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Knock! Knock! .. Who’s there? .. It’s me AGAIN …

by Paul Mullan on April 22nd, 2010
24 Comments



It has been a few years since I heard a good “Knock Knock” joke but having recently uncovered some research statistics I realised that I have been the butt of the “Knock Knock” joke for the last decade. It is with much regret I inform jobseekers and business owners that it’s highly likely that many of you fall victim too.

A big part of successful job hunting and business development in this market requires proactive strategies like networking, cold calling and speculative approaches. Proactive strategies involve knocking doors in the hope of uncovering new opportunities and I think we can all agree that these are activities most would try to avoid. For those of you who engage in these activities I ask the following questions. How many times have you knocked a door and received an undesirable response? Quite a few I assume. How many times have you gone back and knocked that same door again? Very few I assume.

Are you the butt of the “Knock Knock” joke?

Research by Notre Dame University uncovered some interesting findings that may surprise many readers especially those selling a product or service. I believe jobseekers should stand up and take notice because you are sales people too and your product or service – yourself!!

44% of sales people quit trying after the first call (first knock)
24% of sales people quit after the second call (second knock)
14% of sales people quit after the third call (third knock)
12% of sales people quit after the fourth call (fourth knock)

This means 94% of sales people have quit after the fourth call. You will be interested to know that 60% of sales are made after the fourth call. This means that 94% of salespeople don’t give themselves a chance of getting 60% of prospective sales.

What lesson can we learn?

We can all argue about the accuracy of the above figures but for me the key lesson here is that persistence pays. A rejection or receipt of a “NO” is par for the course when job hunting or in business. Rather than accepting and moving on we should consider reengaging the potential opportunity. We must keep knocking new doors but not forget to return to those already knocked. When I look back over the years I can find many examples when persistence paid off – my wife is one good example even though there are times I wish I was less persistent – joke!! :-)

To become more successful we must develop and practice persistence. We must return to potential employment or business opportunities because circumstances can change very quickly – a change in mood, a change in business conditions or just a more suitable time to talk. Revisiting canvassed opportunities will enable us to stay on the radar but it also demonstrates valued traits like persistence and determination.

As always I would love to hear your views and opinions. Feel free to share positive stories when persistence paid off and if these don’t spring to mind then share a “knock knock” joke to distract us from banks and the volcano.



Category: coaching, HR and recruitment, Self- development

Tags: , , , , , , ,

The Author: Paul Mullan

Paul Mullan is an experienced career and outplacement professional with 14 years experience working within careers, outplacement and recruitment in the UK & Ireland. He is a former owner of Eden Recruitment and founder of career firm Measurability in 2006. Paul has delivered outplacement programmes for many leading organisations and ran graduate career workshops for leading third level institutions. He has worked with many individuals helping them define and achieve career goals through creative approaches to personal marketing and job hunting. Paul integrates traditional strategies with new Web 2.0 strategies to deliver optimum results. He is known for his up to date, creative and friendly approach to delivering career solutions. Paul is a recognised career professional regularly commenting on career related topics in the national media. He has acted as Career Doctor with Irish Independent and he is currently an online career expert with RecruitIreland. http://www.measurability.ie

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  • http://www.channelship.ie/blog/ Fred

    Great post Paul. To be honest, those numbers didn’t surprise me. If we forget about “sales” for a moment and think about all the people we know we’ll instantly realise that those numbers apply too and that persistence is not as popular as it should be unfortunately.
    Going back to sales now: there are, though some NOs that don’t deserve a second knock or maybe third. Would you always go back to all of them?

  • Anonymous

    Fred thanks for the comments ….

    To answer your question – Depends how much you want the business but also depends of the individual sales person.

    Let me share this “real” sales story below ….

    My first job after Uni was an America Recruitment firm based in London. The MD for Europe was American with a real positive, infectious personality. He was full of motivational real life stories like the one below.

    Shortly after the (now MD) joined the company in US as a recruiter he was promoted into sales account manager. Basically his job was to win new accounts with jobs for his team of recruiters to fill. The largest company in his region had been lost through poor service and he was determined to win it back when he got promoted. He phoned and got it slammed on him in a very rude manner. He gave it a few weeks and tried again. In fact he tried quite a few times over the following year. At this stage the phone was getting slammed before he could utter his full name. One day he secured a very large deal. He was on top of the world and his attention turned to this difficult account. He picked up the phone and the conversation when like this …..

    “Matt, don’t hang up the phone. It’s Tim here from xxxx. I phoned to let you know that I just landed the biggest deal in the history of our company. As you can appreciate I am on top of the world at the minute. So I have decided to call you so that you could bring me back down to earth”

    Silence followed by laughter followed by meeting followed by business!!

  • http://www.btbtraining.com/blog Niall Devitt

    Paul, this is a great great post, maybe your best? Our pride often kills our ability to be persistent. Sometimes It is unreasonable to expect to sell on the first, second or third call. In fact, expecting to do so may be the very thing that’s messing up the opportunity. Something I have found out is that sometimes I need to let a prospect experience another way/competitor before they can truly appreciate what I can do. In effect, I have to let them go to win them back. Persistence is a hugely necessary skill in business, the problem is that people often misunderstand it to mean pressurising when these are two different things.

  • http://www.btbtraining.com/blog Niall Devitt

    lol, lol, Wonderful!! :-)

  • Anonymous

    Thanks Niall.

    I hope you will be trying out the tactic outlined in my reply to Fred :-)

    P

  • Yonatan Maisel

    Paul,

    I really enjoyed your post today on Biz Sugar. I wanted to say to the whole gang at Bloggertone that I’ve been following all of your postings on Biz Sugar. You guys have great business minds and your articles rock! Keep on writing them and I’ll keep reading them!

    Yonatan Maisel (yoni67 on Biz Sugar)

  • http://www.seefincoaching.com/blog Elaine Rogers

    Great post Paul,
    Your quote “To become more successful we must develop and practice persistence.”
    Could I suggest to those who do get beaten down by the “No”s (myself included) is to practice, practice, practice and practice again. I am getting better, and know that persistence will prevail ;)
    Love your story btw :)

  • http://www.channelship.ie/blog/ Fred

    Ahahah, brilliant

  • Anonymous

    @elaine – Very true!! All about developing persistence through practice. Love that story too. I had a smile on my face reliving it again when writing yesterday. You would have to give someone business after that effort :-)

    @yonatan – Glad you liked the post. I agree with you that there are some great posts on the site matched by some very nice people writing them. Fun place to hang out!! Have a great day!!

    @Fred – though you would like that story!!

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairéad Kelly

    Wow, powerful stuff! It kinda brings home the attitude of the successful MLMers out there – “a no is just another step closer to a yes, keep at it”. They have been advocating that most people don’t buy before the 5-7 exposures of a product (preferably without the hard sell) and that to succeed in an MLM business you HAVE to be persistant and not take it personally, it’s “just the way consumers are”.

  • Anonymous

    Mairead

    Thanks for the comments

    “a no is just another step closer to a yes” – Love this saying myself.

    Paul
    @paulmullan74

  • http://www.btbtraining.com/blog Niall Devitt

    Yonatan, I love your stuff too, so much so Ive posted your articles on Twitter & FB many times, Two quick questions for you, Can you tell me your twitter handle please & how about you becoming a bloggertoner? We would love to have you :-)

  • Karen Sommerville

    Hi Paul
    I completely agree with your comments! I came across some similar stats a few years ago and use this information to reiterate the importance of calling people back at least 5 times before you give up (on my cold calling / telesales) workshops! I also read somewhere else that it takes at least 7 “interactions” before someone will do business with you as they have to get to know you and trust you etc…

    Its so important to keep in touch as people will forget us if we don’t remind them “we’re here”. However we have to be careful to get the balance right between being persistant and being a pest.

    Whilst I stress the importance of trying people again after a few months as “no” doesn’t always mean “no” – it can mean “no, not right now”! It is important to assess every situation and get real feedback before we can objectively gauge when we should call back. In my own experience, using a guideline of “within the month, within 3 months, within 6 months, within 9 months, within 12 months, 12 months+” works well…keeping everyone happy…

    Anyhow thanks and well done!!
    Karen Sommerville of Call Focus

  • Anonymous

    Hi Karen

    Thanks for your comments and agree with all of the above. Very true “no” doesn’t always mean “no”.

    I read the “pest” comment with a smile as I have been that soldier!! A nice friendly one though :-)

    Paul
    @paulmullan74

  • http://twitter.com/_FionaWhite Fiona White

    Hi Paul, Great post!
    I’d have to say these rules apply in a big way to job hunting too. You need to let the potential employer know that you’re not looking to work for them on a whim but that it’s a career choice for you. Some people feel that they are bothering/annoying a potential employer and so will give up too quickly. Maybe after 5 or 6 times contacting a potential employer they will say ‘Wow, this person really wants to work here, why don’t we at least call them for a chat!’ Maybe it won’t work out but if you don’t try you’ll never know and you won’t get your dream job! I’d say a lot of people need to learn and practice persistence!

  • http://www.salestipaday.com/ Chris Hamilton

    I love these stats, I was looking for something similar recently. It shows that persistence pays off.

    I found this information online. According to Chilton Research (which is now TNSGlobal) here is how long it took firms to buy products/services once they decided to purchase:

    15% – Bought within the first three months
    24% – Bought within four to six months
    34% – Bought within seven to twelve months
    27% – Bought more than twelve months later

    So basically if you combine that salespeople give up calling and the prospect is going to purchase at some point in time, then the probability of getting a sale is really slim. I always preach call over and over and you will succeed.

    Thanks for the post, it’s great.

  • http://www.stress-solutions4life.com/ Catherine Connors

    What a great story….. lol :)

  • Anonymous

    @Fiona – Thanks for the comments. As you rightly point out the article is very relevant for jobseekers. It was actually a young lady I met a few weeks back who inspired the article as she had a great story about how persistence to get a job within a particular organisation paid off.

    @Chris – Glad you liked the post and thanks for adding your own figures too. I agree – whether business or jobseeker we need to return to the turned stones or doors already previously knocked.

    @Catherine – Glad you liked that story – Big favourite of mine.

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  • Andrea

    thanks for your post! Social media has greatly helped our business- Rock & Roll inspired maternity wear for hip moms-to-be.
    We use Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and My Space to reach our target demographic and also send out a monthly newsletter to our email subscribers, many who don’t partake in social media..this way we reach as many people as we can..

    Good Luck!

    http://www.rockstarmoms.com

  • http://twitter.com/ZackShapiro Zack Shapiro

    Great points, Sian.

    You should check out my post, Why the Hell should I Like your Facebook page. Don’t just make a Facebook page, make a Facebook page with some value.http://www.thestartupstudent.com/post/1163080317/why-the-hell-should-i-like-your-facebook-page

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YRDUMMEI4PFFHQENMDCJ7ZIUJA Shiela Mckinley

    Great article it is very informative than ks for sharing it.

  • Laney Of Limerick

    Continued success to you Sian! Your article above is very inspiring and hopeful to those who enjoy this career field!

  • http://forextradingstrategiessystems.com/ Forex trading

    I think Twitter is easier to use and therefore better for promotion. It also doesn’t have all the restrictions that Facebook does.

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