In B2B, you need to reach out to your potential customers 7 to even 21 times before they seriously consider you. We probably all know this statement, but how does it work?
You have two things to do to close a deal:
Building relationships and gaining trust
First, you need to build the relationship and gain the trust of your prospects. They need to see you as the go-to person for solving their problems, and there must also be a personal connection before they consider a collaboration.
Being top of mind at the right moment
Next, you need to be top of mind with your relationships at the right time. There must be an active need before you can truly start working together. In the process of building the relationship, you also need to be patient. You may have already gained trust and established a personal connection, but there might not yet be a need. If that need arises in 6 or 12 months, you need to keep the relationship warm during that time so they think of you and choose you when the need becomes active.
It really is quite a task. First, you might need to appear in the timeline or chat on LinkedIn 7 times, have a video call once, a face-to-face meeting, and then the trust is built. You might still need to wait 6 months before the deal is made 🥵 This is a matter of being patient, staying in touch the right way, and above all, keeping your administration very well organized. Keep your CRM up-to-date and stay on top of it 📊
Long-term relationships and networking
80% or more of your new customers come from a long-term relationship and thus from your current network. All you need to do is make sure you follow up with your prospect at the right time.
Those 7 to 21 contact moments will ensure this. It’s a combination of sharing knowledge through LinkedIn posts, keeping the conversation warm via LinkedIn chat, planning a video call a few times a year to catch up, sending an email, sending a message, etc. Every chat, conversation, email, or message needs a follow-up, and there should be no loose ends. If you have this in place and keep doing it consistently, you’ll build relationships that eventually turn into customers 🤩 📈
Future customers are just people 😉 And people do business with people, so think about your tone of voice: Nobody likes spam 🫣
