The Art of Friendly Persistence

There is a perception among marketers that frequent communications “offend” prospects and make them less likely to buy. This is true because we think all promotions are lumped together as being unpleasant and unwanted. In direct mail, this is known as the junk mail’ label and the same is true for spam email and unwanted telemarketing calls. And you deserve to wear these labels if what you are promoting is unwanted and targeted at the wrong prospects. Instead of being lumped in with these types of marketers, I would encourage you to adopt the practice of ‘friendly persistence.’ Once a prospect is identified by you as a legitimate suspect for what you offer, that person/business should hear from you on as regular a basis as your budget allows. This is particularly important if you have already qualified them as having the money, authority, need, and desire for your products or services.

The key is the ‘friendly’ half of the friendly persistence formula because it relates to the manner in which you make contact with your prospect base. For instance, while you should make compelling offers and market aggressively you should be careful about practicing hard-sell techniques. While such tactics may win occasional short-term increases in business, they will scuttle your primary mission of building long-term customer relationships. One way to keep it friendly is to blend in ‘informational communications’ with your other promotions to show your prospects that you are an expert in your industry and enjoy sharing this expertise to help others.

Advertisement