Are you bothering your prospects?

How many touches are too many when reaching out to sales prospects? 3? 13? 30?!

Regardless of which side of the sales process you’re on, no one likes berating sales emails.
So the big question that people ask is, how many touches are too many? And what is the optimal number to get a response?

The Online Marketing Institute says 7-13 (link here), Direct Marketing Partners agree (link here), and Business Insider says, “It depends.” (link also here)

We’re on the same page as Business Insider, but through thorough testing we’ve also found that a best practice is around 4 or 5.

 

But wait there’s more!

Billy-Mays-Approves-of-sales-process

The type of touches also make a big difference in the overall success of your prospecting campaigns.

What do we mean? Well… Let’s make this example.

You meet someone for the first time at a networking function (Touch One). You meet them again at another networking function, and this time agree to get coffee (Touch Two). You connect on LinkedIN (Touch 3), and then finally meet for coffee (Touch Four).

So why does 7-13 touches make sense? It doesn’t.

It’s about the right touches and the right message.

Remember, these are people on the other end of your sales prospecting emails.  If you sell like an informercial, you’ll only connect with the prospects like this guy.

Cheese-Puff-Guy-Bad-Sales-Emails

Selling like an infomercial only works on the people who check their email at 2am while eating cheese puffs.

Treat your sales prospecting process like you would if you were meeting someone for the first time… because you are.

Takeaways:

  • The correct answer to how many touches to use, is it depends. But, best practice, in our experience in testing with our clients and over hundreds of emails, is 4-5.
  • Be human in your touches and interactions – Think of it like meeting someone new.
Have you found a number of touches that work with your prospects? How many, and why? Share below and let’s compare!