What counts as a touch
A touch is any initiative from your side that reached the customer: a call, a message, an email, a quote sent, a payment reminder. The customer's reply is not a touch, it is a reaction.
Count initiatives, because those are the part you control. The customer may go quiet and you still decide how many touches happen.
The market numbers
8.4touches in an average won deal
83%of deals close between touch 6 and 14
80%of sales need 5 or more touches
~7people sign off inside a company
Touch count rises with deal size. Where the deal is small, the decision often takes one or two touches. Where the deal is mid-size or large and a group decides, eight touches is normal rather than pushy.
Where reps actually stop
- After the second «let me think». The rep hears a refusal, when it is only the absence of a reason to decide today.
- After sending the quote. Quote sent, job done. Then silence from both sides.
- When there is no list of who to call back. If stalled threads are collected nowhere, the rep only works with whoever writes in.
- When follow-up is not paid for. If the comp plan cannot tell a closed deal from a forgotten one, the rep cannot either.
How to measure yours
- Take 30 conversations that ended in nothing.
- Count the touches from your side in each, up to the point the thread stopped.
- Do the same for 30 conversations that ended in payment.
- Compare the medians. If the lost ones have half as many touches, the problem is not your customers.
This is the most common fault we see in message threads. Not rudeness, not weak product knowledge, not price. The thread simply stops at touch three and nobody goes back to it.
What to do about it
- A stalled-thread list. The system collects everyone unanswered or uncalled and shows the rep every day.
- A minimum-touch rule for your type of sale. Two in high-volume, eight in a long cycle.
- A reason for the next touch. Not «just checking in», but a new fact: lead times, stock, changed terms.
- Comp that sees follow-up. If part of the rep's income depends on closed deals rather than quotes sent, touches appear on their own.