The 'Seven Touches' that lead to the golden sale

If you’re able to understand the importance of seven touches within your sales process your well on the way to getting the sale.

One of the clich�s out there in the marketing world is that it takes at least seven touches to convert a cold customer to a sale. This is actually true.

Basically the more touches or contact you can have with a prospective customer in as many ways as possible, the more likely you are to build strong relationships and in turn sell your product or service.

The problem is that most “sales focussed” organisations stop after the second or third try. This could be for several reasons such as the process being outside their comfort zone, or perhaps they did not receive a very warm reception the first time or they have just plain and simple forgotten to call the prospect back because there are no system in place. This last might sound stupid but in reality is farm more common that it sounds. How many times have you lost that scrap of paper with someone’s number on it or let time pass by and then realised it would be embarrassing to call this far down the track so never reached for the phone.

It all comes down to having the right systems in place which in turn should mean that prospecting does not have to be uncomfortable. By having a systematic approach you’ll ensure that the prospect see’s you or something from your company on a consistent basis. It may differ for the product or service you’re selling depending on the price and how often it’s needed but the basic stay the same.

Here's an example of seven touches a business could make if they were selling boats:

1. Households in a designated area who live within a 15km radius of the sea or lake are phoned and permission is asked for to send a letter could be sent with tips about boats and water safety.

2. The letter is sent to all the households.

3. A call is made to ensure the letter was received and to see if they wanted to come along to a boat demonstation covering what they read about in the letter.

4. An information pack is then posted a couple of days later with tickets and information about the demonstration and other bits of free information that may be of interest to them.

5. After the information pack is posted out a link to a water safety website is emailed to them along with a reminder about the demonstration.

6. The people are then called and their attendance at the demonstration is confirmed.

7. The prospect attends the demonstration which is all part of the sales process.

Obviously your business is going to be different but as you can see the principals stay the same and if you can get the seven touches is whether it be through a mixture of sending letters, making phones calls, calling in to drop some useful information off, visiting them face to dace, sending them a link to a relevant website, faxing them through something, couriering a parcel you are on the right track. By systemising the 7 touches you are going to use in your business, you won’t forget to do things or lose where you’re at with a prospect as everything will be documented. You will know where you are at and what to do next. Start making the seven touch process an imperative part of business today and don’t stop!

Mark Holloway understands the importance of the seven touches. Along with ensuring he puts them into practice in his own business, he also urges his clients to do the same. Once you get the hand of it it's a no brainer!

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