Editor’s note: Paul Kirch is CEO of ActusMR Inc., a Lewisville, Texas, business and sales consulting agency. Kirch can be reached at 214-295-6111 or at pkirch@actusmr.com.
I recently attended a Webinar where the presenter, a very well-known sales coach and author, commented that many of the old ways of contacting our potential customers are dead. During the Q&A portion at the end of the Webinar, one attendee asked how he should try and open up new relationships. The presenter responded that he shouldn’t be trying to create new relationships and instead should use social media to become seen as an expert so that clients would reach out to him.
That’s interesting advice and it has some merit but not as a sole means of building a business, especially in our industry. I’m a huge proponent of social networking and social media but I also recognize that it is not a replacement for traditional means of relationship-building. Social media can be a powerful medium to create awareness and establish your position. And it’s a great place to network. So if you’re an author with a huge following, such as the presenter I mentioned, it may be the only approach you need to build a business and grow a following. For the rest of us, we need to be careful about too narrow of a focus.
Telephone is still No. 1
Today, we have a lot of business communication options at our disposal. Beyond the social platforms, there are many ways we can reach prospects and clients. E-mail, text and video chat, text messaging (SMS), hand-written messages and the telephone are just a few of the ways to reach out. I think it’s important to integrate all of these tools and approaches into your marketing and brand- and relationship-building. Where do you put your greatest time and attention? Despite what you may believe or perceive, the telephone is still our No. 1 sales and business tool so don’t overlook it when considering communication tools. In my opinion, it has to be at the top of your list.
Understandably, there are arguments against using the telephone. I’ve heard the complaints: “No one answers the phone anymore,” “Cold calling doesn’t work,” “All I ever get is voicemail and no one ever calls me back,” etc. The invention of Caller ID has made it too easy for people to screen calls. I think it’s a bigger issue with consumer calling than business-to-business but it’s created some challenges across both areas.
Look at the reality
Despite the aforementioned arguments and objections, let’s look at the reality. I know several people who own market research call centers that continue to do well so people must be answering the telephone. In fact, I know they are. When it comes to cold-calling, it does take more dials and attempts today than it did even five years ago but if your message is strong and you can show real benefit or value, the telephone is still an effective tool.
I know this since I see the results of our lead-generation team’s efforts. We conduct B2B campaigns and it’s often straight cold-calling, which generally targets director-level to C-level executives. We’ve seen some great success from these efforts so if you argue that cold-calling doesn’t work, I have evidence to the contrary. Despite its effectiveness, I highly recommend using warm contacts whenever possible since they’re clearly a more receptive audience. Warm leads could be people who have expressed interest in your company and brand or where you’ve had some sort of preexisting relationship established. Even with a cold-call campaign, the key is to warm the contacts up by calling them with an actionable message and doing research before picking up the phone.
Talk about voicemail
Clearly, you can’t discuss the telephone without having a talk about voicemail. Some argue that people don’t return messages, so why leave them? First off, it’s important that you let people know you attempted to reach them and that you were calling for a reason. Where most people fall short, however, is they don’t prepare ahead of time. So when they do reach a voicemail box, they’re simply not sure what to say. Have you ever left a message for someone and you found yourself rambling on and on? Perhaps you knew you should wrap it up but you were on a tangent and needed to finish that before you could end the call. Did you forget to leave your number? Maybe you left a brief message but it had no real compelling reason for them to call you back.
With this disorganized approach, is it really any wonder that most voice messages go unreturned? I receive messages every week from salespeople and am floored at how poorly thought-out most of them are. Almost all business professionals can improve their voice-messaging skills. It’s not simply a sales professional issue, though often they are some of the biggest offenders, regardless of their experience level. Why? For one, it’s rarely ever taught during most sales training. It’s something that most people assume doesn’t matter. After all, if you believe voicemail messages don’t get returned, why would you bother? Also, it requires preparation, which very few sales professionals take the time to do. On the other side, prepared messages that are overly salesy in nature are often deleted before the recipient listens to the entire message.
A few simple guidelines
The good news is that it’s not hard to create a compelling voicemail message, following a few simple guidelines. I’m not going to go into every detail here but I do want to provide some guidance to help you get started.
1. Be prepared. It’s very important you prepare your message in advance. You have to know what you’re going to say if you happen to reach a recording. I’m not advocating that you read a script word for word but you should have a message you can relay comfortably.
2. Keep it brief and to the point. The length of your message can be a deal breaker. Anything longer than 45 seconds has a very high probability of being deleted or ignored.
3. “Hook” them. Another factor is the hook or statement used to capture their attention (i.e., this is why you’re calling them and why they should call you back). Take the time to make sure your hook is strong - and clearly communicated.
4. Be believable. You may have the offer of the century but to be impactful on a voicemail message, you need to make sure it’s believable.
5. Avoid cordial conversation. You must avoid all niceties unless you have a very personal relationship. This is something a lot of people struggle with. Resist the urge to get chatty and instead stick to the point.
6. State your plan of action. Generally, I try and state when I’ll call back if I don’t hear from them. From there, you simply make sure you call them back on the stated day and/or time.
Keep track
Best practices dictate that you want to keep track of your calls; when you left a voicemail; and what you said. You can’t keep calling, leaving the exact same message over and over to the same people. Keep a record in your CRM system. In that same system try and track when someone returns your message or when you feel you’ve had some success due to the message you left. This allows you to look back on your efforts and assess what’s working and what’s not. It sounds complicated but it isn’t so hard if you can be consistent and organize your call notes.
I started my business career off as a telephone interviewer for the Gallup Organization. I spent two years conducting both consumer and executive interviews. As an executive interviewer, I learned quickly the impact of a few returned messages. That is something I’ve carried throughout my career and have continued to hone over time. What I’ve learned is, when I don’t follow my own advice, I have a tendency to leave long-winded, disorganized voicemail messages. Those rarely get returned. When I do follow through, I find it works remarkably well.
Also, a powerful by-product of this exercise is that it forces you to polish the message you relay when you do reach someone on the phone. So few people properly think about their messaging. This forces you to look closely at how you’re talking about your own company, products or services.
A little effort
The telephone is just one tool but it can be an extremely powerful one if you put a little effort into preparing. It also requires persistence and structure to maximize the effectiveness of any type of calling campaign. Today, it’s critical not to ignore the tools we have within our reach. Many of them come at a low-cost/no-cost price beyond time. However, it’s time that’s probably the most valuable resource - so don’t waste it.
If I’m sending out an e-mail blast to customers or prospects, I like to make sure I plan a telephone call campaign to back it up. After all, it used to take five contacts or impressions to produce a sale. Today that number has increased significantly, with 80 percent of all business being won after the eighth contact. Most sales professionals stop after two or three, trying to reach as many people as possible. Casting a wide net is far less effective than a targeted approach. The telephone should be a big part of any such strategy, as long as you understand that it requires a high level of follow-through, organization and persistence.
Still matters
The telephone still matters today. Voicemail is a reality we live with, so turn this barrier into opportunity. In my opinion, it’s a critical piece to get right since it can lead to greater success for anyone implementing a solid process. If you’re interested in learning how to create compelling voicemail messages that lead to action, I have a checklist of 20 elements to consider when crafting your voicemail messages available. To receive a copy, e-mail me directly at pkirch@actusmr.com.