 Ray Barry |
What is the best way to communicate with your clients and prospects?
In the ’80s, it was easy to figure out how to communicate with prospects and clients. You either called them on the phone (landline) or you “snail” mailed them. In the ’90s in addition to those methods we had the option of going high-tech, faxing a value message to our prospects and clients. Fast forward to today, when we have an ever-increasing number of ways to communicate with clients and prospects.
We all have our own preferred ways of communicating. For instance, I may be a little “old-school,” but I like to communicate on the phone. I like the fact that I can hear my conversation partner’s tone of voice and that nothing is lost in translation. On the other hand, many people I know would much rather communicate via email than by phone. It’s a personal preference.
A common mistake sales professionals make is that they try to communicate with their prospects using their own preferred methods of communication, not their prospects’ preferred methods. If you are having a hard time getting signs of life from some prospects, ask yourself if you are using their preferred methods of communication.
Our job as sales professionals is to find out how each of our prospects and clients likes to communicate and then use that method.
Consider the many ways we have of communicating our companies’ messages today:
• E-mail, of which your contacts likely receive hundreds of per day;
• Branded e-mails, which are more creative e-mails that stand apart from the other messages in their inboxes (Try www.aceofsales.com by e-mailing me for a free trial promo code.);
• Phone call to the office line;
• Phone call to the mobile (Get their permission first!);
• Text (OMG! More people I meet would rather communicate this way!);
• Facebook;
• LinkedIn; and
• Twitter, where you should “Tweet” a prospect well.
With all of the various methods available to connect with a potential business partner, remember that the most effective way remains face-to-face, and it always will be. Therefore, you should always try to schedule a face-to-face meeting with your clients and prospects to present your solutions for their operations.
If you adjust your approach to how your clients and prospects like to communicate, you may find yourself across the table from them sooner and be able to shred your competition!
Ray Barry is vice president of Total Product Destruction and president of Total Training Services, which operates The Shred School in Spartanburg, S.C. He has trained more than 220 companies in the document destruction industry to grow their businesses. Previously, he was part of a shredding company that was named twice in Inc. magazine as one of the fastest growing privately held companies in America. Barry can be contacted at raybarry@totaltrainingservices.com or at 864-699-8417.
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