The Ultimate Sales Machine - Chet Holmes [127]
As you saw in the first section of the worksheet, this salesperson only got four appointments, but he wasn’t going to just give up on every one who said no or whom he couldn’t reach. The next section of the work-sheet tracks his follow-up activities.
For every single call he made there should have been a follow-up action. So, for example, we designed a fax to send when someone hung up on him. Remember that breaking through the clutter, even to get hung up on, now gives you a tiny filament of contact. If you immediately fax a note, you’ve strengthened the filament. So a fax should go off immediately that says: “You just hung up on me, but I don’t think you understood the significance of my call or you would not have done so. Consider this: [pitch again what they’ll learn from the “orientation”]. The second largest expense in your company is the cost of employee benefits. I teach nine different ways to reduce those costs, something I’m sure you would find quite valuable. I will contact you again to give you another opportunity to gain this valuable information.”
Have you ever received a note like that when you hung up on someone? It’s things like this that make a salesperson stand out in the crowd. And if you keep contacting the people who hung up on you, you will eventually win their respect. After all, you can’t possibly respect someone who goes away after the first rejection.
Why a Fax and Not an Email?
Email is too easy to delete. A fax has to be touched and looked at to decide if you want to throw it away. If the fax is short, they’ll read it. So keep those faxes short and powerful.
There was also a fax for anyone who asked him to call them back. It basically said:
Dear Kathy,
As you requested when we spoke on the phone today, I will call you back on Friday at 3 PM. At that time we will discuss five important ways you can save money on your insurance while still offering your employees the best in healthcare coverage.
Sincerely,
Tim
Remember that the hardest part of sales is getting their attention in the first place, so once you have it, you need to follow up so well they don’t have a chance to forget you. Make sure you include follow-up in your tracking efforts.
Note the other follow-up categories on the worksheet:
Fax John Smith: This means to fax an endorsement letter from John Smith. This endorsement letter says how great your information is that you want to present.
Fax delegated: You got the CEO on the phone and he bunted you to the CFO or HR executive. Send a note saying: “Great speaking to you about the five ways to save money on your company’s largest expense, employee benefits. You said you wanted me to talk to Kimberly Bird, so I will contact her immediately.”
Why would you send a letter like this? If you did an even halfway decent job of selling your offer, the CEO will now pass your note on to Kimberly and he may even say, “Kimberly, this sounded interesting.” Now you know that Kimberly is going to pay attention when you call.
Fax promotion: This is your standard promotional piece that sells the heck out of the education you want to offer this executive.
Fax confirmation of orientation: How many times have you set a meeting only to have the prospect cool off and cancel or not show? The way to make sure that this doesn’t happen is a complete “warm-up program” to keep that executive interested in the meeting. So first, fax a confirmation that is full of sizzle about how great the meeting’s information is going to be. Then, a day later, fax (or email at this point) an endorsement letter from someone else who saw the information you’re going to show them. As mentioned, the fill-in-the-blank “Worksheet for our meeting” document is a great piece to send. Executives look at the teaser and, if you’ve done a great job, they’ll want to know what they’re going