The Power of Quality Touches in Sales

Significant effort is needed to manage the lead and follow up. It takes an average of twelve touches to make the sale to a qualified lead in business-to-business (B2B) sales. This is the familiarity bias in action. Unfortunately, the average salesperson only makes three touches before they quit and move on. 5-11 touches have a success rate of 80%.

Based on research from the Harvard Business School and others, of the twelve touches required to make the sale to a qualified B2B lead, the average lead requires seven quality touches prior to the closing of the sale. Only these three interactions count as a quality touch:
Face-to-face meeting
Discussion on the phone
An active electronic exchange (email/text messaging/LinkedIn/Facebook)

We should always set an objective for the next touch (call/meeting/email). The objective is our wish for the outcome of the touch. Most of the time the objective is not closing the sale-it is an agreement from our lead to take the next step in the sales process. Always conclude an interaction with an action item for ourself, even if we have to suggest it, such as, “Would you like me to send you the results after the next test of our new product?”

Within twenty-four hours of the quality touch, send an email to your lead with these four items: Thank them for the meeting or phone conversation. Provide a summary of their needs that you discovered in the conversation. Remind them of the information they agreed to send it to you. List the action items that you took away from the meeting.

The rule of thumb for touch frequency is once a month (less for very short sales cycles). Use customer relationship management (CRM) platforms to manage your touches. Provide useful content at every touch. (The reciprocity bias in action!)

The familiarity bias is very important in email follow-up techniques. Elite sales people manage a consistent flow of information to prospects. Use short emails. Do not send everything in the first email, or there will be no reason to reach out to the prospects in the future. They are typically busy and need time to process your infor-mation. Contact them far more frequently than you think you should. As a qualified lead, they will reward your professional persistence. Only 24 percent of sales emails are opened and read. Therefore, use creative email subject lines with new information in the body of the email.

The Safety Bias

For the buyer, the prospect of pain (engaging in the buying process) is a much more powerful de-motivator than the promise of gain. Therefore, the buyer’s old brain does not perceive most salespeople as safe.

The Trust Bias

Honesty and integrity are key factors in a decision to trust someone. If we feel someone is honest (transparent, open, and dependable) and has integrity (courage to say and do the right things and to do what they say they will do), our trust and confidence in them increases.

The most important buyer is your coach. A coach, also known as an insider or champion, is a person inside the prospective company who is helping you close the deal. These coaches are not sales coaches in your own organization, and you do not pay them. They like and trust you, and your products and services, and want you to help their companies.

The first impression principle is based on the primacy bias, which is the tendency for the first few things we notice about someone to influence how we interpret information about them later. When you are with prospects and clients, you are “on stage.” Your appearance should signal confidence, success, expertise, sensitivity, professionalism, and attention to detail. When people dress more casually, they tend to act more casually and less professionally.

The ultimate attribution bias arises as a way to explain the negative behavior of a person not part of your group as flaws in their personality. It is also the belief that positive acts performed by a member of your group are a result of their personality, whereas if a person in your group behaves negatively, it is a result of situational factors.

The confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms our preexisting beliefs or hypotheses. We display this bias when we gather or remember information selectively, or when we interpret it in a biased way.

First impressions are made quickly, and it’s almost impossible to change an unfavorable one. When first meeting a buyer, pay attention to your words, tone of voice, and even your body language and what you are wearing.

Source – The Neuroscience of Selling: Proven Sales Secrets to Win Over the Buyer’s Heart and Mind by John Asher

Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43998058-the-neuroscience-of-selling

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