The Tribune

By D’Arcy Rahming

One of my clients complained to me that his office administrator felt my insistence on them following up with their clients, who had made appointments but not kept them, was making him seem like a beggar. I pointed out the increase in sales, but recognised I was fighting a losing battle because the administrator was the first point of contact with clients. After a while she just refused to do the follow-up. Sales went down and they eventually abandoned my methodology. Well, you can’t win them all.

Most of my marketing campaigns involve multiple steps. To make a sale I often have to contact someone an average of seven times before success. The reason is really simple - timing. Not everyone is ready to part with their hard-earned money at the moment you are ready to receive it, even if they say they are. Marketers would do well to understand the need for multi-step campaigns.

Just because someone does not buy a product from you right away does not mean he does not want it. Take fundraising as an example. We can assume that if a donor fills in a pledge card, he or she is willing to contribute. A pledge is a promise to pay. Of course, it is easier to get a pledge than trying to get the actual donation. After the pledge you may still have to contact the person multiple times, and most will eventually give or they would not have made the promise.

This delay in payment could be for any number of reasons. Among them, the donor does not have the money at that moment; the donor has the money but this is a non-budgeted expense; the donor intends to actually get the money from other sources, etc. What we do know is that the donor could have just said: “No”, and good fundraisers will keep asking until you say so.

To me, the timing of funds involved in fundraising is proof enough that even if a person intends to pay, it is still difficult to get them to part with funds. So marketers should not be surprised that they have to contact a person multiple times when trying to make a sale. The closest thing that works in this way is lead generation advertising. This is where you get someone to contact you and leave their contact information. The fact that they contacted you means there is some level of interest on their part. So being persistent in follow-up will not offend them.

• NB: D’Arcy Rahming holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. A lecturer at the College of the Bahamas, Mr Rahming has clients in general insurance, retail, the health and medical fields, sports federations and financial services. He is also treasurer of the Bahamas Olympic Committee. To receive his marketing newsletter FREE go to http://darcyrahming.com