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Just posted this on the Vision blog as well as the Vision website.  Trying to spice it up Billy Mays style!  Love to hear your thoughts and feedback.

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3 x 48 Formula – Phone Call Technique

Telephone sales, like all sales, are down by about 25 to 30 percent. If you do telephone sales, you already know that. You can’t change the market, but you can combat the downtrend in your own company by making your calls more effective.

When going after new customers, most salespeople do the same thing. They call the prospect and leave a message. Then they call back a month later and leave the exact same message. And they keep repeating the process. Occasionally they get results, but it’s very expensive and time-consuming.

Nathan Jamail, writing in Newsletter on Newsletters, has a much better idea. He calls it the 3 X 48 formula. It goes like this:

Instead of making a dozen phone calls to a prospect, spread out over six months or a year, you make just three calls, 48 hours apart. If you haven’t gotten a response from him by the end of the week, you cross him off your list.

For example…

Call Number One: “Hi, Mr. Smith. My name is John Jones. I’m with ABC Company. The reason for my call is to introduce myself to you and to offer you a free analysis of your 2009 marketing plans. We have helped many clients increase their profits in difficult markets like this one. I would greatly appreciate it if you would call me back at….”

Call Number Two: “Hello Mr. Smith. This is John Jones with ABC Company. I left you a message a couple of days ago and wanted to follow up with you regarding your free marketing analysis. Again, my phone number is…. I look forward to hearing from you soon.”

Call Number Three: “Hello, Mr. Smith. This is John Jones with ABC Company. I left you a couple of messages this week – and I don’t mean to be overbearing, but I want to make sure I do a good job of following up by letting you know that I would love the opportunity to visit with you for a few minutes. I was hoping you would do me a favor and let me know if you would like to talk to me but have just been too busy… or if you don’t feel it would be good for us to meet and would prefer that I don’t call again. I know your time is valuable, and I would appreciate your direction as to how to proceed. Thanks again, and have a wonderful day.”

I like this system for several reasons:

* Your calls are assertive but not pushy.

* They are made 48 hours apart, o  your prospects will know you by the third call.

* Since you are calling frequently, they’ll begin to wonder if you will ever stop calling.

* When, on the third call, you give them permission to reject you, they feel relieved and even grateful. This increases the chances that they will call you back.

By the way, I think this approach, with some clever modifications, could work successfully with direct e-mail marketing too.

I’m ripping this post off from Michael Masterson’s Ready, Fire, Aim e-newsletter today.  He didn’t have a web-version so I can’t link but I do recommend getting his stuff for his valuable insight and experience.  The technique he teaches fits hand-in-hand with Milestone Maps and is an excellent way to save time and be more effective with your pipeline.  Vision Pipeline Assistant can help you with it!

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Telephone sales, like all sales, are down by about 25 to 30 percent. If you do telephone sales, you already know that. You can’t change the market, but you can combat the downtrend in your own company by making your calls more effective.

When going after new customers, most salespeople do the same thing. They call the prospect and leave a message. Then they call back a month later and leave the exact same message. And they keep repeating the process. Occasionally they get results, but it’s very expensive and time-consuming.

Nathan Jamail, writing in Newsletter on Newsletters, has a much better idea. He calls it the 3 X 48 formula. It goes like this:

Instead of making a dozen phone calls to a prospect, spread out over six months or a year, you make just three calls, 48 hours apart. If you haven’t gotten a response from him by the end of the week, you cross him off your list.

For example…

Call Number One: “Hi, Mr. Smith. My name is John Jones. I’m with ABC Company. The reason for my call is to introduce myself to you and to offer you a free analysis of your 2009 marketing plans. We have helped many clients increase their profits in difficult markets like this one. I would greatly appreciate it if you would call me back at….”

Call Number Two: “Hello Mr. Smith. This is John Jones with ABC Company. I left you a message a couple of days ago and wanted to follow up with you regarding your free marketing analysis. Again, my phone number is…. I look forward to hearing from you soon.”

Call Number Three: “Hello, Mr. Smith. This is John Jones with ABC Company. I left you a couple of messages this week – and I don’t mean to be overbearing, but I want to make sure I do a good job of following up by letting you know that I would love the opportunity to visit with you for a few minutes. I was hoping you would do me a favor and let me know if you would like to talk to me but have just been too busy… or if you don’t feel it would be good for us to meet and would prefer that I don’t call again. I know your time is valuable, and I would appreciate your direction as to how to proceed. Thanks again, and have a wonderful day.”

I like this system for several reasons:

* Your calls are assertive but not pushy.

* They are made 48 hours apart, o  your prospects will know you by the third call.

* Since you are calling frequently, they’ll begin to wonder if you will ever stop calling.

* When, on the third call, you give them permission to reject you, they feel relieved and even grateful. This increases the chances that they will call you back.

By the way, I think this approach, with some clever modifications, could work successfully with direct e-mail marketing too.

Why are you calling next week?

I talked with a sales trainer today. He relayed a story about a conversation with one of his clients.

The salesman said, “I’m following up with that prospect in a couple weeks.”  The trainer asked back, “Why?”  The salesman was stumped.

Excellent question. A simple question, but excellent. You need to ask “Why” about every single follow up. If you don’t have a great why, then you are wasting your time and your prospect’s time.

Before you make your next call, think about the purpose and the goal of that exact call. Better yet, use a system that maps this out for you… I’m partial to Vision Pipeline Assistant.

Keep in mind that the purpose is not always to make a sale. Depending on your specific sales cycle, you may have a dozen Life Touches before a sale happens.  So, the purpose of each Life Touch is to move the relationship forward.

When you build great relationships with prospects, you will have long-term and profitable clients.