How to Improve Your Prospect Response Rates
Many sales professionals struggle to connect with prospects as new technologies change how people communicate.
More sales professionals now find prospecting the hardest part of selling, and this trend is growing rapidly.
- Call screening that doesn’t allow you to leave a voice message
- Increasing email security that limits cold outreach emails from reaching the recipient
- AI monitors inboxes, moving our emails to a spam folder before the reader even sees them.
How are most salespeople responding?
Many are viewing the current challenge as a volume problem. For example:
If I connect with 5% of the 100 prospects I reach out to, and I increase my outreach to 1,000 prospects, the number of prospects increases. Or in this example, I would connect with 50 people, instead of 5.
How are they doing this?
Most turn to automation to scale outreach.
Here’s the problem:
Most automation decreases personalization.
Just last week, someone who is a “Coach to Experts” reached out to me on LinkedIn, suggesting they could help me explore how to support one another.
Seriously? A quick review of their website confirmed they sell “coaching” to entrepreneurs, similar to me.
I replied that the message was automated and asked specifically what they could do to assist me.
Their response? Crickets. Only serving to confirm my suspicions.
What’s a better approach?
This isn’t a volume issue—it’s a messaging issue.
Your goal should be to increase the 5% connection rate by using three main ingredients:
- Lead with value first: You can’t expect a prospect to give you their time when you’ve given them nothing. What can you share that they would find useful, helpful, or even informative?
- Introduce pattern interrupts: Consider how your competitors are approaching your customers and develop a different approach. Your goal is to separate yourself from the pack.
- Lengthen the prospect journey: Pursue prospects using the strategies above over an extended period. It takes time to earn trust, and giving up too quickly only confirms that you weren’t in it to be helpful.
My latest book, The Unstoppable Sales Prospecting System, covers these steps and more in greater detail. If prospecting has become a challenge, it’s time to change your system.
Shawn
Motivate your sales team to sell more, and get real world actionable tips and strategies by inviting me to speak at your sales meeting or annual retreat. Learn more here.