Rouse Your Silent Prospects

Getting a prospect on the phone or receiving a reply to an email is one of every salesperson’s biggest challenges. However, it doesn’t have to be. There is a golden rule for getting a response from a silent prospect: If you want a response, ask a question the prospect can answer. While this concept may seem elementary, there is an art to crafting emails and voicemails that will elicit a response from a qualified prospect.

Getting a Response to an Initial Call

If you are trying to set up an initial meeting with the prospect you are calling on, call and email the person. The effect of combining approaches will make your message a bit more memorable, and easy to respond to for both email and voicemail people. The key is to use the same wording for both messages and send them at the same time. Both the voicemail and the email should include your name, phone number, company name, reason you are calling, and your phone number again.

The reason statement should be the shortest possible abbreviation of your lead source. For example, if you received a referral from Roger Smith, your reason statement should be “regarding Roger” or “regarding Roger Smith.” If you acquired the lead from a trade show, the reason statement should be “regarding the trade show;” or if you met at a networking event, the reason would be “regarding last week’s conversation.”

Shortening the message to a single word seems to work the best, according to studies where sellers carefully tracked their ratios following this training. For example, if you are selling your product or service to an insurance company, you would leave a message for Prudential that says “re: Met Life.” When they call back (and, they will), you finish the thought by saying “we’ve done a lot of work with insurance companies like Met Life and I thought we should get together to discuss.”

Avoid using emails as an opportunity to type your entire sales pitch or provide your manifesto to strangers (avoid the “See attached 400 page document on why we are so great”). Instead, emails should read like reminder notes you leave for your spouse or roommate. The business version of “please don’t forget milk today” might be something like “confirming our appointment for Tuesday.” You might even leave out their name and all niceties (such as “greetings”). Just get to the point. Your Blackberry-reading receiver of this message will appreciate this more while they walk and read.

Asking Questions the Prospect Can Answer

To avoid the brick-wall treatment, there are several steps you can take before you pick up the phone or open Outlook. The first is deciding if the prospect is qualified. If they are able and ready to buy now and interested in you/your business, they are qualified. How do you know how interested they are?

Before each meeting ends, see if they will schedule another meeting. If they don’t schedule another conversation within the next three weeks, they are not qualified. They may be somewhat interested, but interested people don’t buy; fascinated people do. And that kind of person will want to speak to you again soon if they are seriously considering buying soon. By asking for and scheduling a next step appointment, you eliminate the need to leave a message and you reduce the possibility of being stuck waiting for a call back.

If you have scheduled a follow-up, but you still get the silent treatment, another factor may be at work. The prospect may not be ready to buy. Maybe their review process is taking longer than they expected and/or they’re embarrassed it has taken so long to get back to you.

For example, they may have had to check with five other people to get a better handle on their budget, resources, and/or priorities before they can move forward with the sale. Maybe they needed more time to reach their internal stakeholders than they anticipated. Therefore, you are not helping them by leaving a message such as: “Hey, just following up. I was wondering if you’ve finished thinking about my sale and decided to buy?” Chances are your contact won’t call back to say, “Yes, I desperately want to buy, but forgot where I put all of your contact details. Thank goodness you called with your great message.”

Instead, try asking a question that is easy to answer and take a more assumptive approach. Assume your prospect will buy and ask about the step after the next step. For example, after you deliver a proposal, you might wait a week and call to ask about the timing of delivery of the service. “Do you want me to send you the product on a Wednesday or Thursday?” or “When would you anticipate starting our service?” They have not yet committed to the sale, but they can answer your question. When the prospect calls you back to answer that question, they will let you know where in the buying process they are.