Follow-up like the Census

I’ve been on the road for two weeks and returned to discover that Mo Williams at the US Census wants to count me. Like, really badly.

Mo swung by twice and sent two letters while I was gone. And then I opened the door this morning to find her… about to ring the doorbell.

“It’s you! Finally! I’d really love to talk,” Mo said.

“Uh, hi, I’m running out. How long will this take?” I responded.

“I won’t lie to you. I need a solid forty minutes. But what we’re doing is really important. The Census determines the number of representatives in legislatures and how billions of dollars are allocated”

“I can’t do forty right now, I’m sorry.”

“No problem. Is there another time today that works?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess I could do 4:00pm.”

“Great! I’ll call you then.”

Sales research suggests that it takes an average of five follow-ups to close a deal. Mo’s five attempts to snag my statistical data never rubbed me the wrong way. All because she was charming in her approach and got me to believe what she was doing was valuable.

I can’t help but wonder if there’s another Census worker out there who dislikes rejection and doesn’t fully believe in or understand the impact of the what they’re doing.

How do you think they follow-up?