“Hi Sally, just checking in to see…” “Hello Sally, hope all is well with you…” “Hello Sally, I’m reaching out to see…” “Hello, Sally, I’m touching base to…”

Do you know how many e-mails like these prospects see daily? They don’t incent interest or action.

So, your prospects disengage, and you don’t close any more business.

Instead of putting your prospects to sleep, do these things instead to make yourself stand far apart from any other sales person:

1. Remind Your Prospects of the Business Value of Your Product or Service

“Jon, in our last conversation, you said it was important to you to get a high-ROI solution in place so you could make pressing deadlines your CEO set. I’ll list 3 times to have a conversation in the next week – please choose the best:”

Make sure you use the language that your prospect used to describe their problems in your conversation.

2. Remind Your Prospects of the Pain They Face for Not Acting

Generally, it’s more effective to lead with carrots (business value) than sticks. But it can motivate your prospects to respond.

Try something like this:

“Samantha, I don’t want to see your business continue to waste $49,000 per month. And I don’t want your boss to come down on you for your department’s performance. Let’s have a conversation at a convenient time for you in the next 2 weeks.”

3. Search the Prospect’s Name in the News

You can go to sites like Google News, PRWeb, or just Google the company’s name. You can also check their website for recent news (if you’re lucky).

If there’s a recent story featuring them, let them know you noticed. Don’t even ask for an appointment!

4. Share Useful Information with Your Prospect

Your company produces content, so send your prospect a case study, blog post, or white paper directly relevant to the problem they need solved. If it’s not relevant, you’ll lose trust when you send it.

5. Ask Smart Questions

Your prospect is busy, so the fact they take any time at all to have a conversation with you is a great achievement. In that limited time, the best thing you can do to impress them is to ask questions that get at their true need.

  • What are you trying to do?
  • How are you doing that?
  • Who’s involved in the process?

Short, direct questions like that get straight to the heart of the issues they face. That blows your customers away because they typically hear long-winded, irrelevant questions, or sales pitches.

6. Offer Your Prospect a Free Audit

Everyone loves getting something for free. So give your prospects just a small taste of your expertise on the house. When they see your intimate knowledge and ability to solve their problem, they’ll be much more likely to use your services.

Those are six easy ways to stand out. Just a small percentage of sales pros use them, so it’s not hard to do at all.

 

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