Do you know what your close ratio is? What percentage of your prospects actually turn into clients? If you don’t know, it might be a good idea to start keeping track of this information. It will help you determine what sales techniques work and help identify areas of improvement.
If you’d like to increase your close ratio, one great way to do that is to keep in touch with those prospects that initially tell you no. Why? Because, over time, some of them will likely turn into clients as well.
You’ve probably heard that the average sale is made after you’ve asked seven times. But most agents give up long before that, giving another agent the opportunity to close that client. It’s like getting up from a slot machine only to see the next person who sits down hit the jackpot.
Agents who keep in touch with their prospects often find that the prospects just weren’t ready to buy during the initial conversation. Maybe they needed more information; maybe they couldn’t afford the solution at the time; maybe they were too busy to make a buying decision; maybe their situation will change and they’ll see more of a need for the coverage at some point in the future.
The truth is that people make decisions (or fail to make decisions) for their own reasons, and they usually don’t tell us what those reasons are. But, as you know, timing is everything, and half of the battle for an agent is to get the timing right. The other half is to recommend the right solution.
In short, offering the right product at the right time will lead to more sales, and agents can increase the likelihood of doing both by continuing to stay in front of the prospect. That doesn’t mean you should harass people. What it does mean, though, is that you should follow up with your prospects from time to time to see if you can answer any other questions for them until they give you a firm no and tell you to stop calling. Agents who are persistent will achieve a higher close ratio as they convert more long-time prospects into clients.