Prospects Going Into Holiday Mode
Doyle Slayton | Nov 18, 2009 | Comments 12
We are in mid-November, one week away from Thanksgiving, and it seems like nobody is answering the phone. Decision makers are dragging their feet, going quiet for days, and sometimes weeks at a time. It’s driving us crazy! Right?
Here is a list of four things we can do right now to ensure our success:
Focus on Volume – When our prospects go into holiday mode we have to respond with hammer down mode! I mean, there are only two options here. We either impose our will, or we give up. We might get frustrated, we might get tired, and that’s all normal, but I guarantee you, we are not giving up!
Leave Voice Mail - If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know this year has changed my entire view on voice mail. If your prospects aren’t answering their phone, you have to make sure they are still hearing from you. Remember the 6 Goals for Leaving Voice Mail.
Piggy Back with Email - Prospects may not be answering their phone, but they sometimes answer their email. Follow your voice messages with a “just tried to call you” email. Keep it short and sweet. Provide compelling reasons to have them respond.
Power Through It - No doubt, it gets frustrating when people aren’t answering the phone. We start second guessing ourselves and thinking, “There has to be a better way,” “Is there something I’m doing wrong?” “It feels like I’m spinning my wheels.” We are all going through the same challenges right now. Think big picture and power through it. In the end… We will WIN!
What other action items would you add to this list?
Action items to consider adding……
Pay more attention now to two things:
1) This is a good time to recognize that you don’t need to love all the steps and functions of professional selling anymore than you need to love every customer. You need only to love helping others to get what they want and to love listening carefully to accomplish that.
2) This is also a good time to take stock in the exact words you are and have been using and expend some serious energy making them better.
Remember 7&7 (No, not your grandfather’s drink!)
An effective billboard and/or branding themeline has been proven best at 7 words or less… with a beginning, middle and ending, and telling a story, AND being persuasive.
Are your opening and closing words high-impact enough to do that?
Oh, right, the other 7: People make a purchase/no purchase decision in the first 7 seconds… HOW do you come across? What word or words spotlight those first 7 seconds of contact?
The best time to do these kinds of self-inventory adjustments is when there is maddness running through your blood because the time clock is racing into a business dead zone and you’re in mid-crunch.
Why? Because you force your own hand. Your mind snaps solutions out quicker and there’s nothing like a fresh take on things when your competition is moping around kicking the grass and whining.
Do it now. Make it a GREAT 6 weeks!
Doyle,
I’m so glad you’ve chanced your stance about voice mail. I’m much more likely to respond to voice mail, especially if I don’t recognize the number calling.
Great post as always,
Kat
Thanks for the post Doyle. I was struggling on the issue of voice mail or not, and it validated my efforts.
Cheers to you.
Doyle,
Yet another article right on time! We kicked off a new book this week and historically as soon as I contact customers to renew, I get the same thing I’ve gotten for the past three year, “call me after the first of the year”. Well, I don’t have time to wait this year. Over 50% of my accounts must be serviced by Christmas so your advice will be taken to heart by this gal!
Thanks! Go Cowboys!
Lisa
I STILL hate voicemail. I just do not see the point in leaving a message informing the client who it is they need to avoid. I have tried it, left a lot of info, left a little info, left NO info and the results are alwys the same. 1% of voicemails are responded to. The biggest responder I have had is “Hi this is Dave Moore from PSP. My number is XXXXXXXXXX. Would you please call me when you can because I need to speak to you about…” hang up. I got a call back a few times from people wondering what happened and I said I had no idea and that I left them a message explaining what I wanted, ‘well, let me explain again’. Unethical, possibly but I am not convinced that voicemail works. I use my voicemail as a screener.
best
Dave
Doyle,
I’m going to suggest a couple of things that have kept me swamped this week (we’ll see what next week brings):
* instead of cold calling – I’m “a little warmer” calling: following through with people who sounded interested in what I do BUT didn’t have anything when I cold called them.
You know the ones who will remember your voice, but not what you do. I wish my US prospects a Happy Thanksgiving and ask about how they wrap up their year end money. (also if you sell internationally – call someone where it ISN’T a holiday next week!)
* another thing is many of my high level prospects are in the throws of budget renegotiation (they submitted their 2010 budgets and have been given them back for revisions) – calling and offering my assistance in either revamping or revising the proposals they used makes for a great call.
what does the voicemail sound like?
“Hey ________, it’s Lynn Hidy from UpYourTeleSales.com most of my customers are telling me they’re swamped because their 1st budget was kicked back for revision – give me a call so we can make the revision process easier. My number is 315-751-0146, again it’s Lynn from UpYourTeleSales.com 315-751-0146″
plus I completely agree on the tag team email approach.
Regards,
Lynn
Doyle,
Here’s the way I see it. If we’re working, prospects are working too. They may be checking Caller ID and hiding behind voicemail but a lot of them are there.
For starters, you may want to press *67 before dialing your prospect to block your calls. Or you may want to break out the cell phone and call from an unrecognized number.
Next, try to reach the highest ranking people at the job. The company can’t function without them and they surely aren’t taking vacation at the same time.
I don’t like to use e-mail in conjunction with calling because a)it’s tough to overcome objections via e-mail, especially if the response is “remove me from your list.” b) filters catch a lot of e-mail so there is no guarantee the prospect is even receiving it. I guess you use a read receipt though. I only use e-mail as a last resort these days.
There’s only a certain amount of dials you can make in a day. I make the max regardless of the time of year. Although the holiday season might be a good time to do other things, like training.
Such a terrific post and SOOO timely. Thank you for the encouraging and empowering post during a time when you wonder if your email account and phones are still functioning!!
A real killer time – power through it is right! Even more difficult for my job search here. And, from my Big4 consulting the old saying is if not in a role by 11-15 you are on the bench until January. Most of my consulting clients did not even want us there the week of Christmas until about January 6.
I fully agree with the “going warmer” above. I found a better talk & close ratio nurtured with these types of contacts. The other thing I did was be in town, hit the Sam’s or Costco and bring treats for my clients and the office folks, no big business push, but I was a little easier to remember than the standard holiday cards, and I did always ask for that one person my client felt I could help.
Doyle,
Great post! I am feeling it right now too. Thanks for your insight. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
Respectfully,
Arnel Tanyag
Hi Doyle. Thanks for the tips.
I’ve been adding the following:
E-mailing current news articles with pertinent information and a note to remind them of how it applies to our discussions.
Offering free demo (if I haven’t done that already)
Talking with the admin who does answer the phone to find out more about the business needs.
Sometimes I also leave a message saying I’ve tried to contact them and left several messages. Sorry to bother you, won’t bother you any longer. Believe it or not, this actually works sometimes.
Thanks for the tips Doyle. There is one issue that frustrates me the most when motivating my sales people this time of year. I hear the comments, “This is a slow time of year”, “My traffic is down”, “People aren’t intrested in buying this time of year.” All of these things are true, but we must find the good in everything, right? There must be some positives in these statements.
While traffic might be down and we aren’t seeing as many people in our sales centers, we are still seeing potential buyers. If someone is shopping in November and December, they are shopping for a reason. If someone calls or shows an interest in your product, they move from a suspect to a prospect immediately. If it is cold and raining outside, but you get a prospect thru the door, this is someone looking to be sold.
Traffic may be down, but the quality of traffic is much better. We must use our selling skills to close these people, because I guarantee, our competition is thinking the same things we were and have become lazy due to these excuses.
The F.R.E.A.K. must come out of us all in the Holiday Season.
Good luck and good selling!!!