You may be familiar with the name John Wanamaker, who was a highly-successful retail business man and considered a marketing pioneer. Among other things, he’s well known for saying, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The problem is, I don’t know which half!”
Wanamaker’s point was that you never know when your marketing message will land upon the right set of ears or eyes, or when it might impact a potential buyer to consider taking action. Consequently we must continue to make the effort and spread the word…
Similar things apply to selling.
A good example of this can be found in one of author and makingthenumers.com founder Jack Falvey’s recent sales tips.
“In some businesses, people call in to become new accounts. In most businesses, prospecting and qualifying are the norm,” Falvey writes.
“It’s a great deal of work. You must kiss many frogs to find the prince, as the saying goes. Few people enjoy “dialing for dollars,” yet those who don’t do the hard work of business development seldom reach the levels of those who do. The rule must be: I will make time each day to follow up leads, make cold calls, pick up the five-hundred-pound phone one more time, or fifty more times, as the case may be. If there were a way around all of this, it would have been discovered long ago…”
“An analysis of past successes will soon tell you that new business comes from all the wrong places at all the wrong times—wrong in the sense of the least likely time and places. Your job is to be in the right place at the right time. Prospecting and qualifying will assure that you not only will be paid, but that you will be better paid than most as a result. The law of cause and effect has never had a clearer-cut illustration than the ratio between sales and sales effort. Looking for customers increases the likelihood you will find them. Not easy to do, but very easy to understand.”
Sometimes we all need a little affirmation. For those of us involved in selling, it helps to believe (or to be reminded!) that the hard work in which we’re engaged will, in the long-run, pay off; that making that extra follow-up call or cold call will make a difference.