7Jan/121

Prospecting by Email

Are you prospecting by email? First of all, the phone is - almost - always better. But, you don't have every prospects' phone number.

So, if you find yourself sending prospecting emails, here are four rules:

  1. Keep it short: It can't be longer than a blackberry screen.
  2. It better be tailored: If you're sending generic emails, don't expect to hear back.
  3. It often takes more than one: Count on sending three, four, or more before hearing back.
  4. Get permission: If you're just sending emails without gaining permission, you're probably spamming.

Let me share two examples of recent emails I've received. One good. One bad.

After requesting some information from a professional services firm we're considering engaging, I received this message:

Hi Jeb,

Since you requested information about our work last night, I thought I'd first send you the attached case study. It highlights a project we recently completed with an HR Training firm. I've personally worked with a handful of training firms (candidly, no sales training firms) and have found a number of ways we can help. Let me know a good time to call. If I don't hear back, I'll try to reach you by phone tomorrow.

[Name]
[Phone Number]
[Company]

Why is that so great? First, it's short - I could read it on my iPhone. Second, it's obviously tailored to me - he knows I'm in the training business. Third, he's pre-prepared me for his multiple contact approach. Fourth, I'd already requested his contact. Also, I like this one because he's provided something for me to review. Chances are, I won't. But it's still nice to get it.

Here's a bad one that I received . . . on the SAME day from one of his competitors.

Your request has been received. One of our experts will cnotact you shortly.

Sincerely,
[Company]

P.S. This email address is not monitored. Please do not respond.

Why is that so bad? I don't think I have to tell you.

Do you have any effective email prospecting tips? If you've got some emails that generate results, please share them in the Comments Section below. How do you use email to get someone to call YOU back?

-@JebBrooks

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17Oct/112

Prospecting Tool

The hardest part of selling is getting in front of a qualified prospect.

The other day I had the chance to speak with Rally Marketing’s Co-Founder Mike Cannon about this problem and the solution he has developed. He introduced me to their very straightforward Sales 2.0 prospecting tool. The tool allows salespeople to identify qualified prospects via email.

Here’s how it works:

Rally sends short emails, under a salesperson’s name, to prospects asking for help finding the right person to talk to. It’s an old technique, wrapped in blackberry-sized email messages.

It's important to note that these emails are all Can-SPAM Compliant, by the way.

By capitalizing on people’s innate desire to help, Mike and his team use quick emails to identify who, within an organization, is the right person to speak with regarding an offer. Their “simple and soft campaigns” are fully customizable and yield response rates of up to 6%.

Rally Marketing is asking your prospects for a simple favor. By acknowledging their ability to help and asking for that help, Rally can learn a lot. They then analyze the responses to gather good information to pass along to you. Whether it's an out-of-office reply, a true response, or some other information, they're gathering prospecting data.

With that said, Rally Marketing's offer is one approach. A truly strong prospecting effort requires a lot more than any one tool. The most effective salespeople are the ones who have many paths leading from qualified prospects to themselves. Consider this tool as one of those paths. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

@JebBrooks

Filed under: Prospecting 2 Comments
10Aug/112

Cold Calling is Stupid

Last May, my good friend and fellow sales trainer here at The Brooks Group, Tony Smith, wrote that Cold Calling 2.0 was really about making “warm calls.” But I’m going to take it a step further and say that...

Cold Calling Is Stupid.

Here’s why.

Prospecting is the lifeblood of your sales career. Finding solutions to their problems is the lifeblood of your prospects.

Making phone calls with the hope of building a relationship is wasteful. Allow me to explain...

  • It’s a waste of your time because you can invest your time in efforts with far greater returns. According to Peter Drucker, you stand a one-in-fourteen chance of selling something to someone who has no relationship with you or your company. Surely we can agree that building a relationship with a random phone call to your prospect is a...stupid...way to build a relationship? How many marriages began with an out-of-the-blue phone call?
  • It’s a waste of your prospect’s time because they've got better things to do than dilly-dally on the phone. Earlier this year, I wrote step-by-step instructions about how you can sell something to me. As I said, "The chances of a cold caller calling me when I'm able to pay attention to their offering is unlikely." The same is true of most prospects. Now, more than ever, people are being asked to accomplish more in less time. Find smarter ways to help them than taking more of their precious time.

In our sales training programs, we teach a front-end loaded process called IMPACT Selling. We call graduates of the course "High IMPACT Salespeople" because they invest their efforts in positioning, prospecting, and pre-call planning. They have High Impact! Their work is far more lucrative than "dialing for dollars." It's more lucrative since it reverses the relationship. If done right, it means that prospects call you. That's a lot more effective than salespeople who bang away at the phones hoping for someone to say, "Yes, I'll listen."

Now, let me acknowledge that cold calling is probably never going to go away. That's because (1) it will eventually work for a small percentage of prospects and (2) there are a lot of managers out there who built a book of business on cold calling and believe "that's the way I did it, so you should, too." However, can't we all agree there are more effective ways to sell!?

@JebBrooks

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3Aug/111

Salespeople: Do Your Own Marketing

It seems more companies now than ever face a marketing v. sales debate.

It usually goes like this:

Marketing: "This sales department just ignores the leads we send them. They don't take advantage of the new collateral we've developed. And they certainly don't appreciate all of the work we did on the new brand. Why don't they get it?"

Sales: "Those marketers just don't get it. We want leads. Qualified leads. But they never send any. They're too busy building a brand. Customers don't care about a brand. Why do they keep wasting their time?"

High IMPACT Salespeople don't join in the debate. They don't point fingers. They don't cast blame.

Instead, they take action.

Regardless of what you sell (and the demands placed on you by "management"), you have some degree of flexibility in the "marketing activities" you can take on as a salesperson.

In most companies, the Marketing Department is tasked with a shotgun approach: Tell our company's story to as many people as possible. Share our offerings with a wide range of people.

Sales, on the other hand, is asked to tell that story to individual people (or people within companies) in order to gain their commitment to use, buy, or implement their offering.

In my opinion, we (sales) got the better end of that stick. I'd rather get the immediate feedback of a prospect than wait around for market research results. But, that's why I'm in sales. Regardless of which you prefer, the lesson here is that there can be a blurry line between "marketing activities" and "sales efforts."

Prospecting -- how and where you look for new opportunities -- could be termed "marketing," but you still do it.

For example, where do you go for referrals? People who've already bought things from YOU. That's not "marketing," that's a prospecting strategy you can employ to grow your book of business.

But we don't have to stop at Referrals…

What about collateral development? Is it possible for you to develop some material that supports your case? Yes.

Or article writing? Could you put together an article about your offering that provides some good, neutral information? Yes.

How about developing an email newsletter of your own? Might you be able to write a monthly newsletter and send it to your prospects and customers? Yes.

High IMPACT Salespeople just take action. They drive their own results.

@JebBrooks

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5Jan/112

King Collaboration: Ruler of Sales

"None of us on our own are as capable as all of us together"

I paraphrased my favorite Japanese Proverb to make a point: Too often, salespeople stall because they're afraid they don't have all of the answers. The truth is that they'd be much better off if they'd adopt the attitude that, by working together, they'll arrive at a better place.

Smart salespeople look to their colleagues, sales managers, prospective clients, customers -- anyone really -- for answers.

  • A testimonial, for example, is an existing client telling a prospective client that you can do what you've claimed (or, ideally, more).
  • A referral involves working collaboratively with an existing client to identify someone inside their network who can take advantage of your offering.
  • A partnership is identifying someone you can work with to build business opportunities together.
  • A network is a group of people looking to help each other create new business.

As we move into 2011 (and beyond) there will be more and more opportunities to collaborate. Could you partner with someone to write an e-book that would help your prospective clients buy from you? Could you find some experts in your field and coauthor a few articles together? Sure, these ideas may seem a bit far-fetched, but they could help you get discovered by a prospective client!

Are you taking advantage of online collaboration tools?

Are you on LinkedIn? Let's connect there. Are you on Twitter? Follow us.

@JebBrooks

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