Today’s question is from a sales manager, who writes “When should my salesperson start calling for an appointment? After the first two mail pieces? How often should she call? Do you have a rule of thumb on this?”
Make That First Sales Phone Call NOW!
In sales, we work in imperfect worlds. We can’t always try to make everything perfect before we leap or jump or try to do an activity, so the rule of thumb is “Don’t overthink the think—overdo the do.” Make your first sales phone call now without question or regard to time. Make the phone call.
Let’s talk about a perfect world.
In the world that we teach, we teach that we do an offering of a small free book that goes out first to our A+ or VIP+ clients, followed by a profile sheet a few days later. In ninety-nine percent of the sales world, they make these cold calls or they get a lead and they make the phone call and they wonder why they can’t get any results. One of the reasons is they don’t warm those people up. You’ve got to warm people up or at least make an attempt to warm them up. So what we do is send the Jim Rohn Positive First Impressions book, which you can find in my blog under “T.I.P.S.: To Insure Prompt Sales.”
So the Rohn book goes out first, done in the special way we set it up to send it. Then there’s a profile sheet on the salesperson that describes the salesperson, the company, and the product or service, and is sent a couple of days after the Rohn book. So when that first sales phone call is made to that cold prospect, you are able to give a reason for the call, especially if there’s a gatekeeper: you’re calling to make sure they got the book you sent them. It’s not a guaranteed way to get to speak to that person, but it is a better way than calling up and sounding like a telemarketer, that you have nothing better to do, and you’re desperate for a sale. Sending a book and follow-up information sheet are two things that will help you on a high-level basis.
In addition to that, I believe that if you have called the prospect, and you have called and left a message, and you have emailed that prospect, and you have not received any response, you had better do something different, because when you start making multiple phone calls and leaving multiple voice mail messages, you become like all the other salespeople in the world who most people don’t want to work with. So find a different way to get in contact with them, and do it after the first voice mail and first email. One of the ways is by utilizing our pink slip tactic.
Remember that procedurally there are different things you can do. Whatever you do, set yourself apart from all the other salespeople and do distinctive things that will attract those cold prospects and warm prospects to you so you can get into their head, get their attention, and make them want to do business with you.