Phone and e-mail don’t work any more: here’s a sales channel that does
Phone and e-mail don’t work any more
If you want to get hold of new prospects by cold calling, you have a hard task on your hands. It takes an average of 8.4 calls to actually get hold of a prospect (source: IKO). Then you have 20 seconds to raise the prospect’s interest or all your effort has been wasted.
It’s the same with e-mail. The average businessperson receives over 120 e-mails a day (source: Radicati). How do you stand out against all the competition? In many cases your e-mail will never even be opened.
So how does a sales person stand out?
Woo your prospects by using direct mail: it really does get results
Try using direct mail. With the right campaign, buyers actually contact you! Sales people who use direct mail typically find it easier to build relationships with prospects. They are often in control of a powerful sales pipeline. They achieve the results they need.
Sales people who rely on phone and e-mail are destined to be doing more and more work. But they will see declining results from their activity.
How do you achieve the best results from direct mail?
It is still important to have a very powerful message on your mailer. I recommend using the TPD Principle to craft your message. This ensures that you will create a customer-focussed message.
However, a good message is not enough on its own. I also recommend offering people a resource that they must ask for. You may have a great case study on how you helped a company similar to the prospect improve their business results. Or you may have some best practice documents for design, mail or multi-touch campaigns. Whatever you choose, make sure it is useful to your market.
Some prospects will come straight back to you because they want the resource. Many more will take a call because they have seen your mail piece.
“Here’s how to achieve the best results from direct mail” https://t.co/N2hoUCuMec
— Matthew Parker (@PrintChampion) June 5, 2017
Here’s a case study that shows how powerful this channel can be
One printing company that I have worked with has achieved impressive results with their direct mail campaign. They are managing effective follow up calls with over 20% of prospects.
It isn’t just their calling that is going well. Since they started their last campaign they have quickly won three new clients. They believe they will convert around 10% of their prospects.
They achieved these results by sending a series of direct pieces to a small number of carefully targeted prospects. The fact that there was more than one piece of mail helped improve the results. So did the fact that they had targeted their prospects very carefully.
Take action now
- Select 20 prospects you would like to convert. Ideally they will all be in the same market sector.
- Create a sales letter with a resource that will be useful to them.
- Get this in the post quickly!
You will almost certainly find that you achieve much better results than if you relied on phone and e-mail for new business.
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