Don’t Leave Money On The Table: How To Close A Sale. Executive Search

Recently, I came across an interesting sales statistics image on LinkedIn that really caught my attention, and apparently many other LinkedIn users as well.  I dug deeper and found other articles claiming that the National Sales Executive Association posted these findings.

The sales statistics were:

• 48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect
• 25% of sales people make a second contact and stop
• 12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop
• Only 10% of sales people make more than three contacts
• 2% of sales are made on the first contact
• 3% of sales are made on the second contact
• 5% of sales are made on the third contact
• 10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
• 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact

I am not claiming that these findings are completely accurate, but as a sales professional I find them to ring truth.  I look back to my training at Treeline Executive Search firm and continue to train future generations of sales professionals on similar metrics.  I train this same methodology because it is accurate.

It is comforting to look back over my career and verify that in most case the sale is made in the follow-up. Only 2% of sales are made on the first contact and 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact. It also stated that 48% of salespeople never follow up with a prospect which I found mind blowing.

Sales professionals rely on hunting for new business and executive search to gain market share and prospecting is a huge part of the business. After reading these stats, it reminded me of the importance of resilience in sales.  Don’t quit or give up but instead follow up and track your results.  You may be surprised.

By simply being persistent, using metrics to record daily efforts and following-up, you are more likely to close a deal. Seems simple right, so why do so many sales professionals fail to do it?

{Related Article: How To Be Your Company’s Top Producer}

These stats serve as a motivator to make more calls and to weed out the prospects from the serious buyers. Don’t leave money on the table, make one extra call at the end of each day and you will close more business this year then you did last year.