January 30th, 2008 by Barry Caponi
Timing is everything. Our research shows that less than five percent of your target universe is in the market for what you sell when you call them. The operative words there are, “when you call them.”
When you can’t convince someone to see you when on an appointment making call, (or even if you come to the conclusion during the buying cycle that they won’t buy right now), don’t give up entirely on that person/company.
When disengaging from the call, I will say something like, “If it’s one thing I’ve learned in my career, it’s that the only constant in life is change. Do you mind if I call you back in six months (or some other appropriate time frame) to see if anything is changed?” I’ve never had anyone say no to that. And I now have clients that were not in the market when I first called on them. As a matter of fact, it may take multiple calls before they are willing to talk. But since you’ve invested time in them, why not leverage it? Have a system (Klpz) that will bring their name back up in the agreed upon time frame and call them back. You will also differentiate yourself as a professional. Get in the habit of disengaging professionally.
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January 23rd, 2008 by Barry Caponi
Just because someone doesn’t return your phone call or email doesn’t mean they can’t be a future customer.
My ‘cycle’ for cold calls is 4x4x90. What that means is that I will make four attempts, every four days, and if I don’t get through, I will recycle them for ninety days and try again. I always leave a voicemail and on the fourth attempt, I will leave what I call is a ‘move-on’ message. In that voicemail, I will professionally convey the message that this will be my last attempt for a while, so if they have been meaning to call me back, now would be a good time. I get more calls returned from this message than all my other voicemails combined. As a matter of fact, it has been so successful that I have reduced my cycle from five attempts to four. Why waste the time for the extra call?
Here’s the lesson, though. When I ask people why they returned this particular message, the response is always the same. They tell me that they did want to speak with me, but that they were busy and figured sooner or later I’d get lucky and catch them. It was the sense of urgency that made them return the call. The point is that just because they are not returning your calls, you cannot assume that they would not be a potential future customer. Don’t give up on that name. For more information on this topic, see my February newsletter. I’ll expand on this a bit more.
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January 16th, 2008 by Barry Caponi
What is the best way to handle Gatekeepers? Part Three of Three
Building better voicemails.
In the last two Blogs we talked about Gatekeepers. Today we’re going to talk about a related but totally different topic – leaving effective voicemails.
The need for handling Gatekeepers has dropped over the past five years. Unless you’re calling very high, there don’t seem to be very many of them any more. Voicemail has replaced them in most environments. So leaving effective voicemails is critical to your success. So here are some basic rules:
- First of all, I believe you should almost always leave one. Why?
- Some will get returned, so why not leverage your time and not have to place that call again?
- With the advent of Caller ID, you really don’t think you can call seven times today and it not be noticed, do you?
- I believe in the cumulative effect of calling. Advertisers say until a prospect has heard or seen your name seven times, they won’t recognize it. So leave a message.
- Leverage your time – if you’re going to go through the steps of determining who to call, where you are in the cycle (what is your history with this name), recording the results (a total of two to three minutes) why not spend another fifteen to twenty seconds and leave a voicemail?
- There are two approaches to voicemails – the curiosity approach or the ‘cumulative curiosity’ approach:
- The cumulative approach is simply to leave a message that piques the suspect’s curiosity so that they call back. This could be anything from just leaving a name and phone number and asking for a return call to mentioning the name of a competitor you’ve done business with.
The higher you call, the more responsible people are for knowing what their competitors are doing.
- The cumulative curiosity approach is one that still leaves a bit unsaid, but builds on a story each time. If you make four attempts in each cycle before recycling the suspect for some period of time, then try the following:
1. The first three times, leave three different messages regarding what you’ve done for others to help them in some benefit oriented manner. (Not what you can do for this suspect.)
2. The fourth time, leave a ‘Move-on’ message telling them that you’ll not be calling them back again for a while as you don’t want to be a pest. However, if they’ve been busy and meaning to call you back… (I get more return calls off of this message than any other.)
- Lastly, repeat your phone number s-l-o-w-l-e-y, and repeat your name again. Sometime we get nervous and say our phone number too rapidly forcing the suspect to replay it multiple times to get it. Repeat it because people access their voicemail from cell phones sometimes and a number could easily be dropped.
If you’d like some examples of what I mean, give us a call at 817 224-9900.
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January 9th, 2008 by Barry Caponi
What is the best way to handle Gatekeepers? (Part Two of Three)
Last week when I introduced the topic of handling Gatekeepers, I suggested that you ask the Gatekeeper to put you through to the bosses’ voicemail whenever possible (given the choice of leaving the message with them and assuming the boss isn’t available). This week we’ll talk about the situation when the Gatekeeper tells you they will take a message. I call this technique the concept of ‘Pattern Interruption.
If you look at one of those old fashioned ‘While You Were Out’ pads, they all use the same order of blanks:
- Date
- Caller’s Name
- Caller’s Company
- Caller’s Phone No.
- Reason for the Call
Good Gatekeepers want to know what the reason for the call is as we discussed last time. Here is a way to reduce the risk of them quizzing you too much on that topic.
First of all, use your curiosity type of message just like you would on a voicemail. “I’m calling in regards to the XYZ company,” (a competitor of theirs that you’ve done business with) for instance. But here’s the trick. Use the concept of ‘Pattern Interruption’ when you recite your information and end up with your phone number being the last thing you tell them:
- Date
- Caller’s Name
- Caller’s Company
- Reason for the Call
- Caller’s Phone No.
If the Gatekeeper is busy, they won’t come back and ask you more about the reason for the call. If they’re really good, they still will ask. If they do, then tell them exactly why you’re calling. As a matter of fact, just use the same approach you’d use on the boss.
In the next installment, we’ll talk more about what to put in those voicemails.
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January 2nd, 2008 by Barry Caponi
What is the best way to handle Gatekeepers? (Part One of Three)
Contrary to what most sales people think, their number one responsibility is not to keep us out! Their number one responsibility is to protect their bosses. On the surface you might think that includes a line in their job description that does say ‘keep sales people out’, but their real job is to help their boss be successful and in the right circumstances we can help them do that. Since more people (including us) want more of the bosses’ time than there is time available, good gatekeepers are invaluable in helping their bosses’ sort through what can actually help them do their job better and what won’t or can’t.
So what’s the moral of the story? Help the gatekeeper understand how you can help their boss do their job better. Now I’m also not naïve enough to think that all gatekeepers are created equal, so here are some rules of thumb for working with them:
- Don’t ever lie to (trick) a gatekeeper to get through to their boss. You may get the first meeting set up, but if the gatekeeper and the boss compare notes, you’re toast. Even if you get to keep the meeting, your trust factor is gone, so you might go merrily along in a buying cycle only to lose the sale at the end.
- Always ask for voicemail the first and second time and leave your own message. That way it won’t get filtered and restated by the gatekeeper unless necessary. You never know what people take from what you say. (Remember the kid’s game of telephone?)
- Use your standard ‘curiosity’ voicemail message if you must leave a message with the gatekeeper and use the concept of ‘Pattern Interruption’ to keep the gatekeeper from deep drilling you on the reason for the call.
- Make their job easier and more pleasant, so get to know them. Be one of the people that light up their day and treat them like a sale. You may very well have to ‘sell’ them on the value you’ll bring to their boss before you get to their boss.
- Always make sure to get their name and make a note of it for future calls
- On the third attempt, you should be on a first name basis so ask for their help instead of asking for voicemail or just leaving another message with the Gatekeeper. Ask them what the best way is to get five minutes (an appointment making call) of their bosses’ time to set an appointment. They will either tell you how to do that (best time to call, send an email, they’ll set it up for you, etc.); or they’ll tell you you’ll not be getting by them. They may really grill you as to what the benefit to their boss would be. Use the same approach you’d use with their boss.
- The result is that you’ll know that they’ll help you with the proper incentive (how you’ve helped others like their boss in the past), or you’ll know to use the ultimate ‘handle the gatekeeper’ rule…call when they’re not there.
Next week we’ll talk about how the concept of ‘Pattern Interruption’ works and in week three, we’ll talk about creating effective voicemails.
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