You may know me, but I don’t know you

In my last blog post about sellers and buyers making the process easier, I really wanted to include a story about a recent sales call – or series of calls rather that I received as a case in what not to do if you want to successfully cold call a business prospect (name and company changed to protect the guilty). I am paraphrasing, but it went a little like this.

Voicemail 1: “Hi Josh, my name is George and I am calling from awesomeweb, a local design firm specializing in thought leadership based websites and I would like to talk to you about your website and how we might be able to help you increase your search engine power.”

One week later:

Voicemail 2: “Hi Josh, this is George calling from awesomeweb again. I left you a message last week and was hoping to talk to you about how we might be able to help with your web design needs.”

One week later:

Voicemail 3: “Hey Josh. George from awesomeweb. Give me a call.”

George started off well enough, but made a criminal mistake as he moved along. He was becoming more and more familiar in his tone without ever speaking to me. So, let’s assume I quickly deleted his first voice mail because I was in a bad mood (sorry, it happens), thus making no impression on me. The second one I might have half heard while collecting voice mails from my mobile device, but again it didn’t really register because I wasn’t in the market and get quite a few messages every day. So, for all intents and purposes the third message is still making that all important first impression and all that I heard was: “Hey Josh. George from awesomeweb. Give me a call.”

Certainly I would prefer if the Georges of the world did not call me over and over again, but having sold in the past I understand that it can be necessary and beneficial to keep calling in hopes of at least qualifying or disqualifying me as a prospect. Would it have been so hard to give the full pitch each time? Would it have been a challenge to try three different messages in hopes of one resonating?

The big takeaway: Sales and marketing professionals need to remember that every impression may be a first impression and act accordingly. Put your best foot forward until you have concluded that no opportunity exists and then walk away gracefully.

Comments

David Gadarian said…
great piece of advice. always a big challenge to "open" on voice mail but your point is very well taken.
August 28, 2010 at 2:28 PM
Marketing Jobs said…
Excellent and nice advice to all Sales and marketing professionals. Every one in marketing field should follow this point.

Thanks,
Bharathi
September 13, 2010 at 6:34 AM
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