The other day as I left yet another voicemail for a prospect who hadn’t returned my previous few calls or emails, I wondered how many unreturned “touches” most people leave before giving up, so I quickly tweeted my question.
I was surprised that the answers that came back were almost invariably one or two, although Marty Hamre’s magic number was 7 and VirtualGalt invoked Brian Tracy’s name in suggesting that 5 was the right answer. It was actually listening to Brian Tracy sales tapes back in my previous life that convinced me to make more attempts than the competition.
Intrigued, I asked “What’s the max number of unreturned calls/emails/touches you would give a prospect before giving up?” on LinkedIn. There were 24 answers (and counting) to the question, and the people on LinkedIn (or at least those who answered the question) seemed to have a lot more tenacity than my tweeps.
Some of my favorite quotes…
