Do you pay attention to different points of view?
When you are able to analytically listen to a difference of opinion you might learn something new or, at the very least, you will know how to communicate better with others to attract more prospects, clients and sales. Taking this stance, it is very important you only use what is consistent with you inherent personality. Lisa is obviously enjoying a very
Smooth Sale!
I received a very nice note politely disagreeing with me which I wish to share today as today’s blog:
Dear Elinor,
I just found your website and so far I’m extremely impressed! In your article “Turn Cold Calls into Warm Calls” 95% of what you say is spot on in my experience and I really like the idea of sending a duplicate email when leaving a phone message.
The only difference for me on messages is that I actually leave quite long messages, especially if it’s to a prospect that I’ve never spoken with before. (Basically a cold call message.) Cold call messages for me have been extremely successful, sometimes getting as much as a 10% return rate and even if they don’t call me back, I often get a response like “Thank you for calling me back. I wanted to call you but just got very busy” when I do reach them by phone or email over the next few days.
The reason I leave a long message is this – in 10 seconds I can’t say anything that has any value and will really interest the prospect. My message very specifically says:
1. Who I am and the company I represent. I’m not trying to play guessing games or create false mystery.
2. What the situation is. I try to offer value with every contact, so I’m always calling because of a new product, a free learning event, something.
3. What the benefit is for them. If there isn’t a clearly definable benefit for my prospect, why would they call me? So I do my best to give them a reason how this product, event or whatever will benefit their company. (This is based on what I know of that company or the industry. Sometimes I’m wrong but on a one way conversation, as a message very much is, you have to do some guessing.)
4. Sign off politely, thanking them for their time with clear information on how they can contact me.
I would say my average cold-call message is between 60 to 90 seconds. An eternity as far as most sales people are concerned. What I’ve found is that my prospects appreciate the detail and not being left with a mystery of who I am and why I called. I even get calls from people thanking me for calling even if they can’t use my services!
I thought that you might be interested in hearing another perspective. Keep up the great work and I will be keeping your link on my dashboard!
Lisa Kratzmann
Business Training Representative
Lisa@ChamberLearningNetwork.com
www.ChamberLearningNetwork.com/
P.S. If you have a different point of view from anything you have seen posted today or previously, please share your thoughts!
It seems like Lisa is using the battering ram approach which may very well be successful 10% of the time. But are you happy with 10%. I think both approaches are valid but it is definitely a matter of testing and seeing which is more successful. In Lisa’s case as far as I am concerned she better have a pretty compelling first 30 seconds or she’s getting fast forwarded to the delete pase. Likewise Elinor if you have successfully peaked my interest I may call you back or at least take your follow up call.