 The average sale is made after five calls. The average sales person gives up after three calls. – No wonder there are so few top sales people. Advertising is a lot like sales in that it takes a number of times before a message can register. Just spending a lot of money in a big ad and running it once rarely delivers the results you might hope for.
The people whom you would like to see the ad may not read the newspaper or listen to the radio the day you choose to place the ad. They may be preoccupied with other things and can not devote the proper attention to your message. It may be that even if they are interested they may not have the money to buy what you are selling when you first communicate with them.
Even if you have the right package and the right product and the right price if your timing is not right for your target customer to make a purchase you probably will not make the sale. If you are in the car business and someone just bought a new car the odds of them buying another one soon are fairly small. If however you know from registration information that the average time someone keeps and automobile is three years and you can buy list of people who have had automobiles for two to three years you can begin to have a dialogue with them just as they are beginning to think about getting a new car.
To be effective in advertising, like in sales you need to be in front of your customers when they are most likely to be in a position to buy. It is difficult to sell fireworks in October or Valentine candy in June. To be effective you need to know when and how your customers will be using your products so you can you be in front of them when they begin thinking about the use and purchase of your products or services.
Just putting the message out in front of your target audience once is generally not enough. Customers build up impressions over time. They may not notice you at first but after a couple of impressions they may begin to think about what you have to say and after a few more exposures to your message they may begin to think about how what you have to offer may fit their needs.
The first time you call for an appointment you may not even get past the secretary. After two or three calls you can either give up or use each call to learn a little more about when your customer may or may not be available and what their needs are.
One of my favorite motivational stories has to do with a well digger who went into an area that had experienced a severe drought and most of the attempts at drilling wells had not yielded any success. A number of well diggers had drilled down over five hundred feet and didn’t hit water. This particular well digger came into town and said brashly that he would only drill down less than fifty feet and hit water. Everyone doubted that it could be done but what he did was go to one of the holes that had already been drilled six hundred feet down and drilled down another twenty five feet and hit water.
In sales and in advertising you often don’t know exactly how far you have to go so it is usually better to make a couple of more calls or place a few more ads than you think might be necessary and don’t give up if you don’t get what you want initially.
Taking the extra step makes all of the steps taken up to that point worth the effort.
About the Author – Scott Francis is President of Topline Development LLC a Strategic Marketing Consulting Group that provides helps companies determine how they can make the most amount of money with the least amount of resources. To learn more about Topline Development LLC visit their web site at www.ToplineDevelopment.com or contact Scott directly at scott@toplinedevelopment.com. |
