Definition: Perhaps the most common beginner mistake in all of sales and marketing, the meaning of one and done is putting a single touch on a prospect and then declaring failure.

In sales funnel training, this behavior is known as a “one & done error.” If you asked a CRO expert why your sales approach isn’t working, they might say “One and done” meaning you simply didn’t put enough touches out on a particular prospect.

What does one and done mean?

In an ABM funnel, one and done would be sending a single prospecting email or calling once. Using HubSpot sequences or cadences is a potential solution.

In PPC, it would be running an ad campaign only long enough for a single user to see it once. Running campaigns for a period of months and adding retargeting campaigns is a potential solution.

In email marketing, sending a single newsletter and stopping after seeing no immediate results is a common but ineffective approach. Committing to sending 6 newsletters before starting to draw conclusions is a potential solution.

The underlying misconception in all of the above is that a prospective buyer actually mentally engaged with whatever the touch point was. Often the messaging was fine or even great, but simply never received or perceived because the call wasn’t answered, the email wasn’t opened, etc.

While impulse buys are more common in B2C sales, B2B sales cycles can take 7-50+ discrete touch points depending on the complexity of the product or service.

Use It In a Sentence: You one and done’d it? No wonder your email marketing initiative didn’t work.

For Further Reading: Hubspot Automated Emails Instead of Click Funnels

Related Terms Spray and Pray, Insert Magic