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Exert from Zig Ziglar's Secrets of Closing the Sales

"The Sales Professional"

Recency – Frequency – Potency – and Recommendation

In the world of professional selling, the professional remembers that if he's going to build a career instead of just selling one customer one time and then having to look for another, he must take seriously the advice of Dr. Joseph Braysich, the "body language" expert from Sydney, Australia. He advocates the use of the "recency, frequency, potency, recommendation" formula, which is self-explanatory.

Recency means how long has it been since you were in touch with your customers to let them know you are available to serve, that you appreciate their business, and to inform them about a new addition to your product line or a new use for the products they already have? According to Dr. Braysich, customers, even those who are good friends, need to be reminded of your existence and your eagerness to meet their needs or solve their problems.

Frequency. This will vary tremendously with the product and the practicality of the time investment as it relates to production, but in a competitive world in some shape, form, or fashion, your customers need to be reminded of your existence and your interest. Otherwise, competition which has no feeling of "I've already got that customer" complacency enters the picture and you're short one customer.

The man who is one of the best in the world at keeping his name in front of his customers is Joe Girard, who with Stanley H. Brown wrote the best-selling book How to Sell Anything to Anybody. His phenomenal success in the automobile business enabled him to write a book on selling based on his personal experiences. To the best of my knowledge, he holds all the records for selling cars. He sold:

1963-267 cars/trucks, 1964-307, 1965-343, 1966-614, 1967-667, 1968-708, 1969-764, 1970-843, 1971-980, 1972-1208, 1973-1425 (record year), 1974-1376, 1975-1360, 1976-Over 1200, 1977-Over 1200.

For the details on this astonishing performance, you should pick up Joe's book and carefully read what he has to say. There are many remarkable things about his record. First is the fact that over this fifteen-year period of time, he averaged nearly 900 cars per year, and these were all individual sales - no fleet sales at any time. Second, these were sales and not "deals" or giveaways. His company made a profit, Joe made a profit, and the customers obviously "won," too, or they would not have returned time after time. Third, Joe was the number-one automobile salesman in America every year from 1967-1977. The magnitude of that feat almost defies description. Fourth, despite the fact there were two recessions during his first eleven years, he sold more cars every year than he had sold the previous year. Fifth, the last six years he sold cars on a full-time basis (before getting heavily involved as a speaker and writer) he averaged over 1300 cars sold each year.

There are many reasons for such phenomenal sales success, but one of them is the fact that once a month Joe dropped a card in the mail to everyone of his customers. Obvious ones like Christmas, Easter, birthday, and anniversary; not-so-obvious ones like "Happy Fourth of July, Labor Day, Washington's or Lincoln's Birthdays." With cards coming all the time his customers consider Joe a member of the family, or at least an old friend. That's the way a real professional does things.

Mike Frank adds his own touch to this process by handwriting a minimum of seven cards every day. Mike uses a note pad which includes his picture because many of his contacts are of a ten-to-fifteen- minute duration, during which time he sells his prospect on inviting him back at a later date to conduct a meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to sell tickets for an upcoming sales and motivation congress. The note reminds the prospect of the date and the picture helps him to put Mike's name and face together. Mike does the same thing with people he did not sell to but who might buy later. He has done this every day since 1972. Tough to do - yes. Time consuming - yes. Rewarding - you betcha!

Potency. How strong was your impact? How solid is the relationship? Will your customer distinctly recall your last contact? Are you solidly entrenched because you sold and served well, or did you get in for that initial sale through connections? It's great to have connections to make sales, but it's highly dangerous and erroneous thinking to believe that once you sell to them they are your customers.

Recommendation. This one, especially on the initial sale, is critically important. As you will learn in the next chapter, Chuck Bellows sold me a Cadillac because the recommendation was so strong I went to see him prepared to believe him, to trust him, and yes, to buy from him. The professional builds that kind of reputation. Strong recommendations are the easiest - and by far the surest – method of building a sales career.