There"s a new word in town - "Truthiness".
Never heard of it? Well, it means, "The quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true."
If you're in business or sales, chances are that you and/or some of your staff have suffered from this affliction and it could be destroying your business.
Don't believe me? Let me give you some examples…
You've got a list of prospects you're talking to. People you believe need your product or service and are going to buy… soon. They've told you they're going to get back to you and you're counting your money already.
But you don't hear from them, and the days roll by.
So you keep ringing them, sending them emails, even going and having coffee. They're always polite and happy to talk, but there's always some excuse or another as to why they haven't signed yet.
Now if you're like most of us who've suffered from "truthiness", you'll keep circling around this list of prospects in the firm belief that "they're going to sign… they're just busy and haven't got around to it. And if I just hound them long enough - they'll sign."
Well, I have some unpalatable news for you. THEY PROBABLY WON'T!
Now you have a choice. You can continue to delude yourself by focusing all your time and energy on this list in the hope that one of them will come over the line, or you can TAKE ACTION and find some new people.
Believe me, there's nothing more energising that finding new blood. You'll feel far more enthusiastic and this will rub off on prospects, so they will also want to be part of the action and become clients.
So take the bull by the horns and get your marketing into gear. Don't have a marketing strategy that's delivering a steady stream of prospects?
With your existing prospect base, love them, and move on.
By this I mean implement a "keep in touch" mechanism. You MUST keep in touch with them at least once every 90 days. And when the time's right for them and you can solve their problem - they'll buy from you.
Remember, time and tide wait for no man. If you don't keep bringing in new blood, your business is going backwards - fast.
Rashid Kotwal is an international speaker and author who specializes in on-line and off-line strategies for direct response marketing and sales optimization. He works with sales organizations want to get more business, faster and with less wasted effort. You can find more information at
Sales & Marketing Consulting and
Get Clients Online Fast.
Copyright Rashid Kotwal.
