As the internet continues to consume our working lives, emails can often be the go-to response from sales reps when they can’t get in contact with a prospect. Which makes sense. Sometimes you can’t even get the key decision maker on the phone, but you can send them an email.
So why are phone calls still the better option?
Ok, truth is – they aren’t always. Sometimes emails do work better at converting leads from cold to lukewarm. But just emailing a lead will never get you a sale. Sales will, almost all of the time, come from a phone call. Here’s why.
1 – Even if they don’t pick up the phone, they will listen to your voicemail
You may think that a voicemail isn’t as effective as a direct phone call, but it can be when executed correctly. Not only that but it’s more likely to be heard too. Think about it. Most people now receive anywhere between 20 – 100 emails a day, but not many people receive more than 10 voicemails.
Your prospect is far more likely to listen to what you have to say over their answering machine than choosing to read your email over a dozen others. By getting to the top of your prospect’s list and gaining their attention, you increase your odds of converting them into a client over all the other sales reps sitting in your prospect’s inbox.
2 – You can be more personal in phone calls thanks to your tone of voice
Any marketer will tell you that they qualify the best leads for you at face to face events. This is because every prospect trusts their human instincts, especially in business. If they develop a personal connection with you, they can build trust and develop a relationship. No matter how much you personalise your emails, you’ll never build up the same connection as you can over the phone. Your tone of voice can also be used to make a future client believe your pitch and understand your intent.
3 – You can qualify them with just one phone call
Unless your email has used a personalised URL which can track if your email recipient has interacted with your email and what they’ve looked at after that, you aren’t going to know what your lead is interested in unless they reply to your email. In a phone call, you can find out what they want (or don’t want) from your product straight away with a few simple questions. This saves you (and your lead) time in the sales process and can help you to qualify them straight away.
From there, you can set up a face to face meeting or further phone call to show them a demonstration of your product to move your prospect further down the sales pipeline.
Why not take this information and apply it to help you build an over-performing sales team?
