I recently talked to a small business owner who has marketed her products using traditional marketing methods (brochures, ads, brochure type website) for 6 months. Her results have been way below expectations. She has gained 2 new customers through word-of-mouth marketing. One of her ideas she shared with me was to discontinue her current marketing efforts and concentrate on word-of-mouth marketing. She is a work-at-home entrepreneur with limited resources and a very small marketing budget. Her plans include starting a blog.

In my efforts to encourage her and create a marketing plan for her company, I re-read some chapters of Mitch Meyerson’s excellent book “Mastering Online Marketing”. Information on page 119 caught my eye:

Did you know that

37 % of interested prospects take 0-3 months to become customers

28% of interested prospects take 3-6 months to become customers

18% of interested prospects take 6-12 months to become customers

And did you know that

48% sales people give up after the first contact

25% more give up after the second contact

12% stop trying after the third contact

5% cease after the fourth contact

90% of leads never get followed up more than 4 times

Business owners really have to be committed to devoting the time and patience necessary to the conversion process.