When a prospect expresses interest during a sales call and agrees to have a callback, the sales agent will end the call and hang up with a good feeling, and perhaps expect the prospect to hold on to that good feeling until the call back takes place a few days, or a week, later.
Why is it that sometime the call back ends up going much worse than the initial call? Even when the prospect was clearly interested and had agreed to a call back?
It’s really a matter of warming up during a call and cooling off after it. If a call ends with the prospect being interested and excited about your offering, it means they are clearly warmed up. In between that initial call and the call back, a lot of things can happen. Things that you would not necessarily know about will definitely have an impact on the prospect and their state of mind. Almost certainly they will not be in the same state of mind at the beginning of the call back as they were at the end of the initial call.
Forgetting (or ignoring) this and jumping into the call back right away, will lead to an awkward opening at best, or even lead to unnecessary missed opportunities, after good initial work.
A good call back ALWAYS starts with a brief recap of what was discussed during the initial call. This is to get the prospect back into the frame of mind they had during the initial call. If possible, this is a good time to throw in something new here as well, like some updates or development, that you had not mentioned before.
Only once you’ve done this, should you get to the next step in the sales call and ask about any progress on the prospect’s side or if they have any feedback about the info you sent them.
It will make a huge impact in the quality of call backs and help in building good report.
SALES TIP:
At the beginning of a call back, ALWAYS begin with a short recap of what was discussed on the first call (make sure to have some notes about that).
If you can, mention something new, that you had not mentioned before to show your on-going value add to the prospect.
Before moving to the next step of the sales call, ask if the prospect was able to follow up on what you had discussed or ask to provide you with some feedback on the information you had sent to them.
Make sure to always warm up the prospect at the start of the call back.
Happy selling!
Daniel Malkiewicz @ Spex Asia