Why Circling Back to Your Old Contacts May Give You Your Best ROI
It seems like when the topic of sales and business development comes up everyone is always talking about their prospect lists and how they are gathering new names to add to their list. Too rarely does anyone talk about how a segment of their proactive prospecting is comprised of their old contacts.
While it is always good to add more “new” names to your database, how about “mining the gold” that already lurks within?
Here are 3 few reasons why going back to your old contacts makes good sense:
These contacts already know you
One of the most difficult parts of prospecting for new business is creating awareness and recognition in your prospect universe and that’s just the first step. Sales is more than just awareness, there’s an education process as well as the need to establish value and competitive differentiation. In most situations, you’ve probably gone through this with your existing contacts and so you are further along in the sales prospecting cycle. This means that pulling them through the sales funnel will be faster and more cost-efficient than starting from the very beginning.
Your old contacts probably include potential clients AND referral sources
Your prospecting plan should also include the cultivation of high-value referral sources and these resources will often be included in your database. Referral sources can have a huge impact on your business development efforts and can introduce you to many potential clients. “Working” these resources takes time. You need to establish a relationship and win their trust before they can make introductions for you. The “care and feeding” of these individuals can take months if not years; therefore, continuing to stay in contact is one of the only ways you may get a return on your time.
Mining the gold in your database is more cost-effective than going after new prospects
Creating a marketing program designed to attract new prospects can be a costly endeavor, with a certain degree of trial and error before you are able to best identify your best performing prospects. Assuming that you have already communicated your value proposition to your existing contacts, your marketing outreach can be less extensive and costly and your touch-points more personal and focused.
Prospecting for new business is a “must-do” for every business. Be strategic and determine the best ratio of old and new contacts to provide you with the results that you need.
And remember that Stark Office Suites provides office support to assist you in your marketing outreach efforts. Contact us to learn how we can help!
