Are Your Follow-Up Calls Falling on Deaf Ears?

Ah, the all-important follow-up call. It can be a closer or a shutout—it all depends on how and when. Most agree on what this call is: you’ve contacted the client or prospect and for some reason, you couldn’t close him/her, but your gut tells you, one more call just might do it.

In a recent SalesGravy article, Michael Pedone, founder and CEO of SalesBuzz.com, makes the distinction between an initial “live-person” phone call and an initial voicemail. He notes that if your initial call was a voicemail, then you need to consider the type of lead—warm vs. cold—you’re dealing with. Warm leads will require a more aggressive follow-up, since they contacted not only you but perhaps a competitor or two.

Pedone warns against chasing leads with a low percent ROI, and to avoid calling random companies from a list, unless key prospecting efforts have qualified them as probable sales suspects. He also favors being more aggressive than passive, suggesting that a morning voicemail be followed by a contact that afternoon and the next day—or three tries in 24 hours. All three should be backed up by emails after calls 1 and 3. To increase the number of “touches,” you can even submit a connection request on LinkedIn and follow them on Twitter. If you aren’t getting any feedback after 10 contact attempts, Pedone suggest re-evaluating the lead.

In a recent article in SalesQualia, Scott Sambucci suggests that salespeople and especially non-sales pros (like entrepreneurial CEOs) should create a “Call Map” and a “Conversation Tree” before they make a call. The Call Map is essentially a flow chart that begins with the call, then considers possible outcomes once the prospect’s phone number is dialed. Each outcome directs a certain specific activity—including possible messages for the “Voicemail” option. For example, your voicemail script will differ depending on whether the prospect knows/remembers you and has time to talk, doesn’t have time to talk, says they are unavailable, or may or may not be unavailable to talk but is clearly distracted.

Sales pro and speaker Mark Hunter warns salespeople to never end a sales call with “I’ll send you some information.” He says that this only gives the customer an excuse to end the meeting or call. He stipulates that this technique works only if your sales process requires several sales calls, and then only if you’ve first uncovered a specific need that you can help them with, that they will value the information you’re sending to them, and that the individual receiving the information is indeed a decision maker.

As in all client/customer contacts, preparation is key to success. To ensure your follow-up call doesn’t land on deaf ears, know yourself, your product/service and your customer.

photo courtesy of MorgueFile.com