Do your homework before contacting prospective clients
By Jacqui Sakowski
I answered my phone, “Jacqui Sakowski, good morning.” The caller responded, “Is Jacqui there?” “This is Jacqui.” I said. The caller replied, “Hello, this is Nate from ABC Electronics Company. How many PCs do you have there?” “None of your business,” said I, as Nate is a complete stranger to me.
Nate then explained that he works only with corporate accounts and when he knows how many PCs we have, he’ll be able to tell us if we qualify to have such an account with his company, and he asked me again. I asked him why I needed an account with his company, and he said I would be able to buy electronic equipment at better prices than with a standard account. I told him that I don’t need a corporate account with his company, thanked him and ended the call.
Nate made no progress in trying to gain business because he took no interest in me or my business. He simply asked for the information he needed to meet his own needs. He didn’t even tell me what types of products his company offers… he just told me the name, which I recognized as a vendor of electronic products.
The fact is that I am in the market for some new electronic devices, but I do not do business with people who call me looking for something for themselves. I do business with people who demonstrate a real interest in me and my business and who take the time to find out if there is a role for them to play in helping me accomplish my goals.
Prospecting for new business is the primary task of sales professionals. It is time consuming and often frustrating as we make call after call after call. With the increased use of voice mail to screen calls, being rejected by the few people who actually answer the phone is hard to handle. Increase the odds of at least being heard by making the call about the prospect rather than about yourself.
If Nate had done his homework before calling me maybe he could have crafted an opening statement that created some interest in me that would have kept me on the phone a little longer. If he’d learned something about my business he could have shared something that shows he has general knowledge about the kind of issues he can help me address. Perhaps he could have used an example of other clients he has that are similar to me, and the kind of issues he works on with those clients which could resonate with me.
If he’d said, “Good morning this is Nate from ABC Electronics Company. We work with several other members of Madison Area Business Consultants (MABC) to help them leverage technology to be effective when working at client sites. I would welcome the chance to set up a time to learn how Sakowski Consulting addresses that challenge.” He definitely would have had my attention.
From that one statement I would know that Nate was serious in his interest because he had learned enough about me to know that I’m a member of MABC. I would know that I had associates from whom I could obtain feedback about ABC Electronics’ services. And I would know that Nate knows that while in general the issue he raised was often a challenge for consultants he did not know specifically that it was a problem for me, because he expressed a desire to learn about how we handle the challenge.
When you make “cold calls” to complete strangers remember that your call is interrupting that person as they are doing something else. You want to be more than an interruption. By demonstrating that you have invested some effort before making the call, you will get a little further.
One of my earliest clients sells internet services to coffee shops. When they first opened their company Brian and Chris would call coffee shops and ask, “Can I talk to you about providing internet services to your customers?” Their business took off when they started asking, “If I could demonstrate how to attract regular customers who stay longer and spend almost double the money of your current customers, could you find half an hour to meet with me?” Because what the guys learned about the impact that internet services had on the coffee shops core business and talked about that! What do your prospects want to hear about from you, so that they will give you a little more time when you call? n
