How to Get Your Calls Returned
How to get your calls returned
I could have called this blog entry ‘What’s in a Name’! Having a name like ‘Chapel Hill & Associates’ sounds better than the ‘Acme Computer Company’ but I thought that calling this tip ‘How to Get Your Calls Returned – b2b Sales Tips’ worked better from an SEO point of view.
I generally dislike articles, blog post and webinars on ‘How to Get Your Calls Returned’ 90% of them talk utter rubbish. I’m referring specifically to leaving voice mail and messages with ‘gate keepers’ to “please ask Mr. CEO or Ms. CFO to return my call” – LOL!
Examples of how NOT to get your call returned;
1. Clearly state your value proposition
2. Mention a mutual connection
3. Put yourself in their shoes
Total ‘TOSH’!
Why?
Because most decision makers are inundated with sales people trying to sell them all sorts of stuff, they don’t want to buy. So, no matter how compelling what you sell, sounds to you, your ‘suspect’ hears the same stuff every week, from some other sales person.
Example 1: Clearly state your value proposition; if this really worked all you’d have to say is “We guarantee a 200% return on investment” and every call will be turned but they never are – Why – Because they’ve heard it all before and they don’t believe it. So anyone suggesting that this really works, in a cold calling situation hasn’t made a cold call in the last twenty years!
Example 2: Mention a mutual connection: Great, if you have one but if you’ve 200 calls to make and unless your name is Bill Gates (albeit you’re not prepared to change your name by deed pole) forget it!
Example 3: Put yourself in their shoes; picture this scene “pretend you’re sitting at home about to sit down for tea and someone rings you, trying to sell you life insurance” Need I say more! If you were to actually put yourself in their shoes, hearing a badly delivered sales call, you wouldn’t make the call.
How to Get Your Calls Returned?
So how do you ‘Get Your Calls Returned’ – By applying the following (if possible);
- Don’t call yourself the ABC Computer Company or XYZ Cleaning Services, instead use a name which sounds like you’re not a cold caller – Truth, imagination and creativity required!
- Leave a mobile number not a landline
- Remember you have to get past the ‘Gate Keeper’ so make it sound as if you’re not saying the same thing twenty times a day, so sound spontaneous when you’re asking someone to call you back e.g.
- “Can you ask Joe to give us a call back please, ah (slight pause) I’ll give you (slight pause) my mobile number, in case I’m out and about myself” If they ask what’s it in connection with say “It’s not urgent, just whenever they get a chance”
Remember never, ever lie and if you’re asked a direct question and asked again to qualify it, always give a straight answer, even if you get ‘blown out of the water’. Remember you have to ‘eat tomorrow, as well as today’ and you might need to ring that company again next month, so don’t ‘dirty your bib’.
So now you now how to get your calls returned – Happy Hunting to you ALL!
