“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein
Cold calling is far from dead but there’s several other tactics which can be key to your success. It’s important to keep things fresh and prevent your selling technique from getting weathered and stale. Here are five tactics to try if you’re not already doing them:
1. Email outside of business hours
With the technology we have today it’s far easier to check your inbox when you are on the move. This is the same for your prospects so why should you be limited to emailing during business hours? Try sending emails at night and you may be shocked by the results.
2. Events
Attending events can generate a lot more pipeline than you normally would in a day. Try to line up prospects and meetings for the event to make sure it’s as fruitful as possible. Also do your best to network, collect contact details and follow up with prospects after the event.
3. InMail
We find LinkedIn InMail very effective. Senior prospects get bombarded with emails, but they may be more obliged to respond if they like one of your posts on LinkedIn. Try connecting with your prospect and following up the connection with an InMail.
4. Email Newsletter
A newsletter is a good way of reaching out to your full contact base and keeping things warm. It can be very beneficial when you follow up with a call and your newsletter is fresh on your prospects mind. Also, most systems these days give you visibility of opens and clicks, this means you can prioritise the warmer prospects and strike while the iron is hot.
5. Call before or after business hours
You might think this is the same as point one but there’s different logic to it. The hardest part, about speaking with prospects, is getting past gatekeepers. A lot of the time they work core business hours so it can be very effective to call outside the usual nine to five. Also, you’ll find that senior prospects start earlier and finish later so you might find they have more time for you once the majority of their colleagues aren’t around and requiring their attention.
