Is it worth calling a cold customer right away, or is it better to email the offer first? Are cold calling effective or is it just a myth? This question worries everyone who is engaged in the field of sales. But, successful sellers they always know exactly how to establish the first contact, and in this they are helped not only by experience, but also by a competent assessment of the situation.
In fact, it is impossible to say unequivocally which is better: both are good. But when it comes to first interaction, it is important to make the right choice. In this post, we will share 3 criteria that will help you decide and choose the right approach to lead processing.
What time is it now?
The first thing to consider is the time and day. Open your calendar and look at the clock: the statistics show that cold calling is most effective in the afternoon and at the end of the week. Obviously, as the evening and weekend approaches, people feel joy and satisfaction, which means that your proposal may be perceived more favorably. Thus, if you are faced with the task of getting in touch with a potential buyer (leads) or even making a series of cold calls, and outside the window is Monday morning, postpone it "for later": call in a couple of days, or at least after lunch.
But here you call on time, and the other end does not pick up the phone? Leave a voice message. Before leaving home, people love to view missed calls, so your evening voicemail will come in handy.
On the other hand, while waiting for the right moment to make a call, don't just sit back - start writing sentences. But take your time with the newsletter: email marketing also requires some regulation. Emails sent at the beginning and at the end of each hour - 10 minutes before and 10 minutes after - are less likely to go unnoticed, since it is usually at this time that people take a break (between meetings, meetings, etc.), reading the news and watching mail on their smartphones.
By sending a message at this moment, you will increase the efficiency of your mailing list, and the letters are unlikely to get lost among others.
the main goal
When making the first contact with a customer, ask yourself: what is the purpose of your contact? Do you want to make a business meeting, find out Additional information or just get some feedback or a recommendation - depending on the importance of the question, you will understand which strategy to choose.
Serious goals such as a meeting, conference call, or testing a trial version of a product require some action from the customer, in which case a phone call would be more appropriate. At the same time, if you just need to clarify information or get feedback, you may well send a request in writing.
Interestingly, salespeople often do the opposite, trying to solve complex issues by email, while wasting customers' time and harassing them with trivial calls. in this case tends to zero, as well as the return on the telephone conversation. Salespeople probably do this out of fear of rejection, but the point is that convincing a person to say yes over the phone is much easier, as well as handling possible objections.
Don't let your emotions get the best: choose a communication method that is appropriate for the situation, and before you know it, your sales will increase.
Client status
If you work in sales, then you certainly know: the higher the status of the potential client, the more likely you will have to communicate with his secretary.
However, in most situations it plays into the hands - regardless of whether you managed to talk with the right person or only with his representative, the following email with a proposal gives you the right to move on and gain favor at the level of management and top officials of the company. Direct interaction with decision-makers is the secret of the success of talented managers, moreover, the higher the status of the client, the more calmly he takes a call with a commercial proposal.
The situation with ordinary employees is completely different: if your call was missed, and the number is unknown, then most likely they will not call you back. Moreover, ordinary employees usually do not hear the phone during the day - they can be in a meeting, on the road or working in a group, so if you can't catch your client, the only way to communicate about yourself is to send him an email ...
Instead of a conclusion
These are 3 criteria based on which you can determine which option - email or phone call - is preferable for the first contact with a potential client. But now the connection has been established, contacts have been received, what should be done next?
Anna Izmailova
Business coach, employee of the Stockholm School of Economics in Russia
Write a letter to a partner or call him immediately with a proposal, a new idea, criticism of the project? As a rule, we choose the option that is more convenient for us, without thinking that the person on the other end of the line may have a different opinion. But what type of communication is convenient for the interlocutor depends not only on the speed of the response, but sometimes the result of the negotiations.
How often have you heard: “I'm busy right now, I'll call you back,” and then there was no call? This behavior does not always mean a polite refusal. Some people prefer email to mobile phones. And sometimes they can be understood.
People love to plan their day themselves, and the call, as a rule, interferes with the plans and ruins the orderly schedule. Often businessmen do not belong to themselves, their working day is scheduled by the minute, so many of them will be grateful if you replace the call with a letter. However, there are those who will definitely prefer telephone conversations to written communication.
Call me
In addition to the obviously higher speed of communication, the call has another important advantage - it can convey not only information, but also emotions. Sometimes it is important for a person to hear a voice in order to form an opinion about a potential partner and either close the door in front of you, or open it wide to meet a commercial proposal.
Often such people are extroverts - the innate sociability in them is stronger than the desire to act strictly according to the plan. "Why write if you can just call?" they think. And this is quite logical: really, why complicate everything, if you can get answers to all questions in a matter of minutes?
The frantic pace of life does not prevent sociable people from finding time for a telephone conversation of any length.
In addition, a phone call allows you to better assimilate information using auditory memory, check the competence of the interlocutor and the speed of his reaction, get to know him as a person, quickly make a counter offer, and just enjoy communication.
The frantic pace of life does not prevent sociable people from finding time for a telephone conversation of any length. As a last resort, you can always make several calls in the car while you are in a traffic jam. Having received a call at an inconvenient moment, such people will definitely call you back or will not mind a second call from you.
What should you pay attention to when talking on the phone?
Don't start a conversation without introducing himself. At the same time, it is advisable to avoid the hackneyed phrase "worries you ..." or "worries you ...". Telling the person that you are bothering them, you form their negative attitude towards yourself and your call.
Be sure to ask whether the person is busy and whether it is convenient for him to talk.
Get to the point as soon as possible.
Adapt to your speed the interlocutor's speech. It usually corresponds to the speed of assimilation of information, so it is important not to let the person speaking too quickly get bored, and too slow - to lose the train of thought.
Use the Hold function on your phone, if you need to leave the interlocutor on the line and at the same time protect him from unnecessary sounds around you. However, before pressing the Hold button, you need to ask the interlocutor if it will be convenient for him to wait for you on the line.
The main rule of telephone communication - listen to the person. Do not allow yourself to be interrupted and always give the opportunity to express your thoughts to the end.
Write letters
Despite the increasing proliferation of mobile technologies, modern research suggests that for most people, email is the most convenient way to receive information. Thus, in a survey by Yahoo! It found that 74% of office workers consider e-mail to be the preferred method of communication, and a study by Litmus in January 2014 by Email Analytics showed that incoming e-mails are less and less ignored. If at the beginning of 2013 only 21% of all letters were read, then in December 2013 their number increased to 51%.
Probably in a study by Yahoo! mostly introverts participated, but it's hard to believe that the ratio of psychological types was so unequal. Perhaps mail is actually more convenient?
many people find it harder to get back to business after talking on the phone
People prefer to read emails rather than talking on the phone because they can do it at a convenient time for them, and not when your cold calling plan is thwarted. Nobody forces them to listen to an unnecessary sentence and say banal phrases in response. Refusing something, they do not need to come up with excuses, feel awkward. It is also not necessary to ask the addressee's name, position and company name again. After receiving a letter from a stranger, you can Google his name or visit his company website. Plus, many people find it harder to get back to business after talking on the phone.
What should not be forgotten in business correspondence?
Name your letters but avoid meaningless headlines. Try to come up with capacious headers that really match the subject line so that your interlocutor can easily navigate his mail.
Try to provide comprehensive information on the topic. Insert links, attach files - no need to force the interlocutor to write you a response letter with a request to clarify something, because until you receive it and respond, it may take a few more hours.
Include in your message excerpts of the letter you are responding to. Perhaps some time will pass from the moment of sending and the interlocutor will forget what was discussed.
Read the letters carefully , you may miss something important and allow unnecessary misunderstandings.
Use a short automatic a signature in which be sure to indicate alternative ways of contacting you, in case your interlocutor hates email.
What to choose
Perhaps the time is not far off when only one will be indicated on business cards. possible variant communications - mail or mobile phone... Until this happens, before you call or send another e-mail, you should think not only about what type of communication is convenient for you, but also what your partner, colleague or client prefers.
There are several ways to find out what type of interviewee you are looking for.
Ask directly : "How will it be convenient for you to continue communication in the future?"
Note to markers in the speech of the interlocutor - "send it by e-mail, I will take a look", "I can not speak", "in our company, everyone constantly reads mail."
Analyze the scope activities - how often a person is on business trips and at meetings.
Understand psychological type - whether there are obvious communication barriers, whether the person is restrained in communication or feels free.
By correctly identifying the type of interlocutor, you will increase the likelihood of successful communication. In combination with an individual approach to each interlocutor, a good attitude and the results of successful negotiations will not keep you waiting long.
But if you still consider only one type of communication acceptable, and everyone else would be prohibited at the first opportunity, try to accustom the client or partner to your way of communication, but do it carefully, minimizing stress. And to gain confidence in order to recruit a person to your camp, the recommendations described above will help you.
Cover photo: Fotobank / GettyImages
1. To improve the behavioral characteristics of the site. The addressee receives a letter containing a link to your site. If the reader is interested in the proposal, he goes to the thematic page, spends a certain amount of time on it (obviously, not 5-10 seconds). As a result, the overall domain behavioral characteristics are improved: the average time spent on the site increases, the bounce rate decreases.
2. A reminder of yourself. This addressee can be a client of your company (who previously made one or more purchases). If you promptly remind him of your existence, of the proposals, there is a chance that another deal will take place.
3. Formation of the target audience. The client could visit the site, but not buy anything, just leave a request. Well, it didn't work last time (the deal didn't take place) - you can try in the future. Tomorrow, in a week, in a month. The main thing is to send the addressees really interesting (for them) offers.
4. Authority, work for the image. Newsletter can not only sell directly - it can improve the image of your company (organization) if you share valuable useful information... Over a long period of time, this will play a positive role.
5. Implementation of sales / re-sales. Exactly what you spend your time and energy for. Thanks to the newsletter, you increase the awareness of your brand - in the future, when the buyer visits the site, it becomes easier to make a decision about the deal, because for him you are not a black box, not a secret behind seven seals. Relationships are formed - conversion increases.
11 ways to get addresses and phone numbers of clients
1. Applications through Onikon. As we said earlier, the Onikon service is convenient because it works in two modes. If the manager is in touch, the service allows you to start an online chat and answer questions of a potential buyer in real time. If the operator is absent (for example, it is evening time) - Onicon turns. In this form, the client asks a question and, of course, leaves his e-mail (to receive an answer). Careful preservation of all mail addresses in the database will allow, over time, to accumulate a very, very decent "army" of potential customers.
2. Order (purchase) of goods. During the checkout process, the customer must leave their contact details, otherwise the transaction will not be completed. Almost all selling sites require either an e-mail, or a phone number, or both, because the operator of the online store must contact the buyer and make sure that he is really waiting for the product and is ready to pay for it. Save information about the client in the database - in the future it will be useful for newsletters.
3. Registration on the site. This is quite a delicate method - it must be used very carefully so as not to frighten off the visitor even before the start of a strong relationship. You cannot immediately close all content from access under the registration form - seeing this, the web user will definitely leave the site. Rather, leave the registration so that thanks to it the client can receive some additional bonuses and advantages (write comments, see special offers on discounts, promotional programs, etc.).
4. Getting free information materials. We talked about a practical case describing this case in the issue "Two-Step Selling". Remember? If you forgot - be sure to look at an example on how to correctly set the direction of contact in relations with clients, how to increase the index of self-confidence, how - by sending information useful to the client -.
Articles, books, practical guides in exchange for an email address where you need to send information - this is an interesting move!
5. Review of your company on the site. Does a client want to leave a review on the site? About the purchase you made? Ask him to provide the minimum information about himself - just to make sure: he is not a robot, the review is not spam. Just two fields in the review form (name and email address) will not strain the commentator very much, and will not cause him perplexed questions. And they will help you in the course of time to collect a "warm" base for newsletters and repeated sales.
6. Calculator on the site. A calculator is connected to your selling site, which allows you to make an online calculation of the project (the cost of the kitchen, the decoration of the room, the window structure, interior door, chimney system)? Just add a small option to the calculator "Send calculation results to my email address". And - if a potential customer left his e-mail - of course, use the address in the future.
7. Contests and prize drawings(of course, with registration by e-mail). Two things are important here: a worthy prize for the victory and a large number of participants. Actually, the first is very closely related to the second. If the prize is not very significant, you will not be able to attract a wide range of interested users to participate. And if there are not enough participants who will "hand over" their email addresses to the database, the cost of the prize will not pay for itself. Here, in fact, an exchange takes place: for the money that the prize is worth, you buy out the base of “warm” users for your business. If you offer a worthy "gingerbread" and make the competition long in time, you can get a decent base.
8. Coupons and discounts(for those users who register on your site). A very promising option. A site visitor is registered, and this automatically allows him to buy goods at a discount (3, 5, 10% - you know better how much you can "move" in price). In fact, the mechanism of two-step sales is activated here again. The first deal goes "to zero" or with a very small profit - in order to have a contact with the user, which means - to sell him goods (or services) in the future.
9. Webinars, educational trainings. This option is good in situations where your organization (firm) has something to tell (show) potential customers of goods or services. In what areas of activity is this mechanism applicable? Legal services... Accounting services. Consulting. Distance learning to work with the equipment. Demonstration of new technologies. IT sphere. By the way, very often a similar mechanism is used in the SEO industry, in Internet marketing. Of course, only those who register for this (and indicate their email address) will be able to listen to the webinar.
10. Use of aggregators. There are sites that offer ready bases data (your target audience), or for a certain amount they will collect such a database according to your criteria. Of course, this method must be used very, very carefully, pointwise. Otherwise, your mailing list will end up in spam. Nevertheless, you can try.
Where exactly can you find target addressees?
http://soksaitov.ru/ - here you can buy ready-made databases (obtained by the method of automatic parsing of sites), or order collection of addresses according to the necessary criteria.
http://work-zilla.com/ - here you can try to set a task for manual collection of the base. In this case, the accumulation of data will not occur automatically, but due to the work of the performer (your remote assistant, who is ready to complete the task for a certain fee - he will, as they say, "poke around" sites and databases in search of information useful to you) ...
11. Finally, a method such as "Don't miss your chance!" You can simply invite interested visitors to your site to subscribe to the newsletter - so that they do not miss the moment when discounts are announced for a particular type of product, seasonal sales etc. There are people who prefer to buy during sales - it is extremely important for them to be in the right place at the right time. Help them in this, make an announcement (for which they need to subscribe to the mailing list), promptly inform about the start of distribution of "gingerbread". More on how to implement this technically - in the tip of the day.
Tip of the day. Use the Maliver subscription form to collect addresses
We talked about several ways to obtain addresses and phone numbers of potential customers for your goods and services. Do not forget about the possibility of collecting addresses in "passive" mode. Place a subscription form for your newsletter on the website using the capabilities of the Maliver service.
With the help of this form, visitors interested in your goods and / or services will be able to see valuable information for themselves in time. You will get a chance to work effectively with target audience, which will only increase over time!
To learn how to install the code on a subscription page (one),.
If you want the form to be end-to-end (visible on all pages of the site) -.
It is not difficult to write a letter, but how to get an answer to it from busy person who doesn't know you?
Mattan Griffel, leader of the One Month Rails training project and partner of the Growhack project, receives about a hundred emails, and each of them should not go unanswered. Especially for this, Mattan sets aside about an hour of time in his schedule every day, determining which of them require an urgent response and which do not. Indeed, sometimes there is simply no time to read huge canvases of text or try to give an answer to an unspecific question, thinking out for the author what he wanted to say or ask.
After some time, Mattan identified several main factors that should help write such an e-mail, to which you will always receive an answer, even from a busy person.
Write short letters
If your e-mail is 2-3 sentences long, it is much easier to read it right now, and not to put it on the back burner. If you are writing a letter in several paragraphs, be prepared for the fact that you will have to wait a long time for an answer.
Make the text readable
It is much easier for a person to perceive information, broken down into short paragraphs in several sentences, with clear lists and separate blocks, than a solid canvas of text. Mattan gives several examples of emails he receives.
Bad example:
“Good afternoon, Mattan!
I signed up for your April training and I want to say that this is a very good introductory course. I am currently following your advice using the Hartl Tutorial. And I want to ask you some advice. Are there any analogues of the Hartl's Rails Tutorial for developing an iPhone application? I want to create a Rails website for my wife's business, and with it an iPhone application. I would be very grateful for your help. "
And you could write like this:
“Good afternoon, Mattan!
I want to thank you for the One Month Rails course. At your suggestion, I am currently doing Michael Hartl Ruby using the Rails tutorial.
I have a short question: do you know any courses like HartTutorial, but for iPhoneapplications?»
The second version of the letter is much easier to read, and it immediately becomes clear what they want from you. To achieve the same effect, divide your paragraphs into short sentences, highlight your call-to-action, and use bold or italicized text to draw the reader's attention to important parts of the text.
Explain clearly what you want me to do
Probably, there is nothing worse than when they send you a letter with a lot of information, but they do not say what exactly they want. Personally, I often respond to such letters with one sentence: "What do you want me to do?"
Do you want me to introduce you to someone? Or to read your blog post and give feedback? Or would you like me to answer if I can attend your event? Be specific and tell me about it right away.
Bad example:
I just took a look at your computer programming course. I am 14 and this is what I would like to do in life. Could you please help me with this? I really want to get your answer.
This letter has a call to action “help me”, but I don’t know what it means or what answer I should give. A more specific option:
Good afternoon Mattan!
I am 14 and I want to learn programming. What resource would you recommend to me in the first place for this?
If you need to send a long email with a lot of information, write your call to action at the very beginning. For example: “I am writing this letter to you to see if you can attend our event described below. Just answer yes or no.
This technique also helps the recipient determine if he needs to forward this e-mail to his colleague, to whom he often delegates such tasks.
Be reasonable with your request
Today it is very easy to send an email in 30 seconds, which will force the recipient to devote an hour or more of their time to the answer.
You don't have to ask in an email to go to your startup's website and give you feedback. This request includes a thorough review and analysis of the product, which is time consuming. If I receive an email that I can answer in 2 minutes, I will do so immediately. What do you want an answer about? What about your business model? Or the color of the button on the website? Perhaps text? Be specific and reasonable in your requests.
Do not hope that the respondent will do your job for you and determine what you really want from him. Do not ask a question like "What do you think we need to do to get more users?" And you should not ask for something that requires a lot of strength and resources of the person you are contacting. For instance:
Would you agree to dine with me and another co-founder? We would like to tell you what we are doing and get your opinion on our project.
These kinds of queries often mean that the person who wrote the letter doesn't really know what he wants from the respondent. Not surprisingly, these types of emails get bounced.
Based on the amount of work and priority, Mattan agrees to do the following:
- Give a short answer - "Thank you" or "It means a lot to me."
- Answer a specific question - if it is possible to do it in less than 2 minutes.
- Conduct a quick skype-call or telephone conversation - about 15 minutes.
- Meet for coffee - about 45 minutes.
Of course, if he sees that a personal meeting can be replaced telephone conversation, he will insist on the latter to save his time.
Prove why I should take the time to help you
A person who receives hundreds of requests and requests every day cannot physically respond to all of them. Therefore, one has to choose based on the information he receives. Therefore, when presenting yourself in a letter, it is worth mentioning your past successful work experience, projects that the respondent knows. If you don't have a lot of experience yet, link to your site to prove that you are doing something meaningful. Your task is to interest the person and motivate him to spend his time on you.
These tips are nothing new, but they can help you write a concise, readable and specific e-mail, and thereby increase your chances of getting a response.
And how would you supplement this list from personal experience? What tricks do you use to get answers to your letters (especially if this is your first time writing to a person)? Share your experience in the comments.
