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Question:
What is the best approach to use when contacting a potential customer for the first time? Should I send an introductory packet and then follow-up?
Answer:
There is no right answer to this question, however there are certainly some efforts that make more sense than others given different situations.
Why Send Information?
Many salespeople spend too much time sending information that is never looked at. It’s not necessarily wrong to send information. Just ask yourself why you're doing it. If you have acquired what you think is a good business lead, then sending information, as a first step will simply postpone the inevitable — contact with the customer. If you are sending information because you are reluctant to make a call, then it's the wrong reason. In addition, consider that the average person receives four hours of reading material a day. So, unless you have qualified your prospect and they are expecting your materials, what makes you think they'll read your piece?
If you are sending information to prompt interest and qualify customers, then make sure that your efforts are not wasted. Be sure to include a response mechanism such as a pre-paid response card, an invitation to join you on-line with other customers at a particular time, or even a note saying that you will follow-up at a certain time. I recently received a beautiful & very expensive mail piece from a company who was advertising snowboards. I'm a downhill skier and will probably never snowboard, or at least it's not in my short-term plans. If the company was simply qualifying a mailing list, that's fine. However, the company had no way for me to respond to them and I didn't receive a follow-up call. I was impressed with the mailer from an advertising perspective, and then it went in the garbage.
Contact Actions Depend on the Type of Lead.
If you have just acquired a lengthy list of business leads, conducting a mailing with a response system is a convenient way of pre-qualifying, especially if you don't have the time to complete all of the contacts in a timely manner. If, on the other hand, you have received a referral, have acquired leads from a trade show, or have read SBT and have determined that a particular business mentioned may be a good potential customer, then why not pick up the phone and make the call. A mailing will only add another step. If you don't have time to qualify leads, consider hiring a company or individual to do it for you. Be sure you give them specific guidelines and questions to obtain the information that you need about the customer.
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Qualifying Leads Via the Phone.
A quick phone call will qualify the lead to determine whether or not you have business potential. Then, if you send follow-up information, you will be able to target the specific interests of your customer. Plan your call according to the following:
• Set your objective. What do you want to happen as a result of the call? For example, do you want to meet with the customer or sell something over the phone? By thinking through your objective for the call, it will help you stay on track and obtain your goal.
• Prepare qualifying questions that encourage your customer to reveal the type of information that you need to understand their circumstances. Typically open-ended quesitons are the best, one's that begin with who, what, when, where, which and how. Your questions should focus on the customer's business, not on what you are trying to sell. Make sure that you're talking to the right person. This should be part of the qualification process.
• Introduce yourself, state the reason for your call and ask permission to continue. Make sure the reason for your call is stated in terms of benefit to the customer. Don't tell a customer that you are calling to introduce yourself! Who cares? A better introduction may be, “Hi this is Joe Smith with Help Your Business, Inc. I am calling because we have been able to improve the waste reduction of companies like yours by as much as 70%, do you have a minute?”
• Qualify and Close on Your Objective. If your objective is to meet, then close the call and meet. Don't try to give too much information over the phone. Or worse yet, don't volunteer to send information.
Don't rely on mailing to do your selling for you. Mailing will only prompt interest. You still need to make that initial contact to qualify and take action on the lead. The more you postpone this, the less success you'll have making the sale.
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