I Got Your Voicemail.... And Called You Back

Yesterday's blog post was titled "I Got Your Voicemail... And Deleted It".  The world is full of noise and too many people simply ignore all incoming information.  They get a voicemail or an email from a sales person (or anyone for that matter) and instantly jump to conclusions about the value of the call.  Delete is a natural response to most phone voicemails and incoming emails.

We cannot expect other people to be interested in the products and services we offer if we do not communicate how we can make a difference to their needs. Too often our own goal of making a sales is all that is visible in our first impressions.

To make it worse, few people have "Follow Through DNA".  While they might be interested in you and your services, as soon as the next shiny object appears in their view they are distracted and never get back to calling you back. (I have discovered the general lack of "Follow Through DNA" to be a huge determent in many areas of business, not just in getting your calls returned).

Experimenting with my own call-back ratios, and that of those I am working with for individual consulting, have shown that there is never a "one size fits all" solution.  There is no turn key scripts that will work for every situation.  The following tips have been yielding better results and help make you more prepared for any potential encounter:

6 Tips To Get Your Cold-Call Voicemails / Emails Returned

1.  Sit in their chair.  Too often when we call someone we talk too much about ourselves.  It is natural to try to fit in all the features and benefits we offer into the conversation as fast as we can.  We know from experience that time is limited, so we jump into an "Elevator Pitch" that blurts out tons of information.  But the first time people hear from you they do not care that you exist.  They care about themselves. Make the call less of a commercial and more of a conversation.

2.  Know your purpose.  Selling them on the spot is most likely not what your expect from the call.  Most business sales do not take place on an initial cold-call, so keep in mind that your purpose is to get them to have an interest in talking with you further.  If your goal is not to close a sale, then do not be in "sales mode".  When you are clear on your purpose you will have a better success in moving the relationship along the path.

3.  Network and research first.  If you have been actively networking in your industry you most likely can find a meaningful connection into a company.  When you have met the person before and had a positive conversation, or a similar chat with someone inside their company, you will be more likely to get noticed.  If you have not had a personal connection to the person you are calling, at least be sure you have done your homework on them and their company.  If you have not read their LinkedIn profile, do not make the call.

4.  Keep it short.  Long voicemails get deleted before the person has reached the end.  Say your piece, but be concise.  Do not ramble.

5.  Give them a reason to call back.  This is hard to explain, but too many voicemails are simply information dumps followed by the caller says things like "call me back if you get a chance", etc...  There is nothing that motivates the prospect to return you call.   If you have something of value to them, they will call you back.  Yes, this is subjective.  You need to study the words you use and continue to tweak your approach.

6.  Call back often, but not too often.  You do not want to be a stalker, but a single call that gets deleted is forgotten.  Over time, your cold calling can be a marketing tool.  If you are professional and persistent many people will give you a chance.  Most people give up after just a few un-returned calls, but over time I find that it can be years before a prospect whom I have called, emailed, mailed fliers, etc... will eventually call back.  The weird part is they often act as if they know me, because they have heard from me for so long.  However, call too much and you are a pest.  I think one call every three to four weeks is plenty, but you have to be patient, as it can take seven to ten calls before the call back.  Can you wait nearly a year?

If you are seeing the call from through their eyes, know your purpose, have a connection and/or knowledge about them, and keep your message on point, give them a reason to call back, and if you are persistent, you will find success.

***Addendum:

7. Make sure you are calling the right person.  I got a note via Twitter from Tom Singer (yes, TOM Singer, not Thom Singer) from London.  He complimented this post, but pointed out he gets calls from sales people all the time, and he does not control the decisions on the products and services they are trying to sell.  This is very important that you discover whom to call and do not waste your time (or that of the person you are calling).

Have A Great Day.

thom singer

I Got Your Voicemail.... And Deleted it.

We are part of other people's noise.

The world today leaves us constantly bombarded with incoming information and inquiries.  It has reached a point where most just ignore everything because there are so many choices that it is impossible to dedicate the amount of time necessary to become informed.  Even a trip to Starbucks yields over 19.000 beverage choices, but most people always order the same thing on each visit.

I recently saw a presentation by Jill Konrath (author of "Selling to Big Companies" and "Snap Selling"). She facilitated an exercise with the audience where 12 people came to the microphone and pretended to leave her a voicemail.  When she became bored she screamed "DELETE".  Only one person from the sample of sales and marketing professionals had their message "SAVED" in her example.

The live laboratory for voicemail messaging was a great experience.  We all think we have important things to tell our clients and prospects, but we forget that we are just part of the noise.  They are distracted and if we do not gain their attention we get nowhere.

It is difficult to stand out from the crowd (and not just when leaving phone messages or sending emails).  To be successful we must walk a mile in the shoes of the people we are trying to reach.  Often I find people that are rude as hell to others, never return calls, jump to conclusions, and are totally emerged in their own "stuff".... and then cannot understand why others do not respond to them.  Ummmmm.....   Hello!  Why do we see our own lives as busy and assume others are just waiting to hear from us?

To get noticed you must do a series of things that make you interesting to others.  Scott Ginsberg ("The Nametag Guy") calls it being "Call-back-able".  The successful cultivate a well rounded reputation and brand that positions them as part of a solution.  You cannot expect any one marketing effort to be the magic bullet.  Instead you must create a program of "Integrated Visibility" so that your cold-calls are not actually cold.

This can be even harder for "Solo-Entrepreneurs".  Many professionals have hung out their own shingles in the last few years offering services on their own that they used to provide as part of a larger firm.  Their experience in their previous careers came with large sales and marketing departments with established brand recognition.  They are often surprised to start on their own to find that seemingly nice people do not return phone calls and emails.

When call-backs do not occur, people give up.  When you quit on sales and marketing... you come up short on new business development.  If you get no new customers, you fail to make money.  End of game.  Thus the stakes are high to create a visible presence and grow your business.

If you left a voicemail and it got deleted you are not alone. Do not let it discourage you.  People are busy and they are not interested in what they are not interested in.  Look from their point of view.  Are you a "must have service", and "nice to have service" or a "what is that service"?

Discover how make yourself more interesting then you will get your calls returned.

Have A Great Day.

thom singer

See the follow-up post "I Got Your Voicemail... And Called You Back" on the July 3, 2011 blog post on The Some Assembly Required Blog.

Nurture All Relationships Over The Long Run

According to the sales consulting firm The Result Source "80% of all B2B sales happen more than 12 months after the initial contact". Therefore your business development efforts really need to focus on the cultivation of relationships and nurturing your leads. You have to look for ways to create business friendships with everyone you meet and have consistent and meaningful interactions with your prospects.

You cannot expect meeting someone at a networking event or placing a cold call to turn into business. Sure, there are times when you hit someone at just the right time when they need your product or service, but the reality is that most people do not wake up in the morning dreaming of your call.

Look at your own life. How do you feel when a stranger tries to sell something to you that you did not want? Yet, what if a trusted friend has a product or service that you realize that you now need? Why are your prospects any different from you?

I recently set an appointment with a prospect whom took my cold call. He was a very nice guy who was very gracious. He was curious about my company's services, but did not have a current need. I asked him a lot of questions to qualify his organization's current situation, and was not able to find anything that connected with him at this time, however did uncover the potential for major growth in twenty-four months that would make him an ideal prospect.

Was this sales call a failure? Nope. It was the opportunity to meet an executive with a dynamic company and to establish the foundation for ongoing communication. While two years is a long time with no guarantee that he will ever purchase, one never knows what success could await his company or where he will end up in the future.

I followed up with a short handwritten note letting him know what a pleasure it was to meet him and offered myself up as a resource for him in the future. From here it is up to me to continue to ping him with meaningful information and to establish a real relationship. If his company does reach its milestones, it would be a "no-brainer" for him to do business with me in the long run.

Too many people get caught up in short term needs and miss the chance to establish their future. While a sense of urgency and reaching immediate goals is important, they should not totally eclipse the reality of the time involved to establish trusted adviser status with prospects.

This is why networking is so important. Since you cannot know everyone in the world and will never create close friendships with each potential client years in advance, having a large circle of referral sources who will know when their contacts need you will expedite your being in the right place at the right time!

Have A Great Day.

thom
www.thomsinger.com

Inbound Cold Calls...Do You Change Your Tune?

Lots of sales and marketing people (and their employers) want to know how to make better cold calls. Many debate the level of success that can come from smiling and dialing a stranger while trying to talk your way into an discussion about your services, but the truth is that when it works....BAMMMM!!! you can have a new client. Lets face it, we all love the "chance" of getting new clients, so we make the calls.

There is much out there (positive and negative) written about the effectiveness of cold calling in blogs, books, newletters, etc... I know, I have made many, many a cold-call over time. I don't "LIKE" doing it, but it is an expected part of the job when you have a quota.... and the process does sometimes lead to the opportunity to meet a prospect and begin a discussion.

While making a series of calls to prospective customers, I was reminded that companies who have sales teams (and want their sales people to sign up new clients) should instruct their employees on how to receive cold calls. I am sometimes appalled at how rude C-Level executives can be on the telephone when called by sales professionals. Meanwhile they have outbound sales teams who are calling their prospects. It is sort of a paradox: they want success for their own company, while treating those who call into their company with disdain.

I understand that C-Level executives are busy (heck, we are all busy), and most simply never answer their own phone to avoid solicitations. As I said in my previous post, there are people I meet who instantly think "* 3" upon meeting me in person. They do not even know why, but they have an instinctual calling to hit "delete" at the sound of my voice (because they have ignored so many of my voicemail messages!).

But not returning a call is very different from having an off-putting attitude when you are actually talking to someone. Sure, you cannot meet with every person who calls, but that does not mean that you have omnipotent knowledge about the product or service that the other person is offering. If you are going to answer your phone, you need to be prepared to talk to sales people. It is just a fact of life. Treating everyone with respect should go without saying.

Yet, many executives I know HATE the calls they get from salespeople, and take pride in avoiding, deleting or otherwise getting rid of people. The bad news is that by doing so they are throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

However, some people I know have great ways of dealing with inbound calls. One CEO (who asked to remain nameless) told me recently he has three questions that he asks all sales professionals who call him. He turns the theory of probing questions around on the sales person to decide if he will take the meeting:

1. What companies like mine are currently using your product or service?

By getting instant names of others he can make a more informed decision of if this might be of interest to his company. If a competitor's name is given he wants to look closer, as the thought of the competition having access to something he has never considered is just a dumb idea. It does not mean he will buy, but he wants to make sure that his buying decisions are educated decisions, not automatic "NO" because he has not taken the time to explore his options.

2. How long has your company been in business and how long have you worked for them?

Seniority has its privileges and companies that have been in business a long time with a good tenure of employees are doing something right. He likes to meet with people who have long careers with the companies they represent.

3. Can you meet at 6 AM?

He is a morning person who gets to his office at the crack of dawn. If someone has passion about their product or service you will find them up and ready to talk at any time. He says the same goes true for those who actively attend "after-hours" networking events. The slackers have all the excuses in the world why they only work 9-5, but those he wants to do business with will come out on a Sunday to meet him.

If someone meets all three criteria, they get an appointment. He claims to not be a good buyer, as he still says "NO" often, but that he has also uncovered amazing opportunities for his company because he is "open to the prospect of being someones prospect".

How about you.... are you open to inbound calls?

Have A Great Day.

thom
www.thomsinger.com

Telemarketers Can Ruin Your Brand

The Wyndham Hotel/Resort in Round Rock keeps calling to offer me some kind of free offer. I can't even find a Wyndham in Round Rock when I look in the internet, but it sounds like a new property by the way they want to offer me a free stay to listen to a pitch (time share???). I looked on the internet to find a phone number so that I could call to voice my complaint.... but found nothing.

My wife told them "No" the other day. Then they called back and asked for me. I told them "No" three hours after her denial. Today they called back looking for my wife, but she was out. They called again an hour later and identified themselves. I told the "NO", but the guy kept talking....and talking...and talking. I had to tell him that because of his call I will now avoid all Wyndham properties for the rest of my life. I was clearly perturbed. He hung up on me. Yes, he hung up on me when I told him to stop calling, he had nothing left to say since it was clear that I was upset and he would not get a "live one" on this call.

Companies who cold call (oh, may I add, I am supposed to be on the "No Call List" at home) and do not properly respond when someone does not want to talk to them miss the mark. I know first hand that cold calling does produce results, but hiring unskilled telemarketers can backfire on your corporate brand. Cold calling only works when you find someone who has an interest to learn more about your product or service.

When I have cold called in my sales career I usually have to leave voicemail messages. I leave polite messages, and continue to call from time to time until I reach a human. If they say "not interested" I do not call them back a week later. That just makes people angry.

Cold calling can be a great way to start building relationships with people, as it is simply a first contact. But you have to be respectful of how the other person reacts. I was very clear that I did not want to be called. My guess is they either did not check their records very well, or they ignored my earlier comments of "no interest".

I doubt I will hear from the president of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts as a result of this blog post. They most likely have success with this calling program, so a few upset people is just par for the course. But dang, I am steamed right now. It has made me realize that you have to be very careful when you reach out to potential customers. Having just anyone make calls can backfire if they do not have the ability to relate to those whom they call.

Sorry Wyndham, you blew it on this one.

Have A Great Day.

thom
www.thomsinger.com

Never, Never, Never Quit

Keep calling.

I received a telephone call today from the CEO of a company I have been calling for nearly a year. I have mailed him things, left voicemails, all the basic sales-guy stalking a buyer stuff. He never called back.

Today he did. He runs a sales-oriented organization and he called to tell me that he appreciated my calling efforts. Granted, he is on the board of the competition and will not be changing anytime soon...but he called nonetheless. And he agreed, that forever is a long time, and that someday he might need my company's services.

He also encouraged me to call on him quarterly and continue to build our relationship. I had not realized that we actually had a relationship, but apparently he has come to know me from my voicemails and witty mailings.

Just a reminder to never, never, never quit. I have 49 other prospects who do not return calls....and soon they will stop ignoring me as well.

Yes, this story would be more engaging if he had moved all his business....but stay tuned.

Have A Great Day.

thom
www.thomsinger.com

Keep Trying To Reach The Prospect

Business Development is about being both tenacious, creative, and patient.

I have recently had trouble reaching prospective clients. I call, I email, I send snail-mail. NOTHING. Cold-calling, while a useful tactic, has not been working.

The good news is I know all about networking! (heck, I wrote a book about it!). But I also know that you cannot always network your way into every company as quickly as you might like. Fortunately, I have always believed that networking is just another useful tool, not the total answer.

Today I discovered that a combination of all tactics will work the best. I had called on a specific company for six months. I had left voicemails, sent emails, and had dropped off information. I could not reach my prospect and he would not call me back. I met another executive from the company at a networking event and we hit it off. I was going to move my attention to my new contact when out of the blue I heard from they guy I had been trying to reach for a year.

It turns out my name came up in conversation at the company and that spurred him to call me. Now I have a meeting scheduled.

Will I win the account? Maybe. But without the appointment there was no chance. So while no one tool helped me reach the prospect, a combination of many made it happen.

Never give up! Instead keep looking for unique ways to make contact. While I am still having a difficult time reaching my would-be prospects, I am still calling back until they meet with me!

Have A Great Day.

Thom Singer
www.thomsinger.com
thom@thomsinger.com

PS- Thank you to all who have recently purchased my book at Amazon.com. October was our sales month on Amazon!!!