“If I just make one more call … you never know.” Those three words, “you never know”, have wasted more sales professionals’ time than early happy hours and Facebook, combined. They’re accurate words – we never do know in sales. But guess what? The great ones know. They know when to cut their losses. They know when to stop making calls. As we discussed in our idea post last Tuesday, after six to nine calls with no response at all, a security integrator should probably move on and push that contact to the “drip campaign” bucket. (This is applicable for security manufacturers calling on end-users, too.)
This begs the question: how? How do you most effectively move on? It seems that you’ve built some sweat equity with these types of prospects, so how can you take advantage of it before throwing them out of your “prospect” bucket?
Idea Tuesday: When you decide to stop calling on a prospect, send a break-up email. Yep, let them know that you’re no longer going to be so persistent and you’re breaking up with them. As prospects, we get comfortable when a sales person continues to call us. We think: “well, they’ll be back within a few weeks and I’ll respond then.” However, if they know you’re going away they might respond right away.
Make sure you follow these best practices in sending a break-up email:
- Let them know that this will be your last contact.
- State that you’re still interested in meeting, but don’t want to be a pest.
- Give them the chance to respond with something like: “If you’re slammed right now and would like me to connect with you in 90 days or so, just let me know.”
- Keep it short – less than 25 seconds to read.
Don’t think you’ll get 100% response with orders or invitations to meet. That won’t happen. However, my experience has shown that about 25% of these emails get a response. It’s not always the desired response, but it’s usually a professional response. More than half of the responses are positive, with an invitation to call back in a few months and an apology for not responding before. One of my client’s sales people even received an order within two minutes of sending a break-up email. He had given up on that business after months of attempts, but tried this technique after a training session with me (just to be clear – this is a rare result!).
If you’re interested in other creative ways to reach your customers and think my business might be able to help your sales team, please click here.
