Sales Challenges: The Four-Step Prospecting Plan

Credit: Getty Images

Nine out of 10 people reading this column do not follow a prospecting process. Ninety percent of you follow no formal step-by-step, week-by-week system of customer contact. Imagine if advertisers thought like you did. Companies like Coca-Cola, BMW, and Geico would buy print or airtime only when business slumped for a month. Even Verizon would stop endlessly pounding us with the same ad over and over again. But they don’t because they know it takes consistency of message to gain a customer. Ask a sales rep why they follow no process and they’ll tell you it’s because they have no process to follow. Let’s change that.

Here’s another “90%” fact: If I ask a live audience, “Owners and managers in the room, what percentage of the time when an outside sales rep calls on you and leaves a voicemail message do they never call again?” The answer always comes back, “Nine out of 10 times.” Putting these two statistics together, there are two lessons.

First, you need a prospecting process consisting of multiple attempts over a number of weeks. Second, if that prospecting process involves calling twice, you will have instantly differentiated yourself from your competition.

Whether it’s eating right, exercising, or sales, you need a system. I’m not your mom so I can’t advise you to eat more fruits and vegetables. And I’m not your personal trainer, so I won’t stand next to you holding a cup of coffee and count off your leg lifts. But, as your sales coach, I will offer up a sample prospecting plan for sales growth. These are written as scripts, but can be adjusted to an email format with a little creativity.

Here Is Your Script

Call #1 (40 seconds): “Hello, this is <<Your name>> and I am calling from <<Your company>>. My telephone number is 781–934–7036. The purpose of my call is to talk to you about something I saw on your website. You have a trade show coming up and I can help you improve the ROI. I read the press release regarding your involvement in the show and hope to speak with you to find out more. I will call you again before the end of the week. Repeating my telephone number, you can reach me at 781–934–7036. Thank you.”

Commentary: You can only make a call like this when you have actually visited their website and done some research. That’s a lesson for a different column. The trick is to take what you learned on the site and turn it into a sales call. This demonstrates professionalism on your part and shows that they are more than just the next name on some list you bought.

Note that I leave my phone number at the beginning and the end of the message. This is done intentionally. If someone is going to save my message so they can return it later, I don’t want them to have to listen to the entire message just to get my number. Perhaps that will matter in only one in 100 attempts, but that’s one more than I had before. Moving on…

Call #2 (45 seconds): “Hello, this is <<Your name>> calling again. My telephone number is 781–934–7036. I would bet 90% of the salespeople who call you and leave a voicemail message never call a second time. You might even be someone who lets everything go to voicemail, knowing that nine out of 10 won’t try again. I am that 10%. This is just one of the many things that makes me different than my competition. Today is Friday and it’s approaching 2 o’clock. I will be in the office the rest of the day. If you have time to talk about that trade show I mentioned in my first voicemail message, I could be reached at 781–934–7036. Thank you.”

Commentary: You might be thinking to yourself, “Wow. That one was on the aggressive side.” You would be right. It’s intentional. However, this is not aggressive as much as it is assertive. There’s a difference. Tone this down if you like, but I promise you it will be remembered. Also note that I mentioned the day and the time. My hope is someone will call me back on impulse. You never know. Let’s try again …

Call #3 (30 seconds): “Hello again. This is <<Your name>>. So, if 90% of the salespeople who call you once never call a second time, I bet 90% of those people never call a third time. That means only one in 100 want your business badly enough to make another attempt. I believe I can help you with that trade show. I have some additional questions for you; questions that can be answered when you call me at 781–934–7036. I’ll try you again before the week is out. When you see a number on your Caller ID that ends in 7-0-3-6, pick up. It’s me! Thank you.”

Commentary: This one is just as assertive, rather thought-provoking, and says a lot about you as a salesperson. You can’t help but listen to a voicemail message like this and want to call the sales rep back. I am calling out my competition and demonstrating my diligence. Okay, one more try …

Call #4 (30 seconds): Hello again. This is <<Your name>>. This being the fourth time I’ve called — something I bet very, very few salespeople do. My hope is you are saying to yourself, “If this guy is working this hard to get an appointment with me, I can only imagine how hard he will work for me when I become a client of his.” My telephone number is 781–934–7036. I hope to hear from you.

Commentary: Now that I’ve pushed the envelope with a couple of assertive messages, this one brings it back to center. If I’ve pushed too far, the worst that’s going to happen is this customer is not going to call me back or take my call. They don’t like me and they won’t buy from me.

This is no worse than what I had when I started the process. I am looking for a customer who values my message, my diligence, and my obvious desire to poke fun at the process and be different.

Augment these scripted messages with other attempts to get their attention. Stick a sample in the mail. Send them a success story. As for frequency, I recommend no fewer than one touch a week.

So, there’s four scripted voicemail messages. You can change them. You can ratchet them up or tone them down. You can personalize them to your own style.

But you can no longer say that you don’t have a prospecting process in place.