Carol sent me an email,  on a topic, we all struggle with . . . Potential clients who never pick up their phone!

She writes . . .

Uncle Paul,

The majority of the people I’m trying to reach are pretty close to impossible to get a hold of.

I’m not getting stopped by gatekeepers, I just always get voicemails and my emails go unanswered too.

Would love to get your take on this.

OK . . . you asked for it!

1)   Are you using your social network to get warm intros to your prospects? It can make a world of difference.

2)   Speaking of social network, try sending an email to them through your social network. Emails sent via a social network yield a 24% higher open rate (according to Epsilon)!

3)   Have you included snail mail in your sales mix? I like to skip all the fancy brochures and “corporate” stuff and send a “blank card”. Check out a sample of mine here.

4)   Have you tried using creative door openers?

5)   When you reach out to them, how is your messaging? Are you well informed about them and reference something specific and meaningful for THEM . . . or does your message have an underlying tone of “ME, ME, ME”?

6)   Have you ever had ideas or a resource that you simply passed along to them, or is every one of your messages an infomercial?

7)   Are you calling at the same time, with the same message? Doing so makes you predictable and conditions a behavior known as “not listening to your message”. Or maybe they’re always busy at 10:00 am on Thursdays when you call. I know, this is why Castain makes the big bucks!

Calling a prospect at the same time and leaving the same tired message doesn’t inspire call backs

8)   Are you dead set on only calling “top down”? Sometimes it works out better if you start “bottom up” and get the buy in of someone who’s actually in the trenches. Then together, you go for the top level decision maker.

9)   Have you tried calling another extension and getting transferred? With many phone systems, an internally transferred call appears differently on the caller ID.

10) Feel free to call me “silly” but your are actually leaving a message when you get voicemail, right? It doesn’t have to be on every call, but you really do need to let them know you called.Let them hear the sound of your voice experience your personality and your incredible enthusiasm for wanting to help! Oh, and its really hard to get a call back when you didn’t leave a voicemail. Brilliant, right?

A Cure For The Common Cold Call

On September 22nd, I’m hosting a special webinar, How To WARM Up Your Cold Calls and let’s face it, most cold calls, are anything but awesome

By joining us, you’ll gain access to;