Smart Words: No one wants to talk to a salesperson until they are ready to buy or have questions they want answered. Don’t take it personally. – Dale

Smart Tactics: If you are having trouble getting leads to answer the phone or reply to your text message, your email, or even your DM…you’re not alone.

We all know that the answer rate on phone calls has gotten steadily lower over the last 10 years. There are more spammers, more call centers, more robo dialers, etc. Some studies even say that 87% of Americans don’t answer the phone when an unknown number is calling.

Because of that, your ability to get a prospect to reply to your text, email, or even DM is more critically important than it ever was before. It can mean the difference between converting a lead versus losing it to your competitor.

To get these prospects to respond to you takes creativity, repetition, and some thoughtfulness on your part.  Think about it this way, no consumer wants to interact with a salesperson when they aren’t ready to buy something or don’t have burning questions they need answered (and that would only be the case if they can’t somehow find the answer on the internet).

If the lead doesn’t answer the phone, to get them to respond to you, you’ll need to humanize yourself. You have to show that you are a real person, not just a one-dimensional salesperson. You also have to show that you aren’t going away, and that you don’t give up easily. My secret sauce is to pleasantly and persistently use the technique of guilt, humor, or both. If you turn those up incrementally as the messages continue on, it works REALLY well.

Just last week, I was following up with a prospect that I had called 3 times, emailed 5 times, and texted 6 times. They had not responded to anything…finally I just simply texted “Are we still friends?”, and BOOM…the lead responded. In fact, they replied with an APOLOGY and explained they had just been busy, but that they decided to move forward with us over a competitor.

Stop worrying about losing a lead you don’t really have. If they don’t reply, they are basically saying “no”. You can’t screw up “no”…so keep going!

Smart Offer: Want to learn our UNGHOSTED methodology for getting your leads to reply? Our 12 Week Bootcamp includes that and more. If you know you need help with your messaging, your sales scripting, and your overall lead conversion game…grab a time on my schedule here to discuss whether our bootcamp is right for you.

Always get smarter,

-Dale

P.S. If you didn’t read last week’s email about the failure of not practicing objections…check it out here.