Agency New Business-That Prospect Is Never Cold
A client recently told our Owner, Mark, that there are realistically 1-2 weeks when a prospect will be receptive to, or have a need for, your agency.
While anecdotal, it’s still an astute observation, and in our experience, true.
So knowing that, new business can’t stop and start.
Agency New Business Can’t Stop And Start
Agencies will often try one thing, an email blast, a direct mail piece, a social media effort, and then get busy, don’t follow up, and wonder what happened.
So here at RSW/US, we have a mantra-a prospect is never really cold unless we have the proof.
That is, we know there is no way to move forward, for whatever reason.
And that doesn’t mean, by the way, it’s because we pestered them to death and are finally told to leave them alone.
That’s never a good prospecting method.
Your Prospects Have No Time
The point is, prospecting has to be ongoing-just because you reached out to a prospect a few times and didn’t break through doesn’t mean they’re not paying attention or might not be, 3 months down the road, a viable, hot prospect.
But if you need a few other reminders that aren’t merely anecdotal, this Slideshare from Buzzbuilder, 20 Shocking Sales Stats That Will Change How You Sell, should help bring it all into focus.
Key here is to make sure you’re not literally cold calling.
If you’re using every channel together to break through, coupled with a little research on the prospect, you can bring that number down below 8 attempts.
As mentioned above, we see this often.
Doesn’t mean you should Italianate your client prospects with emails and calls, but you’ve got to stick with them, at least once a month.
This is probably the most frustrating-when an agency has the first meeting, they’re in the door (!) and then follow-up falls somewhere between dismal and non-existent.
No excuse for this, regardless of how busy you are.
Timing really is everything in new business, and you can make sure time is on your side by remembering a few of the stats above.