CHAPTER 11
Customer Engagement Dos and Don’ts
Salespeople frequently ask me, “When is the right time to make the call?” My response is, “Right now!” If you don’t make the call now, when will you make it? Will you ever make it? If there is any chance you won’t make the call another time, then make it now—regardless of what you know or don’t know. I have had people claim what I’m about to say is not right, but I believe I’m right at least nine times out of ten. Yes, it sounds strange and flies in the face of conventional wisdom, but I truly believe a bad call is still better than no call. Believe me when I say I’ve had some contentious discussions with sales managers and salespeople about this, but I stick with it. Momentum has a way of creating momentum. The first call one morning might be bad and the second one might still be bad, but eventually things will begin to kick in and the calls will start going the way you want them to go.
Earlier in this book, I talked about scheduling time to prospect, and a key part of that is blocking time that will have you on the phone when you’re most likely to reach your prospect. For a lot of industries, Monday mornings can be a bad time to make prospecting calls, but this is not true of all industries. If you work for a temporary staffing firm, Monday mornings can be an ideal time to make prospecting calls, because that’s when your prospects are suddenly realizing they’re short-staffed for the week. The same is true of Fridays for some industries, especially Friday afternoons. Salespeople who tell me this is a bad time to call are the same ones who in my mind are just looking for a reason to start the weekend early. For people selling to the construction industry, Friday afternoons can be a perfect time to call prospects, because often they’re winding things up for the week, are more laid back, and are more willing to talk. Never rule out a day or time of day just because you think it won’t work for your industry.
What’s most important is that you are willing to try. You don’t know what you don’t know, and many times a false assumption can wind up hurting your prospecting efforts—and ultimately your bottom line—more than you realize. I also have found huge variances depending on the time of year. Just because you’re not making much progress calling on Fridays in September doesn’t mean Fridays won’t be the perfect day of week to call in February. New salespeople who try calling at different times often have more success with the prospects that veterans can’t seem to crack. The new salespeople are successful because they’re willing to try what others feel will not work.
Pour the Coffee and Make the Call
I can’t stress enough the importance of early morning phone calls! There’s nothing like starting your day off and running by making a couple of key calls at the beginning of the day. Even if the calls are to friendly customers with whom you work on a regular basis, it’s a great way to boost your positive attitude and get you going. Once you’ve made one or two calls to current customers to warm yourself up, keep the momentum going by making as many prospecting calls as you can in the time you’ve allotted for prospecting. Reaching out to people early in the morning before things get going conveys to the other person you’re a hard-charging person they can count on. Yes, there are some who won’t respond positively to the phone call before eight in the morning, but they’re in the minority.
One of the best benefits of making early morning phone calls is you are far more likely to actually make them. Saying you’re going to make them later in the day is setting yourself up to not make them at all. The reason is simple. As your day progresses, other things will get in your way, and before you know it the day is gone and the prospecting phone calls remain nothing more than an idea. This is one more reason it is so important to dedicate times in your calendar to prospect and not allow distractions to get in the way.
Use the time before eight in the morning as the perfect window to reach the person you’ve been unable to reach at other times of the day. A strategy that works well is to make your first two attempts at reaching someone during the normal part of the day. Make the third attempt before eight, and I know you’ll be amazed at who you are able to reach. Calling before eight most likely will provide you with the highest number of phone calls that do not get tied up by the gatekeeper. Either you’ll reach the person you’re looking for, or you’ll be able to leave a voicemail.
I am such a strong believer in early morning prospecting calls that whenever I’m working with a salesperson who is struggling with prospecting, the first thing I ask is how many phone calls they are making each day before eight. The response is typically something like, “I don’t make early morning phone calls because nobody is in and I’m still getting my day organized.” To me that is code for “I’m lazy.” Early morning calls work, because even if the person doesn’t answer, you still have a great opportunity to leave a voicemail message.
How early is too early? The answer will vary by industry and even by geography. My rule is anytime after seven thirty is fair game to make calls, but for many industries (such as the building trades and warehousing) you can call as early as six thirty.
“Five after Five”
A Houston-based client with whom I’ve had the privilege to work for years provided me with an outstanding way to remember making calls at the end of the day. Kathryn is as aggressive a sales leader as you will ever meet. When she shared with me “five after five,” a strategy that had helped her immensely at the start of her sales career, I knew it was awesome. The idea is simple! Make five more prospecting calls after 5:00 p.m.
Over the years I’ve taken her idea and shared it with other people, who have then run with it even further by making it their mission to do “eight before eight.” That’s right! Eight phone calls before 8 a.m. I love it! This idea reflects what my good friend and sales leader Jeb Blount loves to say: “One more call. You always have time to make one more call!”
Who Takes Holidays?
Time and time again, I have found making prospecting calls during holiday weeks will pay off well. I’m always surprised at how people behave differently knowing there’s a holiday coming; the same is true of many of the prospects you’re trying to reach. Calling during a holiday week may result in actually speaking with the person you’ve been trying to reach, but who rarely answers the phone in normal prospecting times. Your contact is more likely to answer the phone during a holiday week because his or her administrative assistant (or whoever typically handles incoming calls) may be taking vacation that week.
Salespeople in most industries are quick to say that when December rolls around, nobody wants to see or talk with them, so it just doesn’t make sense to prospect. This attitude, along with the idea that the new year is coming soon, makes salespeople think they should wait until January and start fresh. I can’t argue more against this shortsighted thinking. Thinking you can’t prospect in December is accepting the fact one month out of twelve (or eight percent of your year) is not effective. Would your boss find it acceptable if you said you were taking eight percent of the year off? No, but that is exactly what too many salespeople do.
Never allow yourself to think getting new customers is not a good idea beginning in mid-November and through the end of the year. People and companies have money to spend this time of year, often budgeted money they need to spend before the end of the year. You never will know who has money unless you make the call and find out! Sales cycles during December never follow the norm. For the customer looking to spend money before it’s lost, the buying cycle is shortened. For others who can’t buy until the new year, it might be lengthened. The key is to not allow your traditional sales thinking to cloud your willingness to connect with a prospect.
When you stop prospecting in December, you also are telling yourself you don’t expect to do much business in January. You’ll need January to make prospecting calls just to get appointments set up. The best way you can help yourself in making your first-quarter number is by using December to prospect, so you will have a full calendar of customer appointments in January.
A Dallas-based company I was working with suffered from a January slump. Each year their sales in January were always low, and what did come in never came in until the end of the month. After talking with the management team, it became clear why. The sales force believed nobody wanted to talk with them in December, so they spent the month doing zero prospecting. I challenged their thinking, and with a lot of prodding, I had the sales force begin calling aggressively throughout the entire month. When I say “the entire month,” I really mean the entire month, including that week between Christmas and New Year’s Day when many people are on vacation. Note, however: calling when many people are on vacation is the only time I’m not a proponent of leaving a voicemail. The last thing most people want when they come back to work is to face a voicemail inbox full of messages from salespeople.
Sure, the number of prospects the team was able to reach was lower due to the holidays, but the people with whom the sales team did speak were absolutely amazing. Leads and prospects they did reach on the telephone were in a more laid-back mood and willing to talk about their business. They were shocked a salesperson would even be working! The end result was the prospects viewed the salespeople in a favorable light and were far more likely to agree to a meeting. In the end, the pushback I took from the sales team turned to gratitude because they started the year with sales appointments on the calendar. These meetings, in turn, resulted in an increase in business, making January unlike any of their previous Januarys.
The example I shared may have been based on the last two weeks of December, but the same results can be expected during the week of Thanksgiving and other holiday weeks. To me, using these weeks to your advantage is the easiest way to vault ahead of your competitor. If you sell in an industry where continuous ordering by customers is the norm, being aggressive during these weeks is the easiest way to show that you’re different from the competition. It’s why I say if you’re in this type of business, you want to be aggressive in calling all of your competitor’s customers. You want to be the vendor the customer calls for the last-minute emergency order their normal vendor can’t fill. This is like printing money! When I get to help someone fill an urgent order, I look like a hero. People don’t forget a hero. You help them once, and then you help them again, and before long you’re their primary supplier, having taken the customer away from your competition. Your ability to demonstrate service during holiday weeks can do more for building your business than nearly anything else.