Prospecting in the Internet Age, Part 3: Cutting through the Noise
Business people have been always been busy; it is not a new phenomenon. If you think that they are not talking to you simply because they are too tied up with work, then you are greatly mistaken. Although the pace of modern business has picked up, there is still enough time for executives to take your calls. However, they need to think that the caller is valuable to them and so you need to be someone worth talking to. Thus the real reason that they are not talking to you, is because they believe you are someone not worth talking to.
There is going to be a large number of people calling the same prospects. Executives are constantly being bothered with pointless information and pointless calls. That is a simple fact. All of these calls and communications create a lot of noise that you must cut through to get your message heard.
To do this you must ensure that you are relevant. But how do you achieve that?
Firstly, believe that they need to talk to you and that they want to talk to you. If you have done your homework and you are talking their strategic language, you can usually cut through all that noise and get your message across. Remember, 90% of the people who are prospecting are simply repeating canned marketing messages about how wonderful their particular company is. Your message is tailor-made to your prospect.
BE ORGANIZED AND MOTIVATED
When prospecting, you really need a system that keeps track of your prospects and reminds you about following them up. This enables you to maintain a list of prospects that you are targeting on a regular basis, making sure you stay fresh and relevant with each communication.
While some might want to simply jump in and start prospecting, the time you spend organizing yourself beforehand is actually an investment and will allow you to reap dividends with the prospecting you do.
This means you spend a little time preparing who you are going to be calling that week, what you said the last time you called, and refreshing your memory by reviewing the homework you have done on that prospect. Then, when you pick up the phone, you will be ready with your personalized message, not some pat marketing speech that your prospect has already heard a hundred times before.
Doing this will give you much better results with your prospecting, which in turn will have a profound effect on your motivation.
Motivation is very important. Keeping a smile on your face after you just left 35 voice-mails in a row is near impossible. Spending several hours stuck in this cycle can be extremely discouraging. Therefore, you should do your prospecting in short bursts, allowing you to maintain your motivation levels.
These short bursts should coincide with periods of high potential prospecting. These are the times when your prospects are easily available and not buried under mountains of work. Learn their habits and routines. If they close their books in the first week of the month, then don’t call them during that period. If you know they are extremely busy at Easter, then don’t schedule a follow-up for this time.
This will give you better results, which in turn, will keep you more motivated. Nothing feels better than making a call after just getting an appointment booked.
Motivation is especially critical when, after leaving all those voice messages, you finally get someone on the phone. The last thing you want to do is sound frustrated or desperate. You want to sound confident and buoyant and the key to that is motivation.
INTERNET IDENTITY
While we all know about e-mail and Google, there are a number of other ways in which you can use the Internet to develop an online presence. We are not talking about standard marketing communications here, but rather creating your very own individual online identity.
What you need to be doing is communicating with people in your clients’ industries. Get on their blogs and forums and leave comments and participate in their discussions. This facilitates the creation of your own digital identity on the web, enabling people to get to know who you are.
In addition, every single sales person today should have some form of blog which allows them to post articles and create thoughtful content for people to find.
WHY?
Because on the Internet people trade in authority and expertise. If you have created a blog that showcases these two attributes for you, you can use this by inserting a signature block into your e-mails that links back to your blog. The guy who receives your e-mail might not call you back, but he might click on your blog and, after seeing your authority and expertise, might decide to do business with you. In this way you have used your blog to forge a form of trust before you even meet.
It all goes back to standing out from the crowd and being heard above the noise.
Also, sales people can be an excellent consultative resource for their customers, becoming trusted advisers and further enhancing their authority on a subject. This all contributes to the fostering of strong relationships with potential clients. Your blog can do this for you even while you are sleeping. You are creating an inbound lead flow for yourself by standing out from your competitors, while simultaneously enhancing your personal credibility, and therefore your leverage.
Your blog does not have to be fancy, but should be functional. And always bear in mind that that people don’t want to read long articles, so keep your posts relevant and valuable, rather than rambling.
There are numerous ways to start a free blog such as BlogSpot, or wordpress.org. There are also a number of other services out there that can help you do this very cheaply; certainly at the cost of less than $100.
Bear in mind that thousands of blogs start up every day and currently everybody seems to have a blog. This means that there is a lot of bad content out there and people are becoming jaded about reading them because they have to wade through masses of poor writing to get to something valuable. Inject a little of your personality into your blog, be honest, open and forthright in your communications and people will appreciate that.
LinkedIn is another valuable resource. While it enables you to check people out, more importantly it lets interested prospects check you out. Just as you will have done your homework on them, you should expect them to do their homework on you. Before they start a conversation with you they want to know who you are, what you are doing and how relevant you are to them. You can provide them with this information through LinkedIn, while also linking it back to your blog to further enhance your image.
GETTING PAST THE SHIELDS (GATEKEEPERS)
Administrators and screeners are notoriously difficult to bypass – after all, their job is to shield the executive from unsolicited calls. However, there is an effective tactic that can be used to get through them.
When your attempts at contact with your prospect are consistently being blocked by administrators or screeners, simply try asking them for their help. It is surprising how many sales people simply don’t do this.
All you have to say is, “Excuse me, can you help me out? How does the executive you serve like to get information about new opportunities or products, and how do they like it to be presented?” You will be surprised how many screeners open up at this point.
Remember that these people deal with obnoxious callers all the time in their jobs, so simply being polite can help you make a great deal of progress. You need to understand that these people have a very hard job to do, and they are a trusted by their executive to be an effective shield. If you can get them on your side and establish a rapport, they can be a goldmine of important advice about how to get through to your prospect, including how to set up a meeting and how to present your pitch.
If you consistently act like all the other sales people that the screener is specifically blocking, you will get nowhere. When dealing with them, simply stop being a sales person and just be a person. You will be amazed how this penetrates their defenses.
Another aspect of the screener’s job is to look for good products and services that will benefit their company. With your prior research and knowledge, you will stand out from the crowd and be able to show that you are a benefit to their company, thus facilitating your contact with your prospect.
CONCLUSION
The Internet has changed the way in which we prospect for clients. It is important to adapt to the new circumstances and to change your style accordingly.
There is no substitute for being properly prepared. Research your prospects well and make your communications specific to their needs, mirroring their corporate strategies and language of communication.
Keep your communications relevant and become someone it is worth spending time on. Remember that your prospects make a very quick decision about whether or not to read a communication. Give them something that catches their attention.
Maintain an online presence and promote your authority and expertise. Give your prospects a reason to seek you out.
Break through shields and make allies as you do so. Remember that a little etiquette and courtesy can go a long way.
Finally, always stay aggressive and relentless in your pursuit of new business. Don’t plead, don’t ask for favors, and don’t apologize for calling. Be confident, stick to your strategy, and you will prevail in the end.
For more information:
If you would like to improve your prospecting techniques or learn about training for specific sales methods, please call Ramon Vela at 323-223-0068 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 323-223-0068 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or contact him via e-mail at rvela@streetsmartsolutionprovider.com.