Recipe: Calling and Mailing

When you are contacting someone directly for the first time, whether it is a potential client or a possible referral partner, the most effective approach is to call, mail, and call, as described in Chapter 7. In other words, call before you mail or e-mail, and call again after you mail.

If you find you are talking to someone both interested and qualified (for example, able to pay), you may be able to set up a sales conversation or networking meeting on your first call. It’s more likely, though, you will reach voice mail, an assistant, or someone with “no time to talk.” This is why being organized and persistent about follow-up is so important. Once you have made an initial contact, even if only through voice mail or a receptionist, you must follow up with an e-mail, a postal mailing, another call, a text message, or other follow-up approaches—and you will probably have to do this more than once.

Never assume that someone you are calling is going to call you back. Often, they won’t. Busy people simply don’t have the time to return unsolicited phone calls or, in fact, any call that isn’t their top priority that day. If you are of the opinion that not returning a phone call is rude, get over it. Even people you are in the final stages of negotiating a sale with will often not return calls for days or weeks. If you are willing to accept this as a normal business practice and not interpret it as personal rejection, your marketing life will be much less stressful.

It’s not a good idea to rely on e-mail as your only method of follow-up communication. For one thing, it’s too easy to hide behind—for both you and your prospects. You will find that interactive conversations will be much more productive in determining people’s interest level in your offer and handling any objections they have to meeting or working with you. Unless you are absolutely sure that e-mail is the preferred method of communication for a particular prospect, alternate your e-mails with phone calls, and try different phone numbers, if you have them. You might also use text messages as a substitute for e-mail once you have made initial contact.

Also, don’t make the assumption that just because you sent an e-mail or text that it was either received or read. E-mail addresses and phone numbers change, messages get lost in transmission, spam filters block e-mails, texts get deleted, and some people receive far too many messages daily to ever read them all.

When sending postal mail or e-mail to someone you have not yet spoken to, keep it simple. Until you know whether the person is interested, don’t mail more than a personalized letter, perhaps with a brochure, fact sheet, or announcement enclosed. If you are e-mailing, reference your website, but don’t send any attached files. Only if your initial conversation with this person clearly showed some interest should you send any more information than this to encourage him to meet with you. If you use a marketing kit, this is typically when you would send it.

To make this process easier, it is helpful to have a model marketing letter, a standard letter sent by mail or e-mail that you can personalize to fit a specific situation. Your letter’s first paragraphs typically introduce you or your company, but that shouldn’t be your opening line. The best lead sentence will be one that establishes a personal connection between you and the recipient. For example: “I heard you speak at the Iowa Manufacturer’s conference,” “Rafael Santos suggested I contact you,” or “I’m a fellow member of the Northside Community Alliance.”

When writing to a prospect with whom you have no connection, a good second choice can be to lead with an attention-getting question, such as, “Would you like to save more on your taxes?” or “Is your relocation company meeting your needs?” Keep the tone of your letter helpful, informative, and professional. Avoid overly promotional copy and hard-sell techniques. Remember that this is a personal letter from you to someone you want to build a relationship with. It’s not a direct mail piece aimed at an anonymous buyer.

Next, highlight the benefits of what you offer. Don’t just repeat what is listed in your brochure or on your website; expand on it or talk about some actual client results. If you have enough information to do so, suggest specifically how you can help the prospect you are writing to by describing a problem or goal that person has and your proposed solution. Then, describe briefly what qualifies you to provide the service you are offering.

You might create a model letter for each different service that you offer, one for prospects and another for referral partners, or one for warm contacts and another for people who don’t know you. One to one-and-a-half pages is a good length. Once you have created a model, all you will have to customize each time is the opening sentence where you state your connection, plus any specific offer of help. See Figures 8-1 and 8-2 for some examples.

A week to ten days after sending your information, place a follow-up call. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that if your prospects were truly interested, they would call you. Think about how many days or weeks a lowpriority task can languish on your own to-do list. And many people never return calls to a caller they don’t recognize.

When you get a prospect on the phone, try again to schedule a sales conversation. If it doesn’t happen this time either, ask if you can follow up at some later date, and determine what an appropriate interval would be: next month, next quarter, or even next year. Then make the entry in your contact management system and move on to the next prospect.

What if you keep getting voice mail? While it is true that some people let all their calls roll to voice mail, especially when they don’t recognize the caller, you can sometimes get through to a business prospect by calling off hours, say before 8:30 or after 5:00. After 5:00 or during the lunch hour can also be a good time to try a cell phone number. When calling individuals at home, early evening or Saturday is often the best time. But should you keep calling or leave a message? Actually, you should do both. Since you are assuming that most people won’t call you back, keep right on calling them.

Whether you reach your contacts or not, never make them wrong for not returning your calls. Rather than saying a bit peevishly, “I haven’t heard from you,” instead let them know you are eager to speak with them and wanted to try again while you were in your office. As a general rule, leaving three voice mail messages over ten to thirty days is sufficient (ten for a hot prospect; thirty for a cooler one). If you get no response, wait a month or two and try again.

When you do leave a message, use your 30-second commercial on the first call. In later messages, leave a new and interesting piece of information each time. When calling a prospect, make it a benefit of doing business with you—for example, “I can help you reduce your training costs.” Keep your messages to no more than 30 seconds; no one likes to receive lengthy voice mails, and the delete key is at their fingertips.

If you have called, left messages, and still can’t get through to the person you want, send a follow-up e-mail. Some people will quickly respond to e-mail because it is easy. If you can interest them in what you have to offer, they may be willing to set up a phone appointment with you to discuss it further.

If you are new at persistent follow-up, it’s likely that at some point you will begin to feel you are pestering people. Keep in mind that you have much more awareness about these calls and messages than the person receiving them does. Part of the reason you need to keep contacting people is that they will often forget about you almost immediately. Be pleasant, helpful, and upbeat in your messages, and most recipients will respect your professionalism. If a prospect really doesn’t want to hear from you again, he or she will tell you so, usually quite politely.

So when should you give up on contacting a prospect? That depends on the value of the potential sale. A $1,000 sale might only be worth five attempts by letter, call, or e-mail, but a $10,000 sale would certainly pay you back for many more. Every salesperson has a story about a client who finally said yes after the seventeenth phone call, so if the sale seems worth it, don’t quit.