Today’s Blog post comes from 
“Cold Calling Techniques (That Really Work)”
by Stephan Schiffman
Get it off Amazon Here

Chapter 9: Email Tactics.

Don’t use them unless you have to.  Ok to follow up a thank you for an appointment.  Hand written is better.

Chapter 10: Follow-Up Calls

When the prospect says “You’re going to have to call me back,” I assume that when I do call back, I’m going to talk with him to SET THE APPOINTMENT.  That’s an important point.

Remember that people respond in kind.  After all, the reason I’m calling you is to set an appointment.  Then he said “Steve, I’m busy right now.  You’ll have to call me back.”  My assumption, unless I hear otherwise from him, is that I should call back to set the appointment.

“Good Morning Mr. Jones, this is Steve Schiffman from the XYZ Widget Company here in Madison, Wisconsin.  The reason I’m calling today specifically is that, when you spoke last Junen, you suggested I give you a call in September to set up an appointment.  Would next Tuesday at 3:00 be okay.”

Or

Good Morning Mr. Jones, this is Steve Schiffman from XYZ Widget Company here at Anytown USA.  The reason I’m calling you today specifically is when we spoke in June, you suggested I give you a call today (you can mention the date if it’s appropriate to do so) to set an appointment.  Would next Tuesday be OK?

• Now they have to respond to you.  Be prepared.
• “Well, Steve, the fact is this is still not a good time to talk.  I’m really busy right now.”
  • As an expert caller, you are going to use your ledge like “Gee, Mr. Jones, I’m just curious, what are you doing now?  Who are you using for widgets?
  • They will respond with something like “We’re using Acme Widgets.  And you know what, we’re really happy with what we’ve got.”
  • If you know the competition, you might decide to respond by saying “Gee, are you using the Red Velvet model or the Blue Velvet model?”   And they might say “Neither.  We’re using the Green Velvet one.”
  • You: “Oh, that’s great!  You know something, we really should get together.  We really complement Green Velvet very well.  How about Friday at 3:00?”

When to call back:  Don’t wait months.  But, how do you break down the time barrier?  What reason do you use?

• There are probably a million reasons to call people back.  Here is my Favorite:  “I was just thinking about you yesterday.”
• Was doing a seminar at a large telecom company a few years ago.  The company was going through a major merger at that point.  I told everyone in the room that they should pick up the phone on Monday morning and call every single person they were supposed to call back at any point in the next 3 months.  And say something along these lines:
  • “Good Morning Mr. Jones, this is Steve Schiffman from Data International Company here in Blank, Texas.  The reason I’m calling you is that I was thinking about you yesterday.  We were at a national sales meeting where I learned about a major merger that now puts us in a unique position, and I’d like to get together to tell you about some of the new things I’ve learned.”

Or another approach:  Consider this true story.   Looking at my schedule recently, I saw that I was going to be in New Albany, Indiana, a very small town outside of Louisville KY.  I called somebody who’s in Atlanta, GA, and said “You know something, I was looking at my schedule the other day and I realized I’m going to be in New Albany, Indiana, next Thursday and I thought maybe we should get together on Friday.” My contact said “Ok, that makes sense.”

• Not much later, I used the same technique again!  I called somebody in Texas.  He said to me “Look, II’m really busy this week.  I can’t see you.”  So I said, “Gee, I’m just looking at my schedule.  On the 13th (which was about 2 weeks from the day), I’m going to be in Charlotte, NC.  I have a speech there.  Why don’t we get together the day before?”