A sales axiom: “no” doesn’t mean “no,” it means “not now.”

This plays out every day for B2B publishers, who can need between eight and 15 touches to close a high value sale.

This figure seems reasonable for a single sale. But what happens when a salespeople are working pipelines of 100 prospects? Can they reasonably manage 800 total touches? 1,500?

We persist by

Prioritizing: work the accounts that best match buyer personnas and drop unlikely buyers out of the pipeline

Staggering:  space out the about the number of prospects entering a sales sequence at the same time

Sequencing: define timeframes for steps in the sales sequence and end sequences sensibly

Contracting: shorten the sales cycle by challenging buyer behavior and overcoming objections earlier in the sales process

Restarting: let six months pass, understand prior objections, and begin the sales process again

Closing: nothing shortens the sales cycle like a signed agreement.

Thoughtful follow-up may be the most challenging and the most important part of the sales process. Persistence is fundamental to high value sales for B2B publishers, and these strategies can help to manage it.