How to Convert Your Hot Prospects

Prospect Theory

How many people have you met and been in contact with in the last 2 years?

Most of them weren't ready to buy right there and then because the time wasn't right. However, how many are now ready to buy but they're not being contacted and asked to buy? How many prospects are being lost in time?

The key is to keep in contact and keep up your relationship in an unobtrusive and helpful way. Remember Joe Gerard, the best salesman in America? He made his fortune by sending every one of his prospects Easter cards, birthday cards, mothers and fathers day cards etc. (it worked out a card every month) and he took the time to know what was relevant to each person and this care came across.

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

The best frequency for keeping in touch with your prospects is every month. Any more and you'll dilute the effect and if you leave it any longer than 3 months, you'll drop off the radar. The longer people defer making a decision, they less likely they are to get over the hesitation.

7 Marketing Touches

I recently wrote in Scotland on Sunday, "Everything in life and business is relationships".

The idea behind marketing touches is that your potential customers are more likely to buy when they have a relationship with your business. You can use marketing touches to build your relationship. Examples of your prospects experiencing these touches include:

1. visiting your website;
2. receiving an email from you;
3. phoning;
4. recommendations from your existing clients (absolute dynamite);
5. receiving your e-newsletter;
6. meeting you at a networking event; and
7. having a meeting.

Every time your prospects come into contact with your business, your relationship is strengthened.

Now or Never

Prospect theory states that the more choices we have, the more likely we are to do nothing.

Past a certain point, the more links you have in the content of your email, the lower your click rate. I call it the Donkey Principle. If you put 9 bails of hay equi-distant from a donkey, it can't decide which one to go for and starves. It's the same principle with your links in your email content. The magic number is 6.

Turning this around, the more clarity and focus we have, the more likely people are to act. Be approachable and let your prospects know very simply what to do and what to expect. This applies specifically to your call to action.

For example, my call to action is call Stephen now on 01698 239360 to arrange a coffee, a chat and your e-flyer demo.

Doing nothing, in itself, is a decision: it's the decision to go with the flow and let circumstances happen to us. Only dead fish swim with the current, the truly alive go their own route.

Think fast and take control. The longer we defer making a decision, they less likely we are to get over our hesitation. It's now or never.

Fearless and Spontaneous

When we're born, we have 2 natural qualities. We are completely unafraid and completely spontaneous. As we grow, we lose these qualities to our fear of failure, rejection and loss.

We are much more sensitive to loss than we are to gain, so much so that we are willing to get involved in serious risk-taking to avoid losses.

"Losses have twice the emotional response of gains" Warren Buffet

Most people play it safe in relation to gains and gamble to avoid losses (therefore, those who do take risks get a disproportionately higher reward).

Our origins explain why today we are risk-averse when we can afford to take risk, and yet we are risk-takers when losses are endemic. The progenitors of humanity tended to take risks only when their world was falling apart. As long as they had enough food and shelter, they wouldn't go hunting again until absolutely necessary.

Our primitive ancestors did take risks and scramble furiously when their lives were at stake, the best scramblers survived and through natural selection we've inherited this instinct of mad scrambling under pressure, which, like it or not, works. It's in our genes to not seek risk unnecessarily. Hence the phrase staying hungry.

Go Getters

Studies of entrepreneurs show that they are definately not risk-averse.

An entrepreneur acts on his or her ideas, takes risks, thinks outside the box, breaks the rules and seeks total reward.

An entrepreneur has boundless energy, steely determination and unshakable self-belief and ignores their in built harm avoidance instinct and embraces the thrill of the chase. It's these guys and girls that drive the human race forward, they're go-getters, and that's why we love them.

"Courage, this quality has been universally placed in the highest rank. Prudence, on the other hand, which does not concern the welfare of others, has never been highly esteemed.
Self-sacrifice, self-command and the power of endurance, these qualities have been at all times highly and most justly valued."
Charles Darwin

When the economy is random and terrifying, the person who appears least terrified and most confident will attract followers, clients and profit.