A, B, C, E-MAIL OF PROSPECTING

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Testing the follow-up on great content-marketing campaigns: Most companies fall flat - By Richardson

When you’re trying to get a meeting with a prospect, the ideal outcome of your telephone call is to get a face-to-face appointment. But in spite of your skills and making a second effort some prospects will not agree to a meeting yet!

What to do?

First and foremost, make a second effort by acknowledging the prospect’s objection and asking a question or positioning a benefit-add, asking again for the meeting but this time adding a 15 to 30 minute time limit. This can often lead to a short introductory meeting. If it does not, offer to send a follow up and then ask for the prospect’s e-mail address.

For example, a prospect may say, “Call me in three weeks (three months …). If you wait three weeks before calling, your prospect is unlikely to even remember your call and you are pretty much back where you started. But if you get an e-mail address, you can use a combination of e-mails followed by the phone call to create a more receptive environment.

There are many reasons to get the e-mail address. Not only do you have it, you also have the prospect’s permission to use it. What you send is less likely to get screened by an administrative assistant or secretary. If you are directed to send the e-mail to the prospect’s contact, you have another contact and you can always ask to keep your contact in the loop.

Here are some guidelines to make your e-mail a way to get the appointment the next time you speak to this prospect.
• Subject line must be short and prospect-focused.
– Imagine you sell an on-line university blended with seminars. You have met with the Director of Human Resources for a major networking equipment supplier to telecoms and corporations. You have learned a priority need for this prospect is to increase retention of engineers because a major competitor has been recruiting from her company. A study has shown that lack of training was among the top three reasons given for attrition. What would you put in the subject line? Most salespeople mistakenly put something about themselves or their company or “Follow Up to Phone Call.” A “savvy sender” writes about the prospect’s need — “Retaining Engineers.”
– Do your homework and use information from your phone conversation with the prospect. For example, for the prospect with the retention problem, send her data

on staff retention (research, for example, on Google to get a tidbit). The more compelling subject line might read: “Information on retention to block competitors.”
• Create one line of rapport as you begin your e-mail.
• Bullet two to three points.
• Offer value to prospect.
• State a specific desired action step and leave the action step in your court (be assertive but not assumptive).
• Say thank you.

The ABC’s of prospecting now include E for e-mail.

Learn more about Richardson's sales training solutions by visiting http://www.richardson.com

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Testing the follow-up on great content-marketing campaigns: Most companies fall flat - By Richardson

About the Author: Richardson

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Linda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web
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