It still amazes me how a sales person will make A (single) phone call and then sit and wait for their phone to ring with the return call of the week. Duh!
Look unless you used the most amazing and effective voice mail that made such a favorable opinion on the decision maker – they could not wait to call you back, then welcome to the real world of communication and contact with others.
The fact of the matter is – very seldom will you actually get a phone call back from a busy executive these days. They feel they have NO TIME to do anything except what is on their day planner for the day.
So how do you get someone to call you back?
By being aggressive yet patience at the same time. I know they seem to counter each other – aggressive and patience in the same sentence?
It can be done. It is called a “Campaign.”
A campaign is like an extended plan of action regarding contacting or touching a targeted account over a period of time.
The key is to use multiple touches. I would not recommend you calling the person every hour or every day with the same message or voice mail. You need a plan. A well thought out series of actions (which can be used again with similar type decision makers or target accounts.).
The process is simple. You plan to touch the prospect – say once a week for three months. The catch is to have different forms and messages for each contact or touch.
A process may look look like this…
- Letter
- Phone Call follow up to Letter
- 2nd letter with a specific success story
- phone call with message tied to the success story issue.
- 3rd letter with another problem based success story
- Phone call – voice mail about the success story
- postcard
- Phone call with a new problem addressed
- 4th letter with article attached on an industry hot topic
- postcard teaser
- phone call with a new voice message on another problem issue you fix
- letter with success story in a very nice format or an article you wrote for a trade magazine. (Credibility is your goal on this one.)
- 5 letter with a new problem issue and success story
- Phone call with a new voice message
- Invite this person to a presentation or executive briefing on a key topic
- Continue your process with additional emails, phone calls, postcards, and invitations.
Now, if you have a person’s email address due to a card exchange or the person gives you their email address then you can integrate emails into your campaign shown above. The key is to get the potential customer curious about how you can help them like you are helping others (credibility and expertise).
By the way, the best method of this type of campaign working effectively is to automate the process. Have a customer database that has built in automated campaigns so the computer knows when to print out the letters and materials to be mailed to the prospect. I have used Goldmine in the past – for you windows users – and currently have a Filemaker Pro system set up to do campaigns since we are a MAC house these days.
The reason it needs to be automated is the computer will follow the set schedule of the campaign and there will be no missed phone calls reminders or actually printing of letters and postcards with an automated process. In other words, it works on a predetermined schedule so the customer gets a regular touch from you. Thus, you move up to the “Top of Mind Awareness” level in the mind of the potential customer.
Top of Mind Awareness is very important for you since when you do call further into the process, the potential customer will be more willing to take your call or at a minimum feel a need to return your call. They cannot explain why they need to return the call other than – they need to. That is the effect of Top of Mind Awareness.
Happy campaigning.
Voss Graham
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