Sales Outreach: Lucky 15. Or Maybe 12.

Last year one of our marketing messages was that success

might just be based on how many times you 'touched' your potential client.

As you can see from our visual, the data suggests that we are right.

Sales are made between the 5th and 12th contact.

(We know that sounds like a lot of work, but it's not as bad as you think.)

Let's take a moment to define the word "contact." At Blue Shoe, we consider outreach of any kind as contact, but we rarely use that contact to sell a product. The contact is about the client and what they are interested in. What you are selling is the subplot of the contact.

Here are some examples to pique your creativity in approaching those you want on your client list:

• It might be a personal note congratulating them on something. Those we suggest you do in snail mail, not email. If there is something worth congratulating, it warrants the extra effort.

• It might be an article about something surrounding what you do. But you don't ask for the sale, you just lay the relevant information in front of them.

• One of our clients who uses our Blue Shoe methodology was trying to set up coffee with a person they really wanted to know better. And, yes, he also wanted that person to be a client. Just couldn't get it set up. So, he dropped off the Museum of Modern Art's Iced Coffee Cup with a note that if he couldn't get together for coffee, our client would make sure he wasn't without coffee altogether. The guy called him and they had coffee a week later. Cost? $20 Return? Priceless.

• It might be lunch. It might be noticing they are traveling to the same trade show or event you are and so you ask for a coffee or a drink during the show. (Yes this means registering for events on social media and browsing through who else is going. Most events now register on their Facebook pages the event they are hosting and people say they are or are not attending.)

• Forward an article by email with a short message as to why it's relevant to that person.

• Monitor LinkedIn and the potential client's social media for what they are doing and where you can be of service around it. Pay attention to the details of your soon-to-be-client and provide value added to what they care about.

• Send an industry book and mark the section that might be of interest.

Perhaps it's worth wondering at the 48% of sales people who never follow up with a prospect? Maybe the awkwardness of the 'ask' makes you shy away from the call. Our methodology takes away feeling like you are Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, and makes you a comrade instead.

The Blue Shoe Team