Cold Calls Lose Status as Number One Touch Point

It’s time to update the tried and true list of the Five Touch Points of the traditional sales process and make it a six-pack — starting with a new number one. That’s right, the general rule of B2B sales has long been that the five touch points to a sale were:

1. The Cold Call — an initial phone call
2. The Initial Meeting — where the discovery process takes place to determine the prospect’s needs
3. The Proposal — where you match your product offering to prospect’s needs
4. The Follow-Up — where additional questions are answered to confirm prospect’s need for your company’s product offering
5. The Close — when your prospect agrees to purchase your product and start a business relationship with your company

As most sales professionals will agree, the most difficult Touch Point in the sales process is the Cold Call. In and of itself, the unfamiliarity with the prospect can make it daunting. Add the knowledge that you often have at most 30 seconds to capture the prospect’s attention to have a shot a making it to Touch Point 2, The Initial Meeting, and the difficulty factor only increases.

Fortunately, email can now be added to the top of the Touch Point list as the best, most powerful way to start the sales process (Sales professionals rejoice!). Believe it or not, a well thought-out email marketing campaign will generate a higher rate of initial meetings for your sales staff.

Email Proves to be Effective Door Opener

The fact is, prospects do not want to be sold. They want to feel in control of the buying process. A good introductory email allows the prospect to review the product offering and see if it may fit their needs. This also makes the initial cold call considerably warmer. That’s because the email creates awareness of your offering in advance. So the sales person feels more comfortable and the interested prospect has often already formulated a question or two based on the information in the initial email, which can jump-start the dialogue and give the sales person the opportunity to do what he or she is meant to do: sell.

A prospecting email must maintain the same qualities as the old Cold Call. It must be short, and to the point: Here is the offering and this is how it can help your organization. The subject line is critical and determines whether the buyer will even open your email. It should always highlight a benefit or promote an offer of value to the recipient.

The beauty of an email campaign is that it links to your website. This allows the buyer to gather additional information, giving him or her an added sense of control. This is the old version of, “send me some literature so I can review.” In the past, sales professionals would send out the literature and wait a week to call a prospect back in hopes that the prospect would a) remember the initial call and b) have received and reviewed your product literature. Now your product literature is attached to your email and prospects can review it at their convenience — hopefully immediately — if they sense value.

Enhanced Measurement and Analysis

Perhaps the best thing about email marketing is if you possess the proper tools, you can see if the prospects have opened your email, have clicked through a link to your site, and chart where the prospects have navigated on the site. This information will assist the sales person in getting the initial appointment. Start by calling the people who clicked through. They’ve demonstrated their interest in your offering. Then, call those people who opened the message, and then you’ll be all warmed up to call the remaining prospects.

Yes, it requires work up front to research a prospect’s email address, but it’s no more difficult than getting their name and title.

So to get the most out of your sales process, start implementing the newest, most powerful and first Touch Point in the sales process — a well though-out email to your prospects. This will assist in getting the all-important initial meeting with prospects, and closing of more sales!

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