher Babe Ruth said, “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.”
Ruth knew baseball was a game of failure. The best in the game get three hits for every ten at-bats, but they keep swinging, knowing that the hits will fall.
Likewise, prospecting is a game of failure. We will swing and miss. A lot. But we have to keep swinging because over time the hits will start to fall.
Unfortunately, we want it to be easy. One and done. Convert on the first call. Knock it out of the park on your first swing. Yet those sort of highly-motivated and highly-qualified prospects are hard to come by. The reality is only 48 percent of prospects even pick up the phone on the first call, much less convert into an appointment.
Follow up is the name of the game. You will swing and miss often, even at the same prospect. Stay the course. You’re one swing closer. Will you keep swinging though? Most won’t.
According to various studies (Link: https://blog.zoominfo.com/sales-follow-up-statistics/), the average salesperson only makes two attempts to reach a prospect, and 44 percent will give up after just one follow up if they’re able to get a hold of them in the first place. By the time they make the fourth call, 92 percent will throw in the towel before the fifth call. Yet 60 percent of customers say “no” four times before saying yes. 50 percent of sales happen after that fifth call. How much money is left on the table because that 92 percent won’t take one more swing?
One study (Link: http://pages.velocify.com/rs/leads360/images/Ultimate-Contact-Strategy.pdf) showed that the magic number of calls is six. Their surveys showed that 93 percent of converted leads are reached by the sixth call. Keep. Swinging.
Ready for another baseball analogy? Good. Modern-day baseball looks a little bit different than it has historically. Many of these differences are data-driven. Managers, players and front offices have more information at their disposal than ever before, and they’re learning to get as big of an advantage as possible out of this information.
One of the most obvious ways this data is affecting the game is with defensive shifts. Infielders are no longer lining up in their traditional position; they’re positioned instead where they are most likely to prevent a base hit. Because of the batted ball data teams have, they know how likely each player is to hit a ground ball in a given location on the field. Consequently, hits that used to find holes are now finding gloves and turning into outs.
Here is the problem: prospects are slipping through the cracks because our priorities and strategies are not set up to make a play. Perhaps you need to make a shift in your business because I bet the data says you are out of position when it comes to following up.
Previously we discussed the need to execute a plan that works. Same rules apply here. You need a plan. You need to use all the tools at your disposal to ensure that you are in a position to snatch up and convert as many of your leads as possible.
How quickly will you and your team reply to new leads? When will you make the next calls after they don’t pick up the first time? When will you follow up after they don’t convert on the first contact? How will you keep up with it all? The good news is we have already built out our “Leads to Listings” system, and you can get more information on it right now at https://www.alistingaweek.com/follow-up-system.
Planning and persistence pay off. Get yourself in position and grind. For every lead that you fail to follow up with effectively, you’re flushing money down the drain. You paid for that lead! Make the most of it! You don’t need more leads. You need to more effectively convert the ones you have. Then you will begin to generate a listing a week.