Good afternoon Newdastians!
Today, let’s discuss something that happens on a daily basis with Sales Development Representatives, not only at Vendasta but worldwide.
Let’s consider the following scenario. You get served a nice hot inbound lead from the marketing department, you research the prospect for 10 minutes before giving them a call. You then call them and it rings through to voicemail (unfortunately). You leave a voicemail, but now what?
Do you call them back in an hour, do you email them right away, do you send a connection request on LinkedIn? What type of sequence do you follow if the first outbound call goes straight to voicemail?
Let’s inject some honesty here. Business owners are busy, not everyone has the time to pick up the phone for a nice 20-minute introductory conversation. What strategies do you employ with your sales team to make sure “they pick up the next time?”.
Something we practice on our sales team, and something I adhered to with the inbound leads I had the privilege of working with when I was a Sales Development Representative, was a follow-up sequence that had at least 12 touches in the four weeks.
This 12 touch strategy can go one of four ways.
1) You manage to get your prospect on the phone, they’re happy you called and you get them booked for a demo of their new Business App.
2) You get them on the phone but they’re too busy to meet, you agree to call back/set up a meeting at a later time.
3)The prospect admits “I clicked on the wrong form, not interested in this service/made a mistake, etc or back off, never call me again!” and they get put on a drip campaign for further engagement.
4)They never pick up, or never respond to your emails, or never connect with you on LinkedIn.
What does your team do with batch number four?
Something that worked for me was a 12 touch sequence that I followed, in the following weeks after getting served a new lead. I would outbound call 5 more times, outbound email 5 more times, and send two or so messages on LinkedIn or via SMS.
More often than not, I’d get thanked by the prospect for being so persistent. The prospect DID raise their hand after all, and they were often busy business owners that KNEW they needed help, but just didn’t have the time in the first two or three weeks of filling out that snapshot form for a phone call. But due to persistence in follow-up, and the value they perceived your product to be, they’ll be happy to engage with you as a sales rep, because that business owner knows you can help.
After the 12 touches, if you haven’t had any luck connecting, it’s ok to nurture that lead with occasional follow-up emails or call in the coming months. But don’t waste too much time in the following months with the leads you just can’t connect with. Or, if you can see that they’re constantly clicking on one of your earlier emails, it’s ok to follow up 1-2 times a month with an outbound call, if you can actively see that the lead is engaged from their first form fill.
What’s worked for you? What type of follow-up sequence have you implemented at your sales-driven organization? Would love to hear from you in the comments below!
Happy Selling!