How to determine whether a Target might respond better to a cold call via email or phone.
In today’s world, a few decision makers respond better to email than to voicemail, but how do we figure out which ones?
First things first; in most selling environments, email does not work very well to set an actual Initial Appointment unless we’ve already had a conversation or gotten into a game of phone tag with our Target (see February 10, 2010 blog).
It can, however, be occasionally effective to set up an Initial Appointment or to set up the appointment setting call itself when our Target prefers written communication. Because of this, we encourage using automatically generated email along with the voicemails we leave. (We also cover this in the aforementioned blog.)
For most of us though, we either don’t have automation that supports the efficient sending of email (see www.contactscience.com for the best solution for that), or don’t have the email address to begin with. So here’s a good way to find out whether our Target responds better to email communications.
This tip will work best with decision makers that have administrative assistants. If we haven’t already engaged with the Target’s administrative assistant, it’s time. When we determine to do this is basically a personal style decision, but one recommendation would be upon the second cycle of attempts. In other words, I went through my first set of attempts leaving voicemails which weren’t returned and put the Target aside for a predetermined period of time. The second time the name pops up in my system; I might try to find the administrative assistant on the second or third attempt in this cycle if I once again am not getting a return call.
When I do try to find the admin, I’ll simply ask him/her what is the best way to have a five minute conversation with the Target. (See Gatekeeper blog for ideas on how to engage the admin.)
Caponi Performance Group and Contact Science jointly market the telephone prospecting and cold calling solution called The Prospector’s Academy™ under the brand name Coldcalling101. It is the only comprehensive solution to solving the biggest barrier to success in most selling organizations – the inability to secure enough Initial Appointments to begin the selling process. We accomplish that through simultaneously addressing both the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. We can be reached at 214 483-5800 or at barry@coldcalling101.com.
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