This week I’m discussing a scary word (in honor of the month of October):  SALES!  As entrepreneurs, we don’t really think of ourselves as salespeople, but we are.  We hold many hats in fulfilling our entrepreneurial dream, from salesperson to bookkeeper to quality control to troubleshooting — maybe even IT, administrative, or receptionist.

Salesperson is one of the hardest for business owners to grasp because, well, it’s sales!!  And selling in today’s world is much different than it was even 10 years ago, but one thing remains consistent:  People do business with people they know and trust, or their friends know and trust.

Today I’m talking about sales as being a connection with others, creating relationships, nurturing those relationships, educating those connections about what you do and how you can help them.  Meeting, connecting and reaching out to people who need your services is sales.

This article is not going to be about tips for closing the sale, but a few statistics I want you to be aware of as you’re developing your marketing plan.  If you want tips, just Google “closing sales”.  I did and got over 53 million hits.

But here are some very interesting statistics from the National Sales Executive Association that I really wanted to share with you:

• 2% of sales are made on the 1st contact
• 3% of sales are made on the 2nd contact
• 5% of sales are made on the 3rd contact
• 10% of sales are made on the 4th contact
• 80% of sales are made on the 5th – 12th contact

And if you’re trying to do the math, that means that 90 percent of your sales come after the fifth contact with a prospect!!  Wow!!  The contact can be any number of things, from meeting you in person perhaps at a networking event, talking with you on the phone, receiving your ezine and/or print newsletter or another mailing, or connecting with you through social media sites.

But here’s an even more interesting statistic: 48 percent of salespeople never follow up with a prospect…and the stats go down:

• 25% of salespeople make a second contact and stop
• 12% of salespeople make only three contacts and stop
• Only 10% of salespeople make more than three contacts

So if you create a simple marketing plan and a follow up sequence, your closing rates go up, up, up!!  If you need help not being that 90% that makes three or less contacts, call me.  We can brainstorm and see what we can come up with!