A Cycle Of Engagement

In 2015, the journey of the promotional products professional in shifting prospects to clients is more challenging than ever. With the Internet, email, texts and blog postings added to phone calls, direct mail, meetings and cold calls all constantly interrupting the day, there is so much noise out there to overcome! With fractured attention spans, nothing lasts more than a few seconds. So how do you make an impact and grab a piece of that potential client’s attention?

It ain’t easy, brothers and sisters.

There is a cycle of engagement with your top prospects to take them from awareness onto conversion and finally to advocacy. And advocacy is where referrals happen. This cycle of engagement is fueled by touches. What are touches? If you’ve followed my “Be Bold, Be Different, Be Memorable” sales tools blogs, then you know that we’ve quantified success—that it takes 13 touches to turn a prospect into a client. This is critical knowledge because 50 percent of your competition doesn’t even bother to make it past the first touch and another 25 percent drops off after the second. Conversion rarely happens before the fifth touch, and landing those large bull’s-eye accounts takes 13 touches.

Those who persevere have quite an edge.

But getting there and staying there are two different achievements altogether. Getting there can take six months to a year of constant touches. When you arrive, you must prove yourself and create the value you’ve been communicating via your touches.

And as George Harrison once said, “It’s all up to what you value.” Seriously, he said that. In 1976, on the 33-1/3 album released by Dark Horse, but not on the Dark Horse album, which was at 33-1/3. I know, it’s confusing. But it brings us to value.

Let’s talk about that value.