Survey Results: What Prospecting Methods do Prospects Really Respond To?

How many individual and business customers respond to cold calls?

How many respond to direct mail?

Do your prospects read and respond to unsolicited email ads?

Last summer McCord Training surveyed over 450 individuals and businesses to get an idea of just how effective some of the marketing and prospecting methods salespeople, professionals, and small businesses use really are.

The survey was conducted over the phone and by no means is it a scientific survey.  The survey respondents included over 200 individuals and just under 250 businesses.  About 80% of the respondents reside or are headquartered in the US, with the remaining 20% from Canada.  Business respondents included companies from numerous industries, and although they ranged in size from mom and pop stores to multi-national companies, the majority of the respondents were small to mid-size companies.  The responses from larger companies represent only the purchase practices of a single division, region, or even a single executive within the company.

The survey sought answers to a number of questions about how the individual or company responded to various prospecting and marketing methods. 

Although the survey was taken for internal use and full results are not being released, here are a few of the more interesting finding of the survey:

• Have you (or the company)purchased any goods or services in the past 12 months from a salesperson or company that you had never done business with previously where the initial contact to you was made by a cold call?
  YES  3.38%  NO 96.62% Individuals  (business respondents bought at a rate of 6.07%, almost double the rate for individuals)
• Have you (or the company) purchased any goods or services in the past 12 months from a salesperson or company that you had never done business with previously where the initial contact to you was made by a letter, post card, or other direct mail piece addressed to you or your company?
  YES 12.36%      NO 87.64%
• Have you (or the company) purchased any goods or services in the past 12 months from a salesperson or company that you had never done business with previously where the initial contact to you was made by an unsolicited email?
  YES 1.77%      NO 98.23%
• Have you (or the company) purchased any goods or services in the past 12 months from a salesperson or company that you had never done business with previously where the initial contact to you was made via a referral or introduction from someone you knew (or someone within your company)?
  YES 62.47%      NO 37.53%
• Have you (or the company) purchased any goods or services in the past 12 months from a salesperson or company that you had never done business with previously where the initial contact to you was made via meeting the salesperson or other company representative at an event or meeting?
  YES 39.07%      NO 60.93%
• Have you (or the company) purchased any goods or services in the past 12 months from a salesperson or company that you had never done business with previously where you contacted the company or salesperson due to a recommendation of the product, service or company from someone you knew?
  YES  17.22%        NO 82.78
• Have you (or the company) purchased any goods or services in the past 12 months from a salesperson or company that you had never done business with previously where the initial contact to was made at a trade show or conference?
  YES 18.32%      NO 81.68%

We believe these numbers are instructive and can help salespeople and companies determine where they want to invest their time and money; however, the results are from a limited number of consumers.  In addition, the answers given reflect only the respondent's best memory of their actions over the past 12 months; involve purchase decisions for only a 12 month period; and do not reflect the quantity of purchases a respondent may have made through any of the above contact methods (that is, a respondent who bought from a cold call may have only bought from one cold caller or might have bought from several cold callers).  Also, respondents were asked only about purchasing from salespeople or companies they had never done business with previously.

The survey indicates that virtually all of the contact methods surveyed are viable.  Some are certainly more effective than others, but all, given large enough numbers, can and do produce results.  One of the most glaring but not surprising results is the more personal and intimate the contact method, the better the result.  In each case, the positive response results were higher for business consumers than individual consumers, with the exception of referrals/introductions and unsolicited emails where the response rates were almost the same for each group.

It would be interesting and beneficial if an organization with the necessary resources would undertake a similar survey on a far larger scale.