My book, Winning the Staffing Sales Game, was published in 2017. The world has gone through quite a bit of change since then, not only technology updates but also a pandemic that altered the way we work and do business. I've received many questions from conference goers and book readers about the sales process that I outline in the book and what changes I would recommend.
In the book, I outline a 10-week, 12-step sales process that requires you to be effectively persistent. The first step in the process involves using snail mail! And, more surprisingly, hand addressing that letter. Many point out that they can't imagine the use of mail effective today.
We have made several changes to the process, but the letter still works exceptionally well. I spoke at a conference a couple months ago where a sales rep came up to me and said she had just landed an on-site account purely from the letter. I met with a client at this years ASA Staffing World conference that said they got two new clients the week before due to the letter.
If you think about it, everyone is assuming that letters don’t work anymore due to remote work, so everyone has stopped sending mail. But the average prospect receives hundreds or thousands of emails a day, dozens or hundreds of calls a day, and just a handful of mailings. We actually ran comparisons of the process using a letter or replacing it with another email, and 10 times out of 10 the letter proves more effective.
Some other things we’ve started doing with the 10-week process to incorporate new technology:
- Added a quick video intro to the week 2 second email. We embed a screen shot of the video in the email with a hyperlink to the landing page. Vimeo Record works really well for this, and we’ve had great results.
- Automation through Hubspot, Salesforce, Bullhorn Automation, Apollo, ZoomInfo, and a host of other CRM’s.
- Linked in Follows, Likes, Shares, Comments, and Connects throughout the 10 weeks.
I would encourage you to think of the different ways that we communicate and use them all in your sales process. The diversity of communication is one aspect that makes the process successful. The other aspect is the number of times you "touch" your prospects. Most sales people only call prospects, maybe send an email, but give up after the second or third call. Recent studies show that it takes 10 to 12 attempts to make a sale.
You need a structured, multi-step process that requires you to be effectively persistent. We have repeatedly tested a careful mix of communications designed specifically for our 10-week process. It works!
Are you looking for more suggestions to increase your sales? Tom's sales advice is detailed in the monthly training subscription. The training includes 11 staffing sales courses, including the Effective Prospecting course, which walks through the 10-week process from the book.
