Sales Prospecting Perspectives

The Value of a 30 Second Intro

Have you ever taken the time to put together what you perceived to be the perfect elevator pitch? After its completion there is no question in your mind that you have thoroughly conveyed every aspect of your service/technology. Let's also assume you have set yourself up with a list of your ideal companies and contacts.  You pick up the phone assuming your prospecting audience will be chomping at the bit to learn more about how you can help. Half way through the pitch you notice that you 'may' have crammed in a bit more information than was necessary...regardless you plow through expecting a positive response. What you don't realize is that person on the other line was busy preparing for a meeting, and tuned out of your pitch about 30 seconds in. After you finish up, to your surprise, they end up giving you the typical blow off response "why don't you send me some information and I'll contact you if I'm interested."  

At that point I assume you'll ask yourself "what went wrong?"   

Did you even bother reading the message aloud to yourself?  Did it sound like you were reading from a script?  How long did it take? If it is anymore than 30 seconds it was probably too long.

Put yourself in the prospects shoes. What if someone interrupted your busy day with a phone call about something you COULD actually have interest in? During their 4 minute intro, you've probably taken the time to respond to 4 emails, sent out a presentation and have your foot out the door to your next meeting. The point is you need to respect the prospect's time. We are all busy people, so keep that in mind when you put together your cold call script. If you can come up with a compelling 3 sentence pitch you are heading in the right direction. The key is to keep it interactive and to avoid sounding like too much of a schmarmy sales guy.

A quick 2-3 sentence pitch followed up by a question won't allow them to tune out. Also, put some thought into the question. Make it something that should be an obvious concern for someone for someone in their position. This theory also applies when you are leaving a voicemail. I would argue that you would have even less time when leaving a message.

Now as much as I think voicemail is a critical part of the cold call process, it is relatively ineffective on its own. If you left 100 cold voicemails in a day from your experience what percentage would call you back? Not too many, right?  We see on average a 2-3% response rate from voicemail. Only 3 responses from 100 voicemails has to be deflating even to the most hardened sales guy. Don't lose faith - there is another resource at your disposal that has proven to be even more effective in helping to get a response from a prospect - EMAIL. Over the next few weeks I want to cover some effective ways to differentiate your email from the sea of spam that prospects receive and how to best incorporate both email AND voicemail into your call plan strategy.