For network marketers, generating leads and growing a solid business made up of professionals is the foundation for success. However, a lot of challenges often come up within the overall strategy that people set up.
One thing that is often misunderstood or overlooked is that the way that you interact with leads and with prospects has a tremendous impact on your success within the network marketing world. In short, understanding how your interactions work and what to expect from them is a key part of becoming a better network marketing professional.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
The University of Notre Dame recently released an interesting study that focused on this exact subject, looking at the approach that sales professionals not just in network marketing, but in the overall sales field took. Here are some of the numbers from that study.
- 44% of salespeople quit contacting the lead after their very first interaction
- 24% will quit after the second interaction with their lead
- 14% give up after the making the third contact with a lead or prospect
- 12% will quit after the fourth contact
- 94% of all salespeople will never contact a lead or prospect beyond the fourth contact, based on those numbers above.
However, here’s the big number that you need to understand that comes from the same study: 80% of all sales are actually made on the 5th to 12th contact a salesperson makes with a lead or prospect.
The reasons for quitting vary greatly, from just taking a ‘no’ response to heart and never going back to just getting a feeling that they have no need to continue contacting the lead they’re talking to.
Putting Those Numbers To Work For You
So what do those numbers mean, exactly? It should be obvious – don’t give up on your leads or prospects. You need to understand how to more effectively market yourself and reach out to contacts, and in doing so you need to be willing to make multiple contacts with your leads or prospects.
There are some tools that can help with this. Software solutions and spreadsheets can make it easy to track interactions and to keep the right pace up when it comes to contacting others, and can show you whom you need to be reaching out to.
Remember that you don’t want to be so pushy that you ruin your chances of making a conversion, however. You shouldn’t be contacting someone every day or even every single week. However, the numbers clearly show that multiple contacts can translate to more conversions and more sales. The key is understanding that and being able to keep a positive outlook on your efforts.
In short, you can’t afford to give up. Where many network marketers fail is in their inability to stay positive and driven towards success, and just because someone say they’re not interested the first time doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t follow up with them down the road. Doing so could lead you to the success that your business deserves.