The Key to Success
There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of books written about success and how to achieve it. I know this because I have read more than 100 myself. In the almost 40 years I have been in the business world full-time since graduating from college I have learned that the key to success is very simple: follow-up.
Over the years I have had hundreds of salespeople try to sell me something for one of my businesses, or personally, only to never hear from that person again. Not even once. That always amazes me. I recently needed a small home improvement job done at our home and called five companies that had half page or larger ads in the Yellow Pages in my hometown. In all five cases I got an answering machine or voicemail. (This is beside the point, but all of the recorded messages were amateurish, at best. Another tip: make sure that your company’s answering machine or voicemail messages are professional.) Of the five messages that I left, exactly one company called me back. Why spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month on a Yellow Pages ad and then not return calls left on your answering machine? I can’t fathom why people spend the money on a Yellow Pages ad and don’t track the inquiries left on their answering machine to ensure that they are followed up on and to see their closing percentage.
Even though I have been a CEO for a long time I’m still very involved in selling. In fact, I once read that the job description of a CEO is, “best salesperson in the company”. There are other definitions but I agree that this is the best job description for a CEO. If you can’t sell your company to other people, and you are the CEO, you have a huge problem. But I digress. My point is that I’m involved in major accounts selling, selling banks on loaning us money, selling property owners on giving me a lower price on their property than the asking price, selling people on joining our company, etc. I’m sure you get my point. When I am “selling” I find that the vast majority of the people I’m contacting ignore my first call or email. However, when I follow-up I get to the person I’m trying to reach over 75% of the time. Why is that? My theory is that people are extremely busy these days and simply can’t talk to every person who calls them or respond to every email they receive. However, when they are followed up with they can see that the person trying to reach them is a pro, not an amateur, and they respond. Unless it’s a very large deal I don’t follow up more than three times because then I think you’re just being a pest. When you have contacted someone three times and they still won’t respond to you they actually are responding to you through their silence.
My friend, Dan Adams, says it best: “The key to success is consistent persistence”. If you want to be successful be consistent in your persistence. You will find that the following up will improve your closing rate no matter what you’re trying to sell. Try it and let me know what you find.
Copyright 2012 by Jim Sobeck. All rights reserved. This information may be reproduced as long as full credit is given to the author.