New Evidence! It Happens After The Fifth

Zingers Promos

In March we began an email promo campaign to acquaint folks with and acquire email subscriptions to Zimmerman's Zingers, a monthly publication consisting of a true story, a few questions and perhaps a moral, that will help business owners and anyone managing people. Our first effort, three mailings that described the Zingers and what people said about them, was a statistical failure.

For our second effort we have been emailing actual Zingers. The first mailing is a Zinger with a "click below to subscribe" box, the second, four weeks later, is a Zinger with a few more words added to the "click to subscribe" box. Three weeks later we send a two-sentence email saying watch for the Zinger coming in seven days. In seven days it arrives with a message above the "Click to Subscribe" box saying we can't continue sending these free, forever.

Three days after that mailing I visited Ron Cortez, founder of Cortez Coffee Company, to buy really great tasting coffee. He has been receiving this latest Zinger Promo mailing. In the roasting room he asked,

"Do you believe in the barter system?

"Yes, I use it regularly."

"Good, I am really enjoying your Zingers and want to keep getting them. I will keep you supplied with coffee, you put me on the Zinger paid subscriber list. Ok?"

"Done! And thank you."

"The latest Zinger, about the gasoline filling station, proves that we all buy from an individual, not a company. I have always believed this; the Zinger proves it. Every coffee house owner needs to know this. "Wes, every coffee house owner needs the Zingers. The information is invaluable and so easy to read and understand the message. Send the promo to all of them."

This is the third Zinger in the promo; the first two ask for the order in a very low-key, manner. The third is also a, low-key, request with a statement that gets your attention; as in get off your duff and do it now. I will continue the effort for up to a total of five, maybe six, Zingers and two additional separate reminders, which will make a grand total of eight contacts, or sales calls with each person, before I stop the effort. It will take five, almost six months before I stop.

Why continue so long, you ask.

My experience and that of countless sales professionals, shows that at least fifty percent (50%) of all buying decisions are completed after the fifth contact with the sales person. Ron's is the first order from this promo effort, and it comes after the third contact/call. I'm betting there will be more and more for two key reasons. The Zingers are doing the talking on each call and each call is valuable to the prospect: Cardinal rule of selling, deliver value on each contact. Secondly, buying and selling are educational processes during which a trusting relationship develops. It gets stronger each time and is realized after the fifth contact.

The tools we use to educate each other in the buying selling process have changed with technology, but our brains, perceptive acuity, and humanness/human nature have not. We still buy from a person (s) we like and trust. It is the first immutable law of sales success.

Wes Zimmerman
Have you read my Sales Book?