A friend of mine that owns a Sandler Training franchise shared a stat with me recently that blew me away: most sales people spend 50%-67% of their time chasing prospects with whom they’ve met and are waiting for follow-up. However, 92% of those prospects don’t buy from them. Think about that: most sales people spend over half their time chasing an 8% win ratio.
That’s what we have to do. However, we don’t have to settle for these ratios. What if we could grow the success rate from 8% to 20%? You can do the math … multiply your annual sales by 2.5x. Not bad, huh? Well, today I’m going to share one easy idea with you that will help you increase your ratio.
When I leave a voicemail with a prospect with who I’m engaged (not cold calling), I let them know that I’ll send an email too in case it’s easier for them to reply by email. I then send an email and add the words “My Voicemail” in the subject line. I simply write in the email that they can ignore my voicemail and simply reply to this email if it’s easier for them.
You’ll be amazed how much your responses will grow from this one technique. Again, this isn’t really for cold calling, but works great when you’re following up and trying to push an opportunity through the sales cycle.
