Paul Castain's Blog

6 Ways To Get More Call Backs

Posted November 20, 2013

Let’s face it, our prospects aren’t the easiest people to reach!

I know there are many of you who won’t leave a voice mail which I feel only reduces your chances of contact even further.

So what’s an aspiring sales rock star to do?

Well for starters you can try these 5 ideas!

1) Utilize a “V.I.T.O. letter” with a twist! Anthony Parinello in his book Selling To V.I.T.O. (Very Important Top Officer) suggests sending a letter to your prospect and mentioning an exact day and time you will be calling them. So here’ the Castain twist: Perhaps you could record a quick YouTube video addressing your prospect by name, with a quick statement of something relevant to them (based on your meticulous pre call research) and at the end of that video, mention a day and time you will be calling. I would keep the video at about 60 seconds. You can mark the video private so that only those who receive the link can view it.

This doesn’t exactly get you a call back as the title of today’s post suggests, but it does increase the probability of someone taking your call in the first place. How many videos like that do you think they received from other sales reps?

And speaking of people taking your call in the first place, let’s explore one more approach like that.

2) Look at WHEN you’re calling your prospect. Many times we set the alert in our CRM for the same time, over and over again. Are you changing it up? I’m sure you’ve tried calling before hours, after hours and at lunch time. Right? Or were you busy telling some sales trainer “That’s Sales 101”? You should also try calling on the “50’s and 55’s” as in 9:50 am or 1:55 pm. You might just catch your prospect stopping back at their desk at those times while they’re between meetings.

3) Leave A More Compelling Message. First, step back and listen to what you’re saying by taping your end of several calls. Would you return that person’s call? Do you sound confident? Is your message too long, too short? Is it riddled with “Ums” and “You knows”? How about the message itself? Do offer something from your pre call research and tie it in with how you might have some ideas that could increase, decrease, help, complement etc? Oh, and are you saying the same thing in every message? If you are, how is that encouraging a call back?

4) Use Your Prospect’s Preferred Communication Venue. I know what you’re thinking . . . “How the hell do I know if they’re more of a phone dude/dudette, email, snail mail, creative, social networking etc type?” Well, you don’t, but you never WILL find out if all you have is the phone and an email. There’s a whole world out there beyond phone calls. Why wouldn’t you utilize them? I know, because you feel some kind of bullsh*t peer pressure for considering anything other than the phone. Right slacker? 🙂 Hopefully you know how I feel about this. The cold call isn’t dead, it’s just really lonely and in need of some companionship from other types of “touches”

Doing so accomplishes 3 awesome things:

a) You become less predictable and more refreshing to your prospect.

b) You have a higher probability of a response because you might just tap into THEIR preferred method of contact for a change.

c) Quite selfishly . . . it helps change up your day and let’s you work the way sales people are wired to work (not on the same thing for 8 hours)

5) Fire The “Gatekeepers” and Make Them A Partner. Stop trying to run around them and outsmart them and try leveling with them. Demonstrate that you’ve done your homework and tell them you have some ideas that can help with or speak to (fill in something you discovered in your meticulous pre call planning) Then ask for their help and here’ something crazy; send them a thank you card for their help (even if all they did was hear you out) How many thank you cards do you assistants get from a sales rep they either helped or gave the courtesy of hearing out? Nice way to stand out. No? And the “glass half full” side of me thinks it might help you next time you call or perhaps they’ll walk that card into their boss and give you a shout out!

6) Stop With The Entitlement Crap! If you’re like many sales people, you think you’re owed the courtesy of a call back. You’re not and don’t forget that! The world doesn’t work that way. You don’t have to like it but you better get over it and here’s why; I bet that attitude is making its way into that voicemail you’re about to leave in the form of tone.

And even if #6 doesn’t speak to you . . . Smile more and have fun doing this stuff. People will respond in kind. The same way they respond when you’re uptight and pissy!

So there you have it; 6 ways to increase your call backs.

What else can we add to this list? Please weigh in with your thoughts!

By the way . . .

This is part of over 100+ tips we share during our online sales program. I hope you’ll join us in January, it could be a great way to start the new year strong!  There’s a really cool $50 early registration discount and if you enroll 2 or more aspiring sales rock stars you qualify for discounted rates. Click here for details or email me for pricing on 2 or more participants  paul@yoursalesplaybook.com

10 thoughts on “6 Ways To Get More Call Backs

  1. Great points Paul. I like the video idea, however if you send a link you need to make sure you know the prospect well, otherwise they may think it is spam or even if you do know them well enough they may think someone hijacked your e-mail account.

  2. Thank you Paul. I feel this is the biggest hurdle we as sales people have to overcome today. After many months of cold calling, I am learning to shorten my messages. I provide three things our product can do that I know our competitors product can’t do and tell them the technology we developed has never tried before. I then ask them to call me so I can explain how our technology works and why it works significantly better than the products they are presently using. This said, most of them still don’t return calls or emails. When they don’t respond I continue to call them without leaving voice messages until I finally catch them in their office. I am thinking about sending them a letter to explain briefly what our product does and request an appointment to show them how our new technology works. If they do not call me in a few days, I will call them. At least this time, they will know who I am and be more likely to take the call. It’s really about what’s in it for them!

  3. Paul, I don’t know where you live, but wouldn’t it be fun to organize an annual sales meeting somewhere. I am sure there would be some available time to share a few brewski’s together.

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