Make it Easy to Hear Yes or HIRED!
A friend of mine, “Alice”, is fairly new to sales. She complained that so much of her time is spent following up with people to ensure high quality customer service by building relationships, she just doesn’t have enough prospects in her sales funnel. In job search terms that translates to preparing so much for interviews that you do not have time to seek out additional possibilities. In either case or as an entrepreneur, the process comes to a halt when you run out of options.
My advice for Alice was as follows:
1. The night before a work day, compile a “Call List” of 10 prospects high on your list
2. The moment you get settled at your desk in the morning, make those 10 calls
3. Most people no longer return calls. Therefore you need to find their email to send a duplicate follow-up message.
You may enjoy a high returned message rate for two reasons when you follow this guideline: In both the phone and email messages, mention you will give the party a choice of how they wish to respond adding that pressing the reply key may be easiest. This has worked for me almost every single time.
The reasons for the high return rate are you make it easy for your prospect, and, they would almost feel guilty ignoring your thoughtfulness. This technique has worked for me time after time. Adapt the philosophy of “make it easy for the other party” in all of your endeavors, you will attract far many more clients, the right job and what you want at the right time.
Your marketing-communication messaging is that you care and works to build confidence and trust in you. In turn this becomes a part of your brand helping to spread good word of mouth and putting you in the leadership position.
Should you wish a book detailing more of these techniques, read HIRED! How to Use Sales Techniques to Sell Yourself On Interviews. For those of you in No CA – you may Register Online for a half-day interviewing course I will be teaching March 5th.
With these strategies in place, rather than struggling with business development, you will attract more clients or the right job and it will be a very Smooth Sale!
