A couple weeks ago, I shared a place within the outreach process where you can find hidden sales.

The concept was pretty easy to implement.

So I thought I’d share another one with you today.

The theory behind this approach is just as basic. You’d be amazed, though, at how often it gets overlooked …

… allowing potential sales to just slip through the cracks.

So here’s the deal:

Dean Jackson (who I’ve mentioned here before) regularly talks about a company called The Inquiry Handling Service.

As you can probably guess, the company handles inquiries for companies.

What’s interesting is, they also perform regular surveys on the leads that come in. The first survey goes out after 90 days and involves just one question:

The question is then asked again 90 days later … and then 90 days after that … and again 90 days later …

The survey continues until someone buys.

What IHS discovered is that about 50% of the people buy within 18 months of their initial inquiry.

So if you have 200 leads total, 100 of those people will become buyers within a little more than a year.

Crazy thing is …

Only 15% of those buyers purchase within the first 90 days.

The reality is, if you only focus on people who are ready to buy right now, you ignore a HUGE amount of potential sales.

You also encourage prospects to buy from someone other than you.

Think about it …

What’s your process for keeping in contact with prospects who aren’t ready to buy your product or hire you right now? What value do you deliver to them on a consistent basis?

Too often we only focus on generating new leads …

When untapped opportunities are likely just sitting in your pipeline right now.

You just have to engage with value and keep the conversation moving forward.

Each time you do, the relationship grows stronger.

Of course, you can offer more buying opportunities too.

The process might take time, but at some point -- if you maintain communication with value -- those “old” prospects will be ready to move forward.

Talk soon,
Tom

P.S. If you missed the previous tips email I mentioned earlier, reply back and I’ll get you a copy.