CHAPTER 9
Best Practices for Making the Initial Contact
Whether it is a name your marketing department gave you or a name you identified as a potential lead, there comes a time for you to make initial contact. The old expression we’ve all heard is true: initial impressions make a lasting impression. I don’t say this to scare anyone away from making a call or sending an email—in sales, until you make contact nothing happens. What I’m saying is you do need to make sure your initial contact contains something that will benefit the other person.
Your Prospects Don’t Care about You
Too many salespeople make the mistake of thinking the initial call must be about themselves or their company. Unless you’re somebody famous or you have a product everyone has to have, I hate to break the news to you, but your prospect couldn’t care less. What does this mean to you? It means you need to quit making stupid phone calls, sending out lousy emails, or even leaving poor voicemails that extoll who you are and how great your company is. Your prospects simply don’t care!
An example I like to use is how movies display the credits. When you see a movie, you don’t have to sit through five minutes of scrolling credits before the movie begins. It’s not until the end of the movie where we see the credits. The director knows he or she needs to pull you into the movie quickly, or you’ll give up on it. Save your data dump, because starting off with it will only ensure the prospect will dump you.
Your prospect didn’t wake up this morning drooling over the possibility you might call them today. They have their own problems. To the prospect, you’re no different and certainly no better than any other salesperson who is thinking the same way. Just because you took the time to write what you think is a great email or leave a perfect voicemail doesn’t mean the other person is going to suddenly view it as the breakthrough insight for which they’ve been waiting. Regardless of what you sell, you have more competitors than ever. Each one is ready to jump in and grab the business you’re trying to get. Avoid self-serving blather about how many years you’ve been in business and the awards you’ve won! Once again, the prospect does not care.
Too many salespeople start off the first email or phone call wasting everyone’s time by introducing themselves and their company. This means you can permanently delete the “capabilities presentation” the marketing department built for you five years ago. I’m not saying you don’t introduce yourself, but if it’s more than a few words, don’t be surprised if the other person blows you off. Cut to the chase and get to the point of why the two of you need to connect quickly! Save all of your “look at me and how wonderful my company is” information for your high school reunion.
Your Goal Is a First Date
At the most basic level, you want to make contact with a lead, preferably with a phone call, and do two things:
1.Find out one piece of information about the company and/or person with whom you’re talking.
2.Secure a next step: either an in-person meeting or another phone call at a designated time.
The first call is not the time to overcomplicate things. Too many salespeople make the mistake of trying to do a huge information dump on the first call, and it winds up going nowhere. (If what you’re selling is a quick sale with a short sales cycle, then you certainly should be speeding the process along, but it still does not give you the right to do a full data dump on the prospect.) Your first call should create a level of confidence and gain leverage to have a second call.
During your second call, dig deeper and truly qualify the prospect to ensure they’re really a prospect and not a suspect. Use the criteria outlined in the preceding chapter. Attempting to complete all of that on the first call is rarely doable, and too many times if you try to do it all, the end result will be nothing.
Three Ways to Get the First Date
Your goal is to capture the other person’s attention quickly and help them see enough value in you that they will share with you information you can use on the next call. Here are the three best-practice approaches I have seen deliver the best results for both B2B and B2C:
Referral/connection
Key insight/information
Value statement
Below are brief examples of how to use each one; however, in later chapters, I will share in more detail how to use each one.
Referral/Connection
This is the easiest to use. Put simply, you are using a person’s name or the name of a company in which the person you’re contacting will see value.
TELEPHONE EXAMPLE
“Hello, Ross, I’m Mark Hunter with Apex Systems. Pacific Mountain Company found a huge amount of savings through a program I helped them with. Would you have time next week for me to come by so I can show you?”
The key is being prepared to respond, regardless of how the other person replies to your question. If they say, “No, I don’t have time,” your response would be either “When would be a good time to meet?” or “How are you doing in cutting costs in today’s climate?” Your objective with the follow-up question is to impart knowledge you can use when you connect with them at a later time.
EMAIL EXAMPLE
Subject: Pacific Mountain
Audrey,
Pacific Mountain was able to reduce their costs significantly using a program we helped them install. In the first year, they reduced spending by 15%.
Knowing the pressure to grow earnings, I thought you would be interested in knowing more. I’m Mark Hunter with Apex Systems. Please feel free to email or call and we can set up a time to discuss.
Thanks,
Mark Hunter
Apex Systems
555-555-5555
Notice how it is direct and short. No one has time to read long emails. Your objective with the email isn’t to provide them so much information that they can readily make a decision, but rather to help them realize they need to contact you.
Key Insight/Information
This approach works great in industries where change is frequent, such as evolving technology, government regulation, or new competitors entering the field. Your objective is to merely convey to them you have some critical insights they will find of interest.
“Hello Reuben, this is Mark Hunter, with Hunter Financial, and I have the new IRS regulations that have just come out regarding pensions and how they affect people like you. Call me at 555-555-5555 and we can set up a time to discuss, again Mark Hunter, 555-555-5555.”
Value Statement
This process is tied to making a power statement about something, and then asking for the person’s input or for a meeting to discuss it more. Of the three best-practice approaches, salespeople use this one the most. For this reason, I steer clients away from using it so they can differentiate themselves from every other salesperson.
TELEPHONE EXAMPLE
Sheila, I’m Mark Hunter with Apex Systems. There is a real push by companies to grow their sales by automating the back office. How is your company approaching the back office and its effectiveness?”
With this approach, the key is to engage the other person quickly in a conversation and then use what they share as the basis for your next question. Your objective with this approach is the same as with the others—to gain a key piece of information you can use as the foundation for your next conversation.
These three approaches work regardless if you’re using the telephone, email, voicemail, social media, or even text. The more you use these techniques, the more comfortable you will become with them, and you will begin to understand better which ones (or variations of them) work best for you. As you read the rest of the book, you’ll uncover more ways to use these three approaches.
The Art of the Second Date
Do not think for a moment these three techniques are always going to work the first time you reach someone. Many times it will take a second, third, fourth, and subsequent contacts before you get any sort of information that equips you to move forward. This is why it’s important for you to have multiple approaches. Think of how your prospect is receiving your messages. If you were a prospect and a salesperson reaching out to you used the same message and approach repeatedly, you’d become annoyed with them. The best prospector is the one who uses multiple approaches and is comfortable moving back and forth between them as situations dictate. In the chapters that follow, we will break down the mechanics step by step to show you in even more depth how to use these approaches.
However, one item I can’t emphasize enough is the need to keep a record of what you’re using. This includes the message, the time you sent it, and the delivery method. This is why a good CRM system such as Salesforce can earn its keep. If you think you can use one delivery method for your entire prospecting strategy, think again. What you like may not be what your prospect likes.
The one activity that causes more sales prospecting programs to fail than any other is the lack of follow-up and willingness to keep contacting the other person. I have talked about it in earlier chapters, and I will continue to talk about it. You must be willing to keep following up. When you use the techniques laid out in this book and combine them with persistent follow-up, your probability for success will increase significantly.