If your sales cycle doesn’t look something like this, then you might be doing it wrong. Track with me for a minute with this scenario.
Mr. Prospect gets a cold call from an SDR on your team. He listens for a minute, but eventually he says “now isn’t a good time” and hangs up.
Later that day Mr. Prospect feels compelled to Google your company name. He pokes around on your website a bit.
The next day he’s browsing social media and he gets served an advertisement by your company (nice job retargeting). Mr. Prospect clicks on the ad and skims the sales page. Still not interested.
He finds your YouTube channel and watches a few videos. Good stuff, he thinks to himself.
RELATED: Master the Long Game in Cold Calling
A couple days later Mr. Prospect gets a cold email from the rep who called him the other day. He reads the email, this time with slightly more interest. But still no reply.
Later that day he accepts a LinkedIn connection from the rep.
The next afternoon he gets another cold call from the sales rep. He answers and finally agrees to a meeting.
The prospect has officially entered your sales flywheel. And it only took 7 touches! Easy, right?
Of course, I say that tongue-in-cheek. Seven touches is a lot — but it’s the new norm. The Rule of 7 states that it takes an average of 7 touchpoints before a prospect will buy your product or service (or in this case, agree to a meeting).
FYI: Of course, this isn’t always how it goes. Oftentimes you can get a C-level executive to agree to a meeting on the initial cold call. But the sales cycle is lengthening and spreading across multiple channels.
Thankfully, there are seemingly endless ways to reach your prospects. And there are just as many ways to automate a process so that it’s not all manual. You just have to design an outbound gameplan.
I’ve written extensively about this — about how to create a multi-channel outbound campaign that works in your sleep. So if you don’t have this strategy in place, be sure to read that article and get to work.
RELATED: How to Automate Sales Outreach Using a Hybrid Approach
The Origins of the Rule of 7
The rule of 7 came from the movie industry in the mid-1900’s. Movie advertisers found that it took an average of 7 trailer viewings before someone would buy a movie ticket.
We see this principle at play in politics, too. It’s why we get bombarded with advertisements during election year. Even local politics, “Vote Butch for County Sheriff.” You see that yard sign 7 times and guess who’s voting for Butch at the ballot box?
So much of sales is about repetition and consistency. But repetition and consistency alone won’t cut it when you’re asking someone to pull out their credit card. There’s another necessary ingredient.
Repetition, Consistency… and Value
You can’t have repetition without driving value. You need to offer value with every touchpoint, otherwise your message is just noise. And trust me, your prospects hear enough noise in their daily lives.
How do you deliver value? Easy. Think about the primary pain points that plague your ideal buyer. Now craft your messaging that solves these problems. Bonus points if you can couch it in a proprietary process… a proven and repeatable system that will transform their lives, or at least solve a very real problem.
For instance, Tony Robbins has his Unleash the Power Within program. Grant Cardone has his 10x Training. And here at C-Level Partners our proprietary system is called the TraXion system, where we put you in front of the right people, in the right role, right now.
This value-backed branding is especially critical for content creators (you are a content creator, right?). As you become a thought-leader in your industry, the content you create must offer value in a big way. YouTube videos, blog posts, podcasts, and yes… even your cold outreach. To beat the competition, you must always seek to educate and enlighten.
Remember the sales flow with Mr. Prospect from earlier? Like most buyers, he didn’t convert on the first touch. This speaks to the importance of persistence. But as he interfaces with your company, there must be something there to draw him in. And this speaks to the importance of the quality of your messaging. Quality and quantity in sales are the two cornerstones you must build upon.
Stay Persistent Past 7 Touches
So Mr. Prospect has consumed your messaging for weeks or months, but he still isn’t agreeing to a meeting. You let him off the hook, right? Wrong. You stay persistent until he books a meeting or tells you to get lost.
But here’s the trick, you have to stay “cordially persistent.” So your touches must be polite and respectful. This doesn’t mean you check your confidence at the door. No! You still call with an aura of confidence and authority, but balance that with a healthy respect for your prospect.
Also, you have to be flexible and adapt. Harvard Business Review says “You can’t beat your prospect over the head every day with your messaging. You need to be flexible and know when to take a step back.”
Final Words
You can be pessimistic and think of the Rule of 7 as stifling. But I challenge you to see the opportunity to build and strengthen your brand by reaching out 7+ times.
This is what separates the wannabes and the sales pros. Those salespeople who feel entitled and want the prospect to chase them are completely delusional. All the while successful salespeople know that they have to meet the prospect where they’re at… over and over and over.
But remember, this persistent outreach doesn’t have to be manual. In fact, it shouldn’t be manual! Today’s CRMs and AI sales tools are powerful. You can build out a 7-touch sequence that includes cold calling, cold email, LinkedIn outreach, etc. And with intelligent retargeting, you can nurture your leads even while you sleep by leveraging the power of social media, YouTube, podcasts, etc.
Again, it takes some intentional strategy to get this going. But it’s worth its weight in gold to get this right. So go out there and get to work. You’ve got this.
Until next time…
Johnny-Lee Reinoso