Just pick up the phone already!
As sales people living in a world of technology we have many different ways of interacting with our prospects and clients without ever meeting them face to face or talking with them on the phone. We can literally have a dashboard view of every tweet, facebook update, linked in update and email correspondence for all of our contacts and feel like we have our finger on their every move. Until they walk from the deal, or continue to push off an appointment (via Skype of course). All of the sudden you think back to the last conversation you had with them…. Actual voice-to-voice, or face-to-face conversation. How long has it been? A week, a month?
Lost in Translation: All of the different ways we have to communicate with people are truly astounding. However actually picking up the phone, perhaps even a land-line, or meeting up with someone in person continues to be most powerful. When it comes to prospecting it’s easy to get caught up in online conversations and feel like you are completely in control of your prospect or client. But are you really?I recently spoke with a sales executive who was very excited about his follow up to a major industry event. They had 1,000 leads and send a cool follow up message out to each of them, which generated a very high open, and click through rate. The numbers looked great and they were pleased. I asked him of these open’s how many of them had responded back that they would like to set up a follow up meeting to learn more about your solution? He replied, none. I asked how the conversations went when he spoke with them. No one has called me back he said…. Basically they were expecting this great email campaign would require human touch only when prospects hit ‘reply’ or called the number on his signature. All of the tools we have are great when used along with traditional calling and pitching. I encourage you to have your teams monitor who is opening up their emails and clicking through, pay attention to what they are tweeing about and posting on facebook, but then CALL them. Meet them for a cup of coffee. Continue to qualify them on the phone or in person. Perhaps even ask how the kids are…A few quick tips
- You already know to call early, but in the summer people tend to be in early rather than late
- Use social networking tools to your advantage, pay attention to what they are tweeting about, use it in conversation.
- Check Linked in for common connections and get personal introductions
- Does their company have a facebook page? Depending on how much info they have there you can get a lot of valuable talking points and information there.
- Make friends with the gatekeeper. You’re message will be more likely to to get delivered if the gatekeeper likes you and doesn’t think you are wasting their bosses time.
Technology is great, I am totally addicted, but we need to remember to add a dash of human touch to the mix. Especially in the world of sales and marketing.
