Prep For Your Sales Call: Do 3 Things

You have an inbound lead!  There it is in your CRM tool, with your name on it.

What next?  

Do these three things before calling (yes calling, not emailing) your lead:  

- Who is this person?   

Looking up prospects on LinkedIn should be like brushing your teeth.  Why?

Some LinkedIn profiles tell you exactly what you want to know, like whether they are directly responsible for your kind of product/service, and whether they have decision-making authority.   

You may also discover that you have a lot in common with your prospect.  I don’t expect prospects to buy from me just because we went to the same school, or know the same people.  But those things can help establish trust, and ease the way to a business relationship.

- How well is their company doing?  Knowing the revenues and profits of your prospect will give you some context for your discussion about price and budget.   

- What else is on the company’s plate?   Are they downsizing? Consolidating their data centers? On an acquisition binge?  I had a prospect two years ago who was very interested in my company’s product, and was a great fit; but every three months there was a new acquisition they had to deal with, so they didn’t prioritize our solution.      

This kind of call preparation may be easiest for leads that are larger, public companies.  But even small, private companies and their employees are visible to some degree these days through social media (blog posts, twitter, facebook, industry associations and local chambers of commerce).  

Unless you have to contact, say, 100 prospects per day (ouch!), you can find the time to do this basic research that will greatly improve the quality of your conversations with inbound (and outbound) leads.

Lead Nurturing - 3 Ways To Get A Reply

Here’s an email I received recently.   Effective, or not?

"Hi David,  I have tried reaching out to you a few times now but it seems as if my timing could not get any worse.  I saw that you have expressed some interest in X by downloading some of our content so I just thought it would be a good idea to speak with you for a couple of minutes in order to gauge whether I could help you or not. Let’s connect sometime today or next week, which time works best for you?  Thanks David!"

At least the subject line worked (I opened it).   But there’s nothing in this message that will get me to respond.  If you want prospects to reply, do these 3 things:

1) Ask For What You Want (Be Specific)   If you want a phone conference, ask for it.  Effective salespeople ask for what they want, and make specific proposals, like this:  “Let’s talk for 15 minutes on Monday at 10amPT (or would Tuesday at 4pmPT work better for you?).”   That’s how you ask for a meeting, while offering the prospect an alternative.   

“Let’s connect...sometime today or next week” is not compelling.  “What works for you?” provides zero guidance.  Don’t make your prospect guess at your availability.  

2) Make Your Case  If you want a meeting, please give them a compelling reason to say yes.  If you want a meeting “to gauge whether I could help you or not,” well, you should already know the answer to that one!  If you think you can help them, say so:  “I can help you achieve X.”   If you are not sure if you can help them, you've got the wrong prospect, the wrong value proposition, or your confidence needs a boost.      

3) Grab, and Hold, Their Attention  Your first lead-nurturing sentence is the most important.  So why are you starting with your own troubles as a salesperson?  (“I’ve tried reaching out to you...”).  Do you think your prospect really cares that you’ve found it hard to reach them?  

Lead with something interesting or significant.  Or, express gratitude, and ask a meaningful question (“Thanks for downloading X, can you please share with me which feature you found most compelling?”).  Explain how someone else is using X successfully.  Share a fact that will be useful to their business or career.  

Ask for something specific.  Explain why.  Say something useful.  Do these 3 things, and your replies will grow.