An example of the cumulative effect of prospecting.
Be in it for the long run. Have a well defined cycle for calling and stick with it because appointment making has a cumulative affect over time.
Back in November of ’07 I wrote four blogs about the cumulative effect of prospecting. Let me tell you a little story that just happened to me last week that illustrates this.
When I do not get an appointment (and unless I believe the suspect will never be a prospect), I always ask if it’s okay if I call back again in six months to see if anything has changed. Never had a single person say no to that.
This past week, I called a sales manager that I have been calling for four years, every six months (my Klpz appointment setting tool shows 32 steps during that time – that’s only four a year, by the way). As a matter of fact, when I introduced myself, you would have thought I was talking to an old friend. That’s an example of what I call the Dialogue Bond. (See January 30, 2008 blog.) We had a ‘how you doing’ or ‘how you doin’ (for my New Jersey friends) type conversation just like friends would prior to him starting the business portion of the call with, “I’m glad you called. Things have changed and I need you.”
Worse case, I interject some of these follow-up calls into my regular cold calling and it certainly doesn’t hurt the confidence level to listen to a voice that is open to the conversation.
For more information on this topic, check out my blogs of November, 2007 (there are four of them) and January 30, 2008 (always disengage professionally).
Leave a Reply