The biggest enemy to the sales cycle is time. Time kills deals. The longer the sales cycle, the less chance of closing the deal and the more cost per sale. To build a successful business, you must develop a program that swiftly and efficiently reaches out to your cold, warm and hot prospects on an ongoing timely basis.

With today's influx of competition in almost every industry, timing is crucial. The follow up from a sales meeting, catching that prospect at their buying moment, and staying in contact with your customer base just enough to keep top of mind but not so much as to be bothersome.

There are three groups or categories of prospects and each has it's own unique challenges:

• Cold Prospect -

o You've got to get noticed from amid the crowd.

o You chase them so you can introduce them to your products and service.

o You hope you can catch them at the right time when they're ready to buy what you're selling.

• Warm Prospect -

o You've had your first meeting but they're not a quick sale.

o They want time to think about it.

o You need to be poised when they're ready to buy.

• Hot Prospect -

o There's no guarantee, but you've got a good chance of getting the sale.

o You've got an opportunity to get a referral.

o With a job well done, you can nurture a long time repeat customer.

Each one of these categories needs to be handled with follow up mechanisms that are both adaptable to your current business strategies and easily administered on a consistent basis.

A delicate balance of staying in touch without being overly obtrusive is the key to keeping your business on the first call list with customers and prospects alike. Even if they're not interested in your service right now, sending your information via email allows your prospects the flexibility to retrieve it later when needed, or forward it on to others who might need what you're offering.

The sales cycle is shortened when we can duplicate ourselves with personalized follow up procedures. A telephone call is best, but if we're busy or, heaven forbid, unorganized (none of us fits in this category, I'm sure) then we might very well miss that small window of opportunity to make the right impression.

Mailing a thank you card is memorable when sent after the sale but if we need to expedite the message, say after the sales presentation, then this form of communication can be too unpredictable when time is of the essence.

This is where email follow up can be used in communicating with our customers and prospects, especially when we personalize our messages. By having pre-drafted letters that can be easily edited for each prospect and/or customer, email marketing supports sales efforts and improves:

Customer Loyalty - Companies spend ten times more to acquire new customers.

Follow-up - Eighty percent (80%) of sales require up to eight contacts before the sale closes.

Sales Cycle Efficiency - The speed at which a prospect is converted into a customer affects the bottom line.

Lead Quality - A warm lead is a stronger lead.

But how do we use email to get to prospects that we've never met before? With all the SPAM laws and regulations now, it's getting increasingly more difficult to use email as a legitimate advertising medium. However, email campaigns that are targeted towards customer advocates using compelling incentive offers that can be forwarded on to others, bypasses traditional advertising methods by getting your brand message out to prospects who

1. Could never be reached before

2. Are semi-pre-qualified

This is called permission-based emailing and it's really the only legal, ethical way to get your company's info out to a warm online audience. Permission emailing breaks through the barriers by offering a safer platform with which others are introduced to your service. Your message is sent to others via their personal contacts, offering a better quality lead. Statistics show that a warm lead is 64 percent more likely to do business with you than a lead that has never had any introduction at all.

Permission emails bridge the gap between you and your prospects so that you can

• Stay in touch more efficiently and consistently

• Get your message out quickly and cost effectively

• Support customer advocacy more personally

No longer are you one of the millions of businesses out there advertising in a sea of hopes that the right prospect, at the right time will find you. With a consistently executed email program, your business' sales cycle will be shortened when you can reach out to prospects and stay better in touch with your customer advocates.



About the author:

Diana D'Itri is the Exec VP of Ravebiz, a leading referral marketing and technology company. She's a key driving force behind educating clients on how to generate more quality referred customers through practical applications and an automated, web based system called the Rave APG eReferral

For a free download "31 tips for boosting referral business" go to www.ravebiz.com. Diana can be reached at (866) 284-3020 or email her