Outreach: contact everyone every 45 days

Liam Sheridan’s pitch was simple: in business-to-business sales, teams should try to reach every prospect about every 45 days, not just the small slice already replying. (x.com) Sheridan made the argument in a post on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, saying most companies contact only about 5% of their total market and miss buyers who become ready later. He tied that to a 45-day cadence with new angles in each touch, rather than one campaign and a long silence. (x.com) The idea lines up with the “95:5 Rule” described by John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute in 2021: for many business categories, roughly 95% of buyers are out of market at a given moment, and only a small minority are ready to buy. Dawes wrote that the figure is a heuristic, not a fixed law, but said it reflects long gaps between purchases in many business categories. (johndawes.info) That matters in enterprise sales because the buying window is long and crowded. 6sense said in its October 9, 2024 Buyer Experience Report launch that the average business-to-business buying cycle lasts 11.3 months and involves 11 people. (6sense.com) The same 6sense research said buyers are nearly 70% through the purchase process before they talk to sellers, and buyers initiate first contact more than 80% of the time. It also said 81% already have a preferred vendor at first contact and 85% have largely set requirements before reaching out. (6sense.com) Sheridan’s 45-day rule is not a published benchmark from Gartner, LinkedIn, or 6sense. It is an operating cadence: if only a few percent of accounts are ready in any given stretch, repeated coverage is a way to stay visible until timing changes. (x.com) (johndawes.info) Dawes framed the underlying problem as memory, not just immediate response. He wrote that advertising and outreach often work by building brand-relevant memory links that activate when buyers re-enter the market months later. (johndawes.info) That also explains Sheridan’s emphasis on “fresh messaging” instead of repeating the same note every month and a half. If the buyer is not ready in April, the next touch in late May or June has to give a different reason to notice the brand. (x.com) There is a practical constraint: more outreach can turn into more noise if teams send generic pitches. Sales and marketing guides from firms including Close and The Lead Lab say LinkedIn outreach works best when messages are personalized, targeted, and part of a broader sequence rather than a mass blast. (close.com) (theleadlab.com) So the thread’s real claim is narrower than “message everyone constantly.” It is that in a market where most buyers are not ready today and many deals take 11.3 months, silence is its own decision. (x.com) (6sense.com)