I’ve read that a sales prospect needs to be contacted 10 times before they will make a purchase decision. For B2B publishers, especially those selling conference sponsorships and site licenses, this number is antiquated, inaccurate, and potentially counterproductive.

Here are a few reasons why.

First, the publisher’s email marketing to free lists will typically include sales prospects for higher priced services. This will create brand awareness before a salesperson gets involved with the sale, decreasing the number of chances that salespeople have to qualify and close.

Second, specialty B2B publishers serve niche industries. Sales prospects are likely to know which competitors have exhibited at prior conferences, or which of their industry peers have site licenses with a publication.

Third, the buyer will have already researched an opportunity online or downloaded a media kit before they are approached about an opportunity or express interest in a service.  

For these reasons and more, the B2B publisher’s salesperson enters the conversation late in the game, and, for better or worse, they have fewer opportunities to qualify the sale, field objections, and close the deal.

Ten touches? Unlikely. Maybe three.

Where does this best take place?

We used to sell best in a prospect’s office. Today, salespeople of B2B publishers best qualify their prospects on video conferences. Without Zoom, Teams or Google Meet, deals are unlikely to progress past the lead qualification stage. If the call goes well, proposals and agreements follow.

Regardless, the sales sequence for B2B publishers gets truncated near the end of the sales cycle. This requires salespeople to show their quality quickly and convincingly on video conferences, and in the proposals and agreements that are presented afterwards.