News
 Marketing
Challenge: Do You Stalk Customers?
By Meryl K. Evans and Hank Stroll
We’ve all been there---you send an email or leave a
voicemail for a customer/potential client and never
hear back. So you try again…and again. You don’t
want to be a pest, but why aren’t they responding?
Did they receive the message or are they
deliberately ignoring you?
Where do you draw the line to avoid becoming a
"stalker" or "that crazy person who keeps calling
and emailing?"
Try the following suggestions to encourage prospects
to call you back:
• Give the person a reason to call back.
• Customize the message.
• Try a different approach.
The first thing you want to accomplish is to make
sure you will get a response. You want this
customer/potential client to return your phone call
or answer your email. To do this, go for short and
enticing. Adam, a consultant with MonteConsult,
provides the following tips:
“Give a hook for prospects to call back, with enough
info for them to be interested and curious. But
don't give too much so they make a decision not talk
to you about the idea. Script out your message and
practice with a colleague or yourself. Say exactly
what the prospect should want to hear and the call's
purpose and goal”.
Another source suggests keeping the message to about
30 seconds or 75 words. Ask a question that gets
prospects thinking after they listen to your
message.
The second approach deals with customizing the
message to fit your customer/potential client.
First, do your research before calling anyone. Don't
just call people because they're all in the XYZ
business. Researching helps identify prospects'
needs so you can focus on those when contacting
them.
Next, make sure you're calling the right person. The
prospect may be too high or too low on the ladder or
may be the wrong prospect completely. After you’re
confident you’ve made contact with the right person,
ask them about themselves. A source suggests the
line, "I'd like to learn more about your situation."
Something about the words, "your situation" gets
people talking. Most important: Be friendly! You
want this person to feel comfortable when talking to
you. Also, they’ll be more enticed to forge a
business relationship with someone they like.
Finally, vary your approach tactics. Sales pros
rarely rely on phone calls alone. They also add
emails and direct mail to their prospecting toolbox.
Anna Barcelos, director of marketing with OpenBOX
Technologies, recommends a follow-up email:
“If you have their email addresses, follow up with
an email after the call. Some people are phone
communicators, and others are email communicators
(that's me). Persistent sales reps who communicate
the value they can provide me, always win in my
book. Persistence helps too; and remember, don't
ever take it personally. People are so
overwhelmingly busy these days; it's tough to keep
track of phone calls.”
Remember to avoid the whole "Did you get my
email/fax/voice mail?" fixation when doing the
following up. That gets the conversation off on the
wrong foot. Give prospects a reason to follow up by
customizing the message and using various
communication methods, since everyone has different
preferences.
---Source: Hank
Stroll
(Hank@InternetVIZ.com) is publisher at
InternetVIZ. Meryl Evans
(meryl@InternetVIZ.com) is the content maven
behind meryl.net.
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