Failing to Consistently Communicate With Your Prospects is The Most Costly Marketing Mistake

Most traditional marketing methods are not very effective. Let’s take traditional telemarketing as an example.  You call your prospect list.  You are lucky if you reach even 15% of the decision makers and you book an appointment with a small percentage of that group.  And there you are on one side of that gaping marketing chasm with your little group of prospects.  On the other side of the chasm are the majority of your prospects that you have not even started to communicate with. If you don’t communicate with them, they are going to remain on the other side of that chasm forever and you will never do any business with them.

Are you Giving Up On Your Prospects Too Soon?

One of the biggest mistakes we make in our marketing, in fact
probably THE biggest mistake, is to abandon our prospects too
early in the marketing process. We get frustrated and give up on
them. Then we move on to another group of prospects until we
get frustrated with them. Meanwhile the group of prospects we
abandoned is left hanging just when we were getting them
warmed up to us.

Continue To Reach Out to Your Prospects on A Consistent
Basis and They Will Cross Over the Bridge

E-Telemarketing is a dramatically different approach to marketing
because it combines lead nurturing emails with telemarketing to
build on successive contacts with your prospects. It is not a one call
and out strategy which just does not work any more.

You communicate your message to your prospects consistently by
email and then when you have identified which prospects have warmed
up to you based on the number of times they have opened your emails,
you call them. It stands to reason that you will have a lot more success
calling prospects who have put up their hand and indicated their interest.

Attend a Professional Prospecting Systems Webinar to see an example of how to communicate consistently with your sales prospects. We conduct 4 session per week

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From the Desk of Joe Prospect

“The world is full of fancy claims and puffed up promises.  Are you willing to stand behind yours?”

If you are able to give me a solid guarantee that you are prepared to stand behind—do it. Give me the strongest possible guarantee you can. If I don’t see

some kind of guarantee in your offer, I am going to wonder why you aren’t willing to guarantee your product or service.

Remember, I am a big scaredy cat. I am afraid of making a  mistake every time I make a buying decision so if you can help me out by assuming some or all of the risk, that will go a long way towards getting me to trust you and wanting to buy from you.

The best guarantee to offer me is of course, a full no questions asked money back guarantee if I am not completely satisfied. But, if your product does not lend itself to being shipped back once purchased or your service is delivered by your employees and not with your own time, then understandably you won’t be able to give me a full money back guarantee or you might lose your shirt in the process.

Make sure your guarantee is not too complicated.  All of us prospects have had plenty of experience with guarantees that come with complicated conditions.

And we are smart enough to know that a guarantee is only as good  as the person standing behind it. Just because you offer a nice sounding guarantee doesn’t automatically make me believe you will honor it.

_____________________________________________

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Register for one of our Question & Answer sessions held every
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We take you
inside an E-Telemarketing campaign and show you how we
get a steady supply of appointments for our clients whether they
are Fortune 20 companies or one person operations.

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From the Desk of Joe Prospect

If you say you perform better than your competitors, attach
some numbers to that claim please. How long do you retain

your average client relative to your industry? Do you calculate
ROI on your service? What percentage of your business comes
from referrals? How fast is your company growing?

My biggest fear is making another in the long series of bad
purchasing decisions I have made over the course of
my life. Every piece of evidence you show me helps ease my
fear of making a mistake.

What do you do when you don’t have a long enough track
record to have accumulated proof that you will perform up
to the level you are promising?

Did any of the key players in your company have a track record
before they came to your company?  Do you have a successful
engagement with another company in my industry to talk about?

Put yourself in my position.  Would you turn over your cash
without any proof?  And it is not just the amount of money I am
going to have to lay out for your product or service that makes
me nervous.  At the heart of it, I don’t want to feel stupid. I don’t
want to make a bad decision.

Joe Prospect

Coming up nest: Trust factor #4: Your guarantee

Register for one of our free webinars and Question & Answer
sessions held every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
We take you inside an E-Telemarketing campaign and show you
how our unique marketing system will build trust with your prospects
and get you a huge increase in appointments whether you are
a Fortune 20 company or a one person operation.

Call 1 866 445-4369 to register or click on the link below

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From the Desk of Joe Prospect

Trust in sales is critical and it is made up of several things.
Previously I mentioned “consistency” as being one of the key
components you need in your marketing to get your prospects

to trust you.   You have to be in front of your prospects on a
regular basis so they come to trust that you are a stable
long-term company.  And your marketing message has to be
consistent so you don’t confuse your prospects about what you
stand for.

Here is another key piece of the trust formula:

There is a trust spillover effect. The closer your relationship with someone or some organization that I trust, the more likely I am to trust you. Do you have a connection to a group or  association that I am part of or trust?

Do you work for other companies in the same business as I am in?

Have you won any awards or given any talks to your industry peers?

Do you have testimonials from satisfied clients?   Better yet, do you have testimonials from any prominent companies?

Don’t have any of the above?

Then you better get some!

Joe Prospect

Coming up next: Trust factor #3: Proof

Register for one of our free webinars and Question & Answer
sessions held every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
We take you inside an E-Telemarketing campaign and show you
how our unique marketing system will build trust with your prospects
and get you a huge increase in appointments whether you are

Call 1 866 445-4369 to register or click on the link

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From the Desk of Joe Prospect

"In an uncertain world, I need something I can count on."

How do you get your prospects to trust you?

This really is the million dollar question.  When it comes
right down to it, selling is all about getting your prospects
to trust you.

So what makes me trust you more than the next guy who is selling your product or service?

Let’s assume that I have not met you personally and you have
to get me to trust you enough to want to talk to you. The only
way you can do that is through your marketing communication.

Here are the things that make me trust you.

1. Consistency

The most important factor in your marketing that will get me  to trust you is consistency. You have to continue to mail,  email and/or call me on a consistent basis. When you put  your message in front of me consistently I come to view you as believable and stable.

If you believe in your message strongly enough to keep repeating it over and over again, I will come to believe it too. And I will see your company as being around for the long haul in a world where everything comes and goes in a flash.

And it is not enough to just keep sending me some kind of  marketing communication. The main message you are communicating to me must be consistent too. You have to stake out your position as being different from your competitors and whatever marketing message you choose—-you have to stick to it. If you are going to hang your hat on better service then tell me over and over and over again that you have better service. If you believe that you have better technology than your competitors then tell me that over and over again.

Your marketing doesn’t have to be flashy—just plant your flag and  stick to it! In a fleeting world of ever changing values, broken promises and flavor of the month attitudes, I just want to know that somebody truly stands for something and doesn’t waffle around all over the place.

Putting  the same main marketing message in front of me  consistently is critically important, but you also need to think about what I need to see in your message so that I will come to trust you.

Joe Prospect

Next Joe Prospect blog post: Trust factor #2:  Who you know

Register for a Q&A session to learn  how PPS got a 500%

increase in appointments for a Fortune 20 client:

Register for one of our free webinars and Question & Answer  sessions held every Monday,Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We take you inside an E-Telemarketing campaign and show you how our unique marketing system will build trust with your prospects and get you a huge increase in appointments whether you are a Fortune 20 company or a one person operation.

500% INCREASE IN APPOINTMENTS: Free Webinar & Q&A

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From the Desk of Joe Prospect

Previously I told you that if you want to get an appointment with me you have to tell me what you are going to do for me without telling me how you are going to do it. And then you tell me you only need 5 minutes of my time for the appointment so I feel the process is going to be relatively painless.

"I hope you are listening to me."

What happens after you ask for the appointment?

Well of course I am going to come up with objections.  I wouldn’t be a self-respecting prospect if I didn’t object.

But here’s the thing. I am not very creative or original when it comes to objections. I only have three.  No time, no money and happy with current vendor.

Here’s how to respond to my typical objections.

No time:

Joe, I understand you are very busy and that is why I am specifically only asking for 5 minutes of your time.

No money:

Joe, I understand that you are not in a position right now to purchase anything. I just want to make sure you have the information and I am only asking for 5 minutes.

Happy with current vendor:

Joe, I understand completely that you may not wish to switch vendors  at this time.  I just want to make sure you have the information and I am only asking for 5 minutes.

I am a pretty simple guy.  You just have to understand me and respond to  overcome my appointment objections.

Joe Prospect

Register for a Q&A session to learn  how PPS got a 500%

increase in appointments for a Fortune 20 client:

Register for one of our Question & Answer sessions held every
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We take you
inside an E-Telemarketing campaign and show you how we
get a steady supply of appointments for our clients whether they
are Fortune 20 companies or one person operations.

Call 1 866 445-4369 to register or click on the link below

→Reserve your seat at one of our webinars

From the Desk of Joe Prospect

Here is the picture that comes into my head when I receive a call from  a salesperson trying to book an appointment with me. I see myself sitting at my desk going through the obligatory ‘rapport building.  Then I see myself suffering through a sales pitch that goes on a lot longer than it is supposed to. Then I know I will have to fend off ‘The Close’ and pry the sales rep out  of the chair and push them out the door.

I think you would agree that’s not a very attractive picture if you were the  prospect. Is it any wonder that it is so difficult to book an appointment with me?  I have to be in desperate need of your product or service or you must have something that is really earth shattering for me to risk the possibility of another painful sales presentation.

Here is an approach that worked on me.

“Mr. Prospect, I just want you to have the information.”

“Could I give you the information?”

“Great, I will drop it off to you and I just need 5 minutes to introduce
myself so you can put a face to our company.   Could you give me just 5 minutes?”

That sounded a lot less painful than a full scale, ‘guns a blazing’ sales presentation. It is all in the way you present it.

Says you, “What good is 5 minutes?” Well if you get me to agree to 5 minutes  and you handle that 5 minutes well, then the chances are pretty good that you will catch my interest enough that I forget about the fact that the appointment was only supposed to be 5 minutes.  5 minutes is better than 0 minutes.  But be prepared to give me the best 5 minute sales presentation I ever had.  No dumb personal patter please because you and I both know that you are not my friend–you are trying to sell me something.

“But I want only well qualified appointments where the prospect is highly motivated to listen to my presentation,” you say.

And in my dreams, I want all my clients to guarantee to pay me on time and never  complain before I accept them as a client.”  But my dream isn’t going to happen any more than yours is.

More appointment setting secrets in the coming weeks.

Joe Prospect


Register for a Q&A session to learn  how PPS got a 500%
increase in appointments for a Fortune 20 client:

Register for one of our Question & Answer sessions held every
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We take you
inside an E-Telemarketing campaign and show you how we
get a steady supply of appointments for our clients whether they
are Fortune 20 companies or one person operations.

Call 1 866 445-4369 to register or click on the link below

Reserve your seat at a PPS Q&A Webinar

From the desk of Joe Prospect

I get hundreds of calls every year from salespeople trying to book an appointment with me.  You have probably been one of them.

It may surprise you to learn this, but some salespeople do actually succeed in booking an appointment with me.

Appointment Setting Secret #1:  Sell me the sizzle not the steak!

Tell me what you are going to do for me in terms of the end result but don’t tell me exactly how you are going to do it.  If I ask you questions about how you are going to do it, don’t answer them, just give me more sizzle. I do not want to waste my time so the reason I ask you questions is so I can avoid the need for the appointment. I am trying to assure myself that I don’t actually need your product or I already have it or something similar.  One of the greatest delusions of salespeople trying  to book an appointment with me is thinking that the more questions they answer or the more they tell me about their product, the more interested I will become.  The more questions you answer the more I am able to satisfy myself that I don’t need the appointment. By teasing me with a great result and not telling me exactly how you are going to achieve that result, you are forcing me to either accept the appointment or live with the nagging doubt that maybe I should have. More of my appointment setting secrets will be be revealed in the coming weeks.

Joe Prospect Register for a Q&A session to learn  how PPS got a 500% increase in appointments for a Fortune 20 client:

Register for one of our Question & Answer sessions held every  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We take you inside an E-Telemarketing campaign and show you how we get a steady supply of appointments for our clients whether they are Fortune 20 companies or one person operations.

Call 1 866 445-4369 to register or click on the link below

→ Reserve Your Seat at the Next PPS Webinar & Q&A Session

From the Desk of Joe Prospect

The Battle for Your Prospect’s Mind

A couple of brilliant advertising guys named Al Ries and Jack Trout wrote a book in 1981 called Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. They explained that all products and services end up occupying a  position in our minds. We put a label on everything. Smart companies  position themselves exactly how they want to be thought of by their  prospects.

Whatever your business is, if you do not create a unique position in
my mind, I will think of you as an accountant, or insurance broker, or

printer or whatever profession you are part of. I will see you as being the same as everyone else in your group. Whatever associations I have already formed about your group, I will attach automatically to you. If you  are an accountant and I think of accountants as expensive, confusing or  interchangeable, that is who you will be to me. Unless you create a unique  position for your company in my mind. If you are a janitorial company and I  think that all janitorial companies do a great job in the beginning then start  to get sloppy, that is what I will think of you. Unless you do something in  your marketing to establish yourself as being different from your competitors.

You have to create the position you want for your company or your prospects will do it for you and you may not like where they choose to slot you. You don’t want to be stuck with the impressions formed on your prospects by the rest of your herd I have fixed ideas about everything. If you were to ask me about any type  of business, I will tell you what I think of them. You must be aware of  the impressions, good and bad, already made on me by your competitors –the other members of your herd. And then you have to rise above them and  set your company apart from your crowd.

Choosing your position is tricky because you have to decide which  segment of your prospects you are creating the position for and how you are going to establish your position in your marketing.

Your position must be short and simple. If it is confusing or complicated  I will not work to get it, I will just forget it.

Another critical thing about a position is that you have to stick to the  same position or you will lose all the marketing points you have scored with your original position.  If you vary your positioning in your marketing messages, you will leave me thinking “Who are these guys anyway?”   Stray from your position and perish.

In order to gain the position you want in the minds of your prospects, you will need to plant that message firmly in all of your marketing communication. Then repeat it, over and over and over again. Never move away from your core position. You can vary the content of your marketing messages but your main positioning must remain absolutely consistent.

Think very carefully about what you want your position to be and how  you are going to express it in your marketing.

Don’t let me just lump you in with the rest of your herd!

Register for a Professional Prospecting Systems Webinar to learn more

Top 3 Excuses to Stop Marketing

1. The Economy is Down

OK so when was the last time the economy was up? Can you even remember when the economy was up? By the way, it is a big myth that advertising in a down economy doesn’t pay.

McGraw-Hill did a research study during the U.S. economic recession in 1981-82, analyzing 600 companies from 16 different SIC industries. The study showed that companies that continued to market, not only continued to grow during the recession, but moved past their competitors and grew 256% two years into the economic recovery.

Don’t forget that every other business out there is just as nervous as you are about spending marketing dollars in a down economy. That means that anyone who does market will have the attention of us prospects virtually to themselves. And remember that the companies I buy from are the ones who market to me consistently over time. Just because I don’t buy from you today doesn’t mean that your marketing is not doing its job, even in a down economy.

2. No Budget

If you don’t have any budget now, and you aren’t marketing, where do you think the new clients are going to come from that will build up your budget again?  Do you think I am going to get up from behind my desk and come to you?

In the words of Henry Ford, “A man who stops advertising to save money, is like a man who stops the clock to save time.”

3. Nothing Works

So you have have tried a lot of different marketing programs that didn’t work and you believe that nothing is going to work.  You have been disappointed in the past so you are just going to take your ball and go home.  You are not going to participate in the game any more.  Does that make sense?

There are two things you need to recognize:

• Your marketing worked better than you thought - Marketing programs you tried in the past probably worked a lot better than you thought.  Just because you didn’t always end up with new clients right away doesn’t mean that your marketing did not have any impact on your prospects.  We saw it. We thought about it.  We filed it away in our brains for future reference.  The only piece that was missing is you probably didn’t continue to market to us consistently over time.  ; So you didn’t get to reap the benefits of your earlier marketing efforts.

• Keep marketing for the long haul and it will always work - It is true that most of the marketing that crosses my desk and most of the phone calls I receive are deadly boring and couldn’t sell water to a dying man in the desert, but there are always some emails, some ads and some phone calls that get my attention. So don’t give up marketing. Look for something a little more creative—something with a proven track record.

Register for a Q&A session to learn more about
the PPS Laser Focused b2b Prospecting System:

Register for one of our Question & Answer sessions which are held every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We will take you right inside an E-Telemarketing campaign and show you how we combine telemarketing with email lead nurturing to get significantly better results on your campaign. This works in a down economy, an up economy—any kind of economy!

Call 1 866 445-4369 to register or click on the link below.

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