Are Your Customers Leading You On?

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Are Your Customers Leading You On?

Written by Liz Wendling

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9 Reasons Why Prospects Don't Respond

Some cold calling experts suggest that you leave a message when you receive a prospect's voice mail. Unfortunately, many sales people feel that this is an exercise in futility because most of the time their prospect does not call them back. If that sounds familiar, here are nine reasons why your prospects don't return your calls.

1. Your voice mail message is too long. The majority of voice mail messages decision makers receive are far too long. Decision makers are too busy to listen to a long, rambling, and disjointed message. That means you need to get your message across in 30 seconds or less. In fact, I suggest that you try and limit your message to a maximum of 20 seconds.

2. Your voice mail message is too cryptic. On the reverse side, a short, terse voice mail with no details will not likely motivate someone to call you back. You MUST give a prospect enough information to capture their attention and say, "I need to talk to this person."

3. You leave the same voice mail message. It is important to keep trying to connect with your prospect which often means leaving multiple voice mail messages. However, if you want someone to call you back you need to leave a different message every time you call. Plus it must be compelling (see the next point).

4. Your message is not compelling. Most voice mail messages do little to motivate someone to pick up the telephone and return your call. A compelling message MUST demonstrate that you understand your prospect's industry, situation or circumstances and portray that you might have a solution.

5. You have not developed a relationship with them. In today's competitive landscape, people want to do business with suppliers and vendors they know and trust. A call from a salesperson in an unknown company is not likely going to be returned.

6. You sound like every other sales person. The average executive receives dozens of sales calls a day so if you want a busy executive to call you back, your message MUST stand out from every other call he or she receives. I once sat in a Vice President's office as he listened to his voice mail messages on speakerphone and was fascinated how similar every sales call sounded. I was equally intrigued by how quickly this person deleted the messages, too. His finger hovered over the delete button, and in most cases, he erased the message in the first few seconds.

7. You have not done any research. When you leave a voice mail message that clearly demonstrates that you know nothing about your prospect's business, there is no chance they will return your call. For example, "Mr Prospect, we provide solutions that help call centers improve their productivity and performance and generate a higher ROI on their out-bound calls." If this message was left for a small business owner (and it was!) it is highly unlikely the salesperson would get a return call (and they didn't!). At the very least, do some basic research and make sure that your message reflects that homework. It will improve your chances of a return call.

8. Your product or service does not interest them. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone needs your solution and when you call companies that are not the right fit for your product, service or offering, you are simply wasting your time and that of your prospects. Improve your results by more closely targeting your prospecting calls to companies who can actually use your product or service (see point 7 above).

9. Your prospect is simply too busy. Most sales people fail to realize exactly how busy executives are. A client of mine once said, "I'm so busy right now I can't possibly take on any more projects." This sheer volume of work often prevents decision makers from returning your call because they don't have the time to talk to you and because they can't fit another project into their schedule. Unless your product, service or offering is something they desperately need right now, they probably won't return your call.

On a recent trip back from New Jersey, I had a sales conversation with two men in the airport, and one of them boldly stated that sales are no different than dating. His remark reminded of a movie from a few years back titled "He's Just Not That Into You," and I began to see the parallels between dating and sales.

Sales, like dating, takes insight, skill and discretion to know when your customer is truly interested. Your potential customers may play some of the same games that are present in the dating world. Will they agree to a second meeting? Will they return your calls? Will they tell you the truth? Will they be honest about their selection process? Will they agree to take the next step? Will they play hard to get? Will they lead you on? Will they work with you until someone better comes along?

Here's a few ways to tell if potential customers are "into" you or leading you on:

1.They're open to sharing information about themselves and their company. When potential customers are willing to answer questions about their needs, wants, pains and struggles, they're telling you that they have a problem and might need you to fix it. That is a really good sign they are interested in you. If they are unwilling to answer your questions openly and honestly, they may be playing hard to get or just not "into" you.

2. They're willing to engage in conversation and return your calls and emails. If they have respect for you, they will listen to what you have to say and trust that your information is worthy of hearing. When you are successful at this, your potential customers are showing signs they are interested in you. If they are avoiding you, not getting back to you, being vague or not telling you the truth, they are either not interested or leading you on. You might need to dump them.

3. They're willing to go to the next step, set up another appointment and continue the conversation. This is a very clear sign they are interested in you. If this important step is missed you will instantly go to the place that salespeople hate, "voicemail abyss" - the clearest sign of all that they are not interested in you. If they do happen to pick up the phone, you will hear, "I will give you a call sometime," "I am really busy can you get back to me back in a week" or "I am still interested, just not making a decision right now." They're either not interested or can't tell you the truth about what is really going on.

4. They're willing to ask and answer tough questions. If they are open to a dialogue that flushes out their real agenda, reasons for meeting and what their bottom line is, then they might be interested in you. If you ask tough questions that they're not ready or willing to answer and get irritated, they most likely are trying to hide their true intentions or using your for free information. Clearly they only want you for one thing and not interested in you.

5. They are excited to meet you. When you meet them in person, they shake your hand, smile and make eye contact. Body language is an important cue and if potential customers speak to you with their arms folded and answer you with short "yes" and "no" answers, they are just not interested in you. If you get a bad vibe, trust your intuition and politely end the meeting. When your potential customers ask you questions and keep the conversation going chances are they're interested in you and might be open to second meeting.

So, just like dating, your potential customers may lose interest and reject you. They may be shopping around to make your competitor jealous or they may simply change their mind. They may already be committed to someone else. They may already have an alternative solution but don't want you to go away just yet, because they're insecure, so they string you along.

Like dating, the reasons are endless and salespeople need to see the signs and walk away. Stop calling, stop emailing, stop begging for one more meeting and stop acting desperate. Dump them and move on.

When you are creating value, being honest, sharing information and showing respect but your potential customer is unwilling to reciprocate, it's not worth it to spend your time on a relationship that is going nowhere.

Remember it's not what you sell, it's how you sell.

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Liz Wendling
		About the author:
		A much sought after motivational speaker, owner of Insight Business Consultants, certified Color Code trainer and sales coach, Liz Wendling has been positively impacting individuals for over 12 years. Liz is a passionate sales coach! She is determined to teach women how to take the fear out of selling and show them how to step into the sales process with power and confidence to take their business to a higher level. .