Emails and Voice Mails that Get Your Prospect's Attention

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Emails and Voice Mails that Get Your Prospect's Attention

Written by Mike Brooks

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3 Tips to Reduce Cold Calling Anxiety

It’s common when cold calling without a script to feel anxiety and pressure even before you connect with someone. When the Prospect answers the phone you only have the opening sentence to grab their attention.

Lots of scripted jargon is not the way to go! So how do we make a successful call without causing the client to simply hang up? How do you make the conversation seem less ’salesy’ and more real? Simple - by changing your current mindset and attitude!

From the moment you think of calling to the moment they answer. Changing your way of thinking towards the cold call will get you a better response every time! You can learn to remove the pressure from the initial cold call if you follow these 3 tips.

Tips for Releasing the Pressure:

Change your attitude about the way you view the cold calls. Changing your attitude from a negative to a positive will create a positive reaction from the client. When you hold negative thoughts and a negative attitude the Prospect can sense that.
Research the company or prospect before you call them this will give a more open and conversational dialogue instead of a scripted one.
Determine if the need of the company is a priority to solve. Ask the prospective client “Where do they want to go from here?” - giving them the decision will create more of a relationship and a sense of trust. It shows the prospective client that you care about their opinions.

We all have our anxiety about the closing of the initial cold call. Though panic is the initial response, creating a quality dialogue between you and the prospective client during the call will help relieve this feeling in the end.

Remembering from the start, you are determining if they are a fit for you as much as you are a fit for them will take some of the anxiety away. Go Sell.

Last week I spoke at the first Los Angeles chapter meeting of the AA-ISP (American Association of Inside Sales Professionals), and it was great. What I especially liked about it was that it gave me and all those in attendance the chance to share current techniques and skills that are working in today's business environment. Networking in this way with other professionals who are struggling with and overcoming the same problems as you is how you come up with new and fresh ideas that not only work, but that make you better in the process.

How to Get Your Prospect's Attention
The topic I spoke on was how to leave voice mails that get returned, and after my talk we had a discussion on what was working for people. This voice mail discussion led to what was working for emails as well, and I think we all got some really valuable ideas on what gets the most responses.

Voicemail:

The most effective voice mail message was a short, somewhat vague one, but the person who shared it said she gets the most amount of call backs from it. It goes like this:

"Hi _________, I saw your profile on LinkedIn and I think it might make sense for us to talk - please give me a call back when you get this. My name is ______ _______ and my number is (your number)."

That's it! We all agreed that the reason this works so well is that it gets people's curiosity up. People wonder what it could be about and then call back. You would, wouldn't you?

Email:
The next is an email message that was shared and it had a great subject line and a good message that gets a smile. The person who shared this said that she uses it for prospects she's already sent her information too and for some reason they aren't responding to her calls. Here's what she does that almost always gets a response:

Subject line of her email is: "Should I stay or should I go?"

Great subject line from the title song by The Clash - you probably know it and are already singing the song in your head... And here's the body of the email:

"_________ I haven't heard back from you and that tells me one of three things:

1) You've already chosen another company for this and if that's the case, please let me know so can I stop bothering you.

2) You're still interested but haven't had the time to get back to me yet.

3) You've fallen and can't get up and in that case please let me know and I'll call 911 for you...

Please let me know which one it is because I'm starting to worry... Thanks in advance and I look forward to hearing back from you."

Are you smiling again? It's no wonder that people respond to this. Besides making someone smile, what I like about this is it gives prospects a way out. It lets them know that it's OK if they aren't going to move forward with you, and as I've written before, it's better to know in advance than to keep chasing and begging.

Also, in some cases people really are still interested and using this approach will get them to let you know that, too.

Incorporate these in your next voicemail or email and let me know how they work for you, too!

Interested in more great phone scripts? Click here for Mike Brooks' "The Complete Book of Phone Scripts."

Mike Brooks
		About the author:
		With over 20 years of inside sales closing experience, Mike Brooks has been billed nationwide as Mr. Inside Sales. Once a bottom 80% producer, Mike learned and perfected the skills of Top 20% producers and became the number one sales rep out of 5 Southern California branch offices. Author of the hot new book,The Real Secrets of the Top 20: How To Double Your Income Selling Over the Phone, Mike's proven techniques, strategies and skills are used successfully by companies in industries such as securities sales, high-tech sales, pharmaceuticals, equipment leasing and other business to business applications. Mike combines proven, current tactics and skills with personal experience to provide a motivational and practical presentation. .