In today’s climate, having the opportunity to get in front of someone is vitally important, but the way we do it is changing. What we are learning from the COVID-19 crisis is that our environment, both business and personal, is shifting to a work-from-home model. From our sales to operations teams, we will need to learn how to operate differently in order to keep up with a changing world. As business owners, we need to take a deeper look at marketing, and to include the following in our messaging: customer convenience, virtual options, safety, and technology.
Implementing a call campaign can be an effective and low-cost solution for increasing your opportunities and to connect with your clients on a personal level. Like sales, call campaigns are a numbers game. In order to effectively market through phone calls to your clients, you’ll need to coach your team on some of the basics such as knowing the numbers that allow them to achieve their goals, honing your message to hit a bullseye when you’re talking to your target client, the importance of timing and follow up during your campaign, and the types of calls to make.
Call campaigns follow a simple rule: it takes 8-12 touches to buy. That means, for you to get 1 customer to schedule an appointment through a call campaign, you will need to make a minimum of 10 calls. Some of you may think, “Wow! That’s a lot of time with little return!” But let’s break down those numbers. Out of the 10 people you call (which will take 1 hour), 3 won’t be interested, 5 you will leave a voicemail for (and will be appreciative for the call in turn coming back to you in the future), 2 will need service calls (yay! A sale!), and 1 will be ready for their next project with you. With an industry standard of $2,500 per average sale, that means you spent 1 hour making calls, 1 hour making the sale, 1 hour for order write up and follow up = $250 for 3 hours worked if you paid yourself 10% and you provided a service to them that was priceless.
It’s not all numbers when you make calls, however. You have to have a “hook” or a purpose for calling them to bring value. When you start your call, know why you are calling them. After all, most of these calls are considered warm, not cold, calls. I recommend you starting with past clients, before you start on new prospects. Begin with “the reason I’m calling is…” or “You’ve been on my mind, I had to reach out because I just came across…” and give them a bite size of information that will grab their attention so you can break the ice and allow them to focus on you and the conversation. Recommended reasons for calling are: new products or promotions they may be interested in, notification that a service or warranty is about to expire, following up on a recent appointment, asking for a referral or review, sharing a referral connection (another trade). Whatever you try, just choose one reason why you are calling so you don’t overwhelm them with information, and because you value their time, you are not going waste it with an unplanned pitch.
Since time is important to everyone and especially thriving business owners, have a strategy and plan before you call. Calls should last no longer than 5 minutes; remember, you have 1 hour to call 10 people. They are ideal to make during windshield time (safely), early mornings 8-10am, lunch time 12-2pm, or later afternoons when people are going home for the day between 4-6pm to maximize your results. Also, have an email template ready to go to send immediately following your call attempt, to say you were trying to reach out. Those that don’t prefer phone conversation, will be happy to respond through email.
Finding time to do anything is always a million dollar question. When you boil it down to a simple fact, it’s the simple things we hesitate to do, that cause the biggest impact. So before the “I don’t want to” child-like side comes out, pick up the phone and start calling. Time is running out! The result will be more money in your pocket.
Your Ringleader,
Jessica Harling