Although sales are one of the most rewarding careers on earth, it's also among the most challenging. The differences between prospecting and closing deals are far apart. The former requires getting a stranger interested in a product or service, while the latter involves convincing people who already have the interest to buy. The phone is still one of the most effective ways to acquire or convert leads. Here are 5 ways to get prospects to call you back.
1. Be Personable
The most important of the 5 ways to get prospects to call you back is to learn the difference between persistence and being annoying to people. Persistence allows you to focus on the goal in your quest to communicate on a level of trust. Usually, it takes a sense of caring about the prospect as a unique individual. Otherwise, you may come off as just a generic marketer.
People tend to hang up on generic marketers based on the sound of their contrived attempt at reading a script. A better way to break the ice with strangers is with a more pleasant and personal voice without the hype.
2. Send a Handwritten Message
Another personable solution on how to get prospects to call you back is to send them a hand-written letter. In the digital age, it's surprising and sometimes refreshing to see a handwritten note. It indicates you've taken extra time to share your thoughts with the person directly.
Just make sure your handwriting is legible so that the message isn't lost. Make it look closer to artsy than messy, which will increase your odds of getting a response. It will alert them you're a human, which stands out from all the junk mail that comes from a machine.
3. Track Your Calls
Tracking your calls and rating them as "warm," "cold," or "missed" leads helps you learn how to get more prospects on the phone. You can prioritize your warm leads and save cold leads for later. One of the significant small business challenges in 2021 is to invest in digital transformation, which opens the door to big data and extensive tracking.
The more data you can collect on your calls, the better chances you'll have at determining the best time of the day to make calls for specific market segments. At the very least, you should keep track of the phone numbers for prospects who didn't answer and recycle them for the future.
4. Eliminate Negatives
Another effective way to get prospects to call you back is to leave out all the negative words entering a conversation involving disagreement. When someone just says "not interested," don't take it as an insult, but as a clue to move on. You will not be productive spending time with people who have no initial interest in talking with you about anything once they perceive you're marketing something. When prospecting, you will hear the word "no" much more than "yes." At the same time, realize that "no" usually means "not right now" for many people. Thank the prospect for their time instead of trying to launch a fierce debate.
5. Make Follow-up Calls
Many people no longer answer the phone when it rings. They might wait for a message then decide to respond. Cold calling isn't about leaving messages, which can annoy people filling up their message boxes. Calling interested prospects is a different story. One of the most critical steps in marketing your product is to attract leads. Once you know someone who wants to learn more about your product or service, they move from the list of cold leads to warm leads. You can send these leads to a sales agent, but if you're feeling confident, go for it!
Many times follow-up calls are precisely the key to closing deals. That's why it's crucial to find out early on in the call if the prospect is interested vs. someone bored and just wants to waste your time. If they're interested but can't talk at the moment, by all means, ask what would be a better time to call. By then, you should be calling the prospect by their first name.
Conclusion
Regardless of the technology you use for prospecting, consumers are attracted more to personalized communication than high-pressure marketing approaches. As much as people avoid answering calls today to dodge telemarketers, it's a numbers game that still gets results. Investigate e-marketing consulting for further information on the most effective ways to get prospects to call you back.
