How To Be Persistent Without Being Annoying

Being persistent often pays off in sales, but there is a fine line between being respectfully persistent and annoying.

When you’re prospecting for new business, there will be times when you connect with your prospects on your first attempt. More often than not, however, you’ll have to figure out how to follow up and distinguish between being persistent and annoying.

Every salesperson’s career lives or dies based on the quality of their follow-up.

According to a study by Brevet, 80 percent of sales require an average of seven follow-ups to close the deal. However, 44 percent of sales reps follow up with a prospect only once before giving up. After four follow-ups, 94 percent of salespeople have given up.

That’s an astounding amount of potential sales that are never being closed and potential revenue left on the table.

So how often should you follow up?

I doubt if there’s one correct answer to that question. My philosophy is to follow up as often as you believe it takes to win the deal or invalidate the opportunity. When following up, the essential things to practice are being respectfully persistent, maintaining a polite tone, and tailoring your message to the prospects' and clients' afflictions and aspirations.

I have a coaching client selling commercial insurance who just closed a deal with a construction company after following up with the business owner for over three years. My client said, “I called or sent an email to the business owner once a quarter for over three years. Unfortunately, most of my messages and emails were ignored. Eventually, however, his incumbent insurance agent retired, and he hired me to handle his $295 thousand insurance program.”

The lesson is if you’re respectfully persistent, consistent, and thoughtful with your follow-up efforts, who knows what’s possible. Maybe your new largest client is just one more follow-up phone call or email away.

Happy Thursday. A brand new day. A clean slate. The possibilities are endless.

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