I’ve been noticing a bit of a trend lately. I even stepped back, counted to 10 and asked other execs for their thoughts before showing up with my soapbox to complain.
There’s this maneuver where you call a prospect and after you leave a voicemail, you immediately email referencing the voicemail.
That’s a “double tap”!
First of all, congrats because you’ve now pissed off a prospect on two fronts inside of two minutes and B ( I meant to say that) Why?
I’ve spoken with sales people on this one and the feeling is that execs don’t check voicemail. What Bullsh*t! The correct answer is, some do, some don’t. And just to satisfy my inner wise ass . . . if you truly believe that, then why not skip the foreplay and just send the email?
Other sales professionals tell me that this is a part of being “persistent” and execs like persistence. Can we all take a knee on this one for a sec. Is it possible, that perhaps, we could be (am I sugar coating enough) confusing persistence with being a pain in the ass?
Antidote For Annoying
Stop thinking in terms of a cold calling “double tap” and think time phased/multiple touch. You, know, courtship?
Truth be told, I love the idea of changing it up and contacting me via email after a phone attempt. I even like the idea of you calling me, then mailing me something, reaching out on Linkedin etc. That’s smart. Why? Because everyone has their preferred venue of communication and we should never limit ourselves by only embracing one;
Just give your messaging a chance to breathe
And please don’t take this as an invitation NOT to have urgency, just know when you might be in need of a little “take it down a notch”;
Especially when your idea of urgency is a second touch a few minutes after you left me a voicemail.
Aside from annoying, you’re now teetering on desperate and that’s NOT the vibe you want to create in sales.
The real shame here is that you might have the greatest solution to a prospect’s biggest challenge. If you serve it up with a side order of “pest”, everybody loses as you get sent into the wonderful world of “delete”!
So that being said, let’s say you call a prospect and you leave a message. How long do you wait so you don’t “double tap” yourself into a pile of “back off”?
Please weigh in with your thoughts!
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