December 31st, 2008 by Barry Caponi
We’ve spoken previously about the value of the extra ‘touch point’ generated from using email along with voicemail and the phone to set appointments. But what happens when the target responds with a ‘no’ via email?
The downside of using email to contact targets is that it is sometimes easier to say no in an email. Unless this is a really big opportunity, in which we might want to send a customized message back, I would send the target back a version of the ‘move on’ message we’ve spoken of before. Something to the effect of, "Thanks for your response. If you don’t mind though, I’ll call you again in X days to see if the situation has changed at your end. In the meantime, I wish you well in your selling endeavors and thank again for answering my email. Most people do not take the time to do so."
If it is a big opportunity and we don’t want to give up yet, we can send them an email back that is basically the same Counter as what we’d use if on the phone. Using the ‘Not Interested’ response plus a ‘Bridge Question’ that would kind of say something to the effect of, "Ask yourself this question: what would be the result if …? If the answer to our question prompts some curiosity on how we have helped people accomplish that, please let me know. Otherwise, if you don’t mind, I’ll contact you again …"
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December 24th, 2008 by Barry Caponi
Companies spend untold amounts of money implementing CRM. There are multiple reasons why CRM does not help in the process of setting initial appointments with new business targets. The question is why?
The simple answer is that CRMs were not built to automate the business process of telephone prospecting. The better question is why we continue to use them for that purpose. The answer to that question is a combination of:
· We view CRMs as the Swiss Army knife of sales tools,
· The CRM is already in place,
· The lack of use of the CRM for prospecting is lumped in with the lack of CRM use in general,
· Poor prospecting activity is the ‘elephant in the sales bullpen’ anyway, so blaming the CRM is easier than facing the truth,
· Lastly – and this is the biggest reason – we don’t really grasp that prospecting is a process, therefore we don’t appreciate the real role of automation to its success.
This ‘real reason’ is a big topic at www.coldcalling101.com where telephone prospecting is correctly defined as a business process. This process requires us to assemble the correct combination of Art, Best Practice and Science to be successful. That’s right, without getting all three business process components correct, we fail.
The purpose of the Science component is to provide efficiency. Specifically, allow a sales rep to quickly, easily and accurately navigate the Best Practice for the pursuit of a target, while in the pursuit of 100’s of targets simultaneously and to automatically report on prospecting activity.
CRMs are not only inefficient in this role; they are proven during benchmarks to be counter-productive. For instance, it takes twice as long and 85% more effort to follow the typical Best Practice for B2B telephone prospecting in a CRM. It takes only 45 minutes to benchmark a CRM; to benchmark yours email us at bhoward@klpz.com.
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December 17th, 2008 by Barry Caponi
Mistake #10 – Calling the same day and / or time of day over and over again, or calling the same person over and over again the same day
Albert Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is “…doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.”
One of the basic tenets behind The Formula is having a plan (we call them Best Practices) and then employing technology (we use a specialized tool called Klpz that works as a front end to CRMs – www.coldcalling101.com) to track what you do so that you can leverage what works and change what doesn’t.
Every industry and target group has windows that are better than others for contacting them. The challenge is to figure out what works best for them and for you. I’ve heard sales reps say that they make 100 dials a day! As the old saying goes however, ‘the devil is in the detail’.
Activity, or working hard, alone will not dictate success. It is not until we take a look at the individual elements of a calling plan that we are able to begin to improve our performance. Are we calling only 10 different people 10 times each day? Are we always calling between 8:00 AM and 9:00 AM? Are we always calling on a Monday?
In order to improve our performance, we must monitor what we do, measure what we do and then manage (or change) what we do.
If you call the same target multiple times per day and don’t leave voicemails, you might also want to think about this for a second. In this world of Caller ID, do you really think your target doesn’t know you’re a cold caller when your number shows up on their Caller ID multiple times during the day? Remember, more and more people are now using voicemail to screen.
The moral of the story? Think about what you do and why you do it. Then monitor the activity, measure your results, and manage accordingly.
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December 10th, 2008 by Barry Caponi
Mistake #9 – Not letting the suspect know when this attempt is the last
Many participants in The Formula’s workshops say is that no one returns voicemails anyway, so why bother leaving them? Well, here’s the biggest reason of them all to do so!
Our methodology includes the practice of leaving voicemails and we’ve talked about the many advantages of doing so in these Blogs over the past year-and-a-half, so I won’t repeat them all here. But think about this for a moment.
We’ve invested (hopefully) a lot of time developing the value propositions we want our suspects to hear regarding why they should meet with us. Why? Because we know that there are people out there that are in the market for what we sell when we call. So we know that we’ll hit suspects that do want to talk with us from time to time, right?
One of the two ground rules of cold calling, though, is that we are interrupting people when we call them, which means we must acknowledge that they’re busy doing something when we call – even if they are in the market for our solution when we call. If we do not inform them that this is the last time we will call for a while, they may not call back assuming (incorrectly) that we’ll try again later.
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December 10th, 2008 by Barry Caponi
This supplemental Blog contains the detail of how to construct the message that let’s our targets know this is the last time we’ll try to reach them.
Disciples of The Formula consistently report back that they get more returned voicemails off of this ‘Move-on Message’ than any other.
The first thing you’ll need to do is determine how many attempts you’ll make to reach a target prior to moving on to another. (We call that a Cycle.) When you get to the last call, try something like this:
Good morning, Mark. My name is Barry Caponi, and I’m the president of the Caponi Performance Group. As you know, I’ve left you several messages over the past few weeks, and although I’m persistent, I don’t want to be a pest. If you’ve been busy as most of my clients are, but meaning to return my call, please do as I’m looking forward to talking with you. If you can’t, I won’t bother you again right now, but will call you back again in 90 days if you don’t mind. My number is 817 224-9900, that’s 817 224-9900. Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.
You’ll be pleased with your result if you use this technique!
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December 3rd, 2008 by Barry Caponi
Mistake #8 – When leaving voicemails, not saying our phone number s-l-o-w-l-y and repeating it
As Andy Rooney might whine, “Have you ever gotten a voicemail with a telephone number left so rapidly that you had to listen to it multiple times before you got the whole number?” Well, I have and I know you have as well because it is all too common.
You know what I do with those voicemails? If I can’t get the number after the second attempt, I delete it. And, heck, I think every cold call to me is a prospect, so I’ve got an incentive to listen. Trust me; the rest of the world is not so kind.
In our workshops on The Formula, we will sometimes actually role play the leaving of voicemails. What we hear a lot in those role plays is nervousness. That nervousness generally represents itself in speed. Slow down a little bit. If you think your voicemail is too long, then it is. Work on shortening it, but make sure you leave your number twice and say it s-l-o-w-l-y.
By the way, if you think because you’re leaving it from a land line to a land line you needn’t repeat it, think about this. How often do we retrieve our office voicemails with our cell phone? Ever had one of those clicks happen which causes you to have to listen to the whole message again? Leave your number twice and say it s-l-o-w-l-y.
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