Persistence in Business Means Never Giving Up

The problem with many businesses, whether they are start-ups or established businesses is that people give up too soon. It has been estimated that around 90 percent of new businesses fail for various reasons such as a lack of adequate funding, poor planning or the wrong product or service and even well-established large corporations can fail. It can't all be blamed on the economic climate…

One major factor for business failure is that business owners give up too soon -- they also fail to have a follow-up system.

Persistence pays

You may be getting plenty of traffic to your site but this is to no avail if you are unable to convert your visitors into paying customers. What you need is an effective system for converting enquiries into sales and you need to be persistent in applying it. Many studies have found that it takes several contacts with enquirers before you actually make a sale. The statistics show that it takes on average seven positive contacts with your subscribers or potential customers before you sell anything. Have a look at the statistics:

50% of sales people give up after 1 contact
65% give up after 2 contacts
79.8% give up after 3 contacts
89.8% of those people give up after 4 contacts
Practically everyone has given up after 6 contacts

But look at this…

80% of sales are made on the 5th contact -- yet only 10.2% of salespeople are still following up!
94% of prospects will have bought something after 7 contacts -- yet hardly anyone is still in touch with their prospects
If you are still in touch with your prospects after 8 positive contacts, you are likely to have made a sale if you are ever going to...

Most marketers give up after a couple of contacts, so it is no wonder that so many businesses fail. You really do need to keep up that contact with your subscribers. This is even more important if you are selling a high-end expensive product because people need even more convincing when you are asking them for large amounts of money. Sometimes selling can be a long game, especially these days with the emphasis on social media marketing -- you have to gently steer your customers towards a sale while you communicate with them and build a trusting relationship.

Follow-up system

Another reason why many businesses fail is that they don't have a follow-up system -- or in other words a marketing funnel. The idea is to attract customers initially with a low priced or even a free product and gradually step up the value of your product until you are offering those high-end expensive products and services. You could start with a free report or digital book, then offer a paid subscription to your site or a book worth say $15. Then if your customers are still with you, you could offer an in-depth course or a set of DVDs for a few hundred dollars and eventually you could be offering workshops and seminars worth thousands of dollars. The trick is to keep your customers eager to buy more -- stay in touch with them and keep building that relationship. It has been estimated that a list of around 5,000 subscribers will bring you a lifetime’s income.

So, persistence and careful planning really can pay -- when your competitors have given up after the first couple of contacts, you can step in and convert those prospects into lifelong paying customers.

Related articles

• An Open Letter from Sales to Marketing (hubspot.com)