03 May A Blossom Doesn’t Always Mean Fruit
Have you ever had a fruit tree?
Or a garden?
Nature can be humbling.
As the first hint of spring hit weeks ago, fruit trees began to show their blossoms.
If you do have a fruit tree, you are well aware of what comes next.
You step up and practically (or actually!) count the flowers, dreaming of all the perfect fruit you will harvest this year.
Each flower is a sign of what a great tender you are. You’ll have so much fruit your kids will sell it on the corner and earn enough for a lego set, video game and college tuition. “I’m so good, look at all those blossoms.”
However, once you have been through a few seasons, you realize many of those flowers won’t even germinate and turn into little buds. Even fewer will mature to be full size fruit and once they ripen, you’ll be fighting bugs and birds for the right to eat the “fruits of your labor”.
You are a business owner, salesperson, marketing manager (or a combination of all three and more); does this sound oddly similar to anything else in your work life?
The sales process takes many doses of diligence, tenacity, skill and perseverance. Every lead and prospect is a beautiful flower smiling at you in the beginning, however, over time many of these opportunities fall away for any number of reasons and you are left to make the most of what remains.
This truth does not mean that one shouldn’t foster, nurture and care for each and every one of these potential pieces of fruit. It does mean that you need to find ways to keep contact with your customers and give them reasons to use your services above all of the other options, including inaction.
How do you ensure that you’re considered?
Action oriented email-marketing, social media, advertising, direct mail, and a website are all active ways to stay in the top of your prospect’s mind. Each of these channels work just as watering your tree works but you will also have to give the tree a little food (for thought) and multiple contact points.
Doing it is not enough. Each thing worth doing is worth doing well.