Warm call - it still works

The phone is not dead. At least my phone is not dead. A balanced demand generation strategy should leverage all media channels - as you never know which media a person will respond to. Let's talk about the phone for a moment.

Yep - it's that old piece of technology that is still on your desk. Probably has dust on it and is surrounded by those stacks of paper that you have been meaning to read for the past year. Well, put that bad boy right back in front of you, dust it off and introduce it to your computer. They are a match made in heaven.

The following is not a new tactic by any means. It's one that still works. But the success is all in the execution. This is a refresher. Take a read....

1. Send out 75 emails a week to prospects and dormant clients. You should include a solid educational asset that is not a product pitch and one that helps the recipient do their job better.
2. Plan a dialogue that you want to have with these contacts. This is not a script, but think through what you are going to say to the contact. How are you going to open the conversation? What questions are you going to ask? What new idea or value are you going to position? What objections can you foresee and how are you going to over come them? How are you going to close - what will give value to the contact and what do you want as the next step?
3. Expect that it may take you 5-7 attempts to reach the person. Don't give up after the first try.

What results can you expect? If you send out 100 emails, you can expect 3-5 of those people to actually read the asset that you sent. That's why you need to call them. By adding your old friend the phone to the mix, you will most likely up that to 15-20. Of those 15-20, you should expect 5-7 to engage you in meaningful dialogues and most should result in pipeline opportunity. If your average deal size is $50K, then you probably just got yourself $250K plus in early stage pipeline.

Now, where this breaks down is in the phone follow up. You have to dedicate yourself to dialing that phone. Set aside regular time to do it. If you do not, then your busy and hectic day will kill your ability to turn this tactic in to a effective way to build pipeline.

Hope this helps you.

To Learn more about Richardson's sales training and sales performance improvement solutions, please visit us on the web at http://www.richardson.com