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Set Up A Time Sensitive Database to Grow Your Sales Thomas Anthony — contributing author |
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If your prospect will need to purchase your service or product tomorrow and you call him today good things happen. The most important of which is his belief in your opinion of the importance of his issues (hard sentence, important point). You knew he would need you tomorrow and you called today. That's the company he wants to do business with! When I stop at the traffic light and the man approaches me saying “Hey buddy, wanna get her some flowers?”, I just close the window. I have absolutely no reason to talk with that man today and I really wish he would leave me alone. But……. when he came over to my car the day I was going to see my girlfriend and apologize…. well that’s another story! I quickly paid his $20.00 and said “thank you” with a truly genuine tone. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease”. Truer words have never been spoken and understanding how that phrase applies to your business is absolutely mandatory! Squeek at the right time and get even more grease! Your company may be the strongest, most professional, most experienced and most capable player in your market for a particular task, but if you are the only person that knows that information…. well… you get the idea. Every business needs to advertise to grow and establish a client base. Always remember your client base is where your consistent cash flow and your referrals come from. Whether it’s signs, uniforms, print, radio or Internet advertising, telemarketing or direct sales, you need to do something to fuel your business. Telemarketing is the subject of this article, so I’ll touch on it here. The brief overview of a telemarketing effort would be the understanding of who you are, what your immediate goals are and exactly who you should communicate that information to. As an example, if I were to be cold calling from a list of Facility Managers: “Good morning, my name is Thomas Anthony and I’m with Facility Support Services. We are commercial cleaning vendors and I’m interested in competing for the cleaning business with your company. Who would be the person I need to speak with?” I wouldn’t offer any other information, unless asked, until I connect with their decision maker. When I do connect with the decision maker I would repeat the above sentences again to him/her followed by: Are your cleaning requirements re-evaluated and bid annually or only as necessary? Their answer to that question gives you your action date. Forward them a little information about your company and add their information to your time sensitive prospect file. Their contract isn’t available for bid right now, so taking too much of their time now would be annoying and unprofessional (like the guy with the flowers). Set an approximate date with them for your follow up call (never more than 60-90 days), thank them for their time and send a follow up thank you letter/e-mail including brief company information. If your company has a strong client base, include it as footer to most of your correspondence. A time sensitive database of all the prospects in your area is an incredibly valuable tool. Your time is much better spent, and your closing ratio is substantially greater, when you are sharing information about your company’s abilities with a decision maker at the time their looking for it (again the flowers). Every contact you have should reside in this database and you should check and update it daily. Soon it will be directing you towards new business and new cash flow streams. Try to include every prospect with a short “he said-she said” in the database to refresh your memory as necessary. Always remember the rule of SW: SW: some will SW: some won’t SW: so what!... next! … and pick up the phone again. Good luck with your prospecting!
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