You finally get THAT prospect on the phone after cold calling, and a minute into the call they ask you to send them an email. How exactly do you proceed?

455 views3 Comments

Sort By:

Oldest

CEO in Softwarea year ago

oh yes, that one. They don't want to deal with this right now, or at all, don't have the heart to tell you no thank you - or maybe there is general interest but they are not ready to talk about it. Some people need a bit time and an email to think things through. In the small chance that it is that situation something like this has worked before:

"No problem. It sounds like you have no time right now, would you be ok with me checking in with you once you had a few days to read through the materials?"

Or less pushy:

"No problem, I will email you after our call. Would you be opposed to a follow conversation?"

(it is easier to say "no" than "yes" is the theory behind that approach).

Or

"Sure thing! Are there others in your organizations who may be interested in receiving this information"?

VP of Sales in Services (non-Government)a year ago

There are so many avenues that one could take. But a few thoughts to consider:
What was the goal of the cold call?
Was it to win a transactional sale?
Was it to identify their needs/interests?
If the goal of the call was to create a connection, this could be considered a half-win. Without understanding their needs/current pain points/processes, etc, the follow-up email will most likely fall flat.

Step one is clearly define your goal for a call. Whether we want to believe it or not, society has made the "call" seem somewhat intrusive, especially in business to business, the passive email tends to be the favorite.

You can still certainly make it a valuable follow-up email - focus on sharing valuable research, insights, white papers, etc. Don't make it generic - be specific. Focus on creating value for them from the onset.

Please join or sign in to view more content.

By joining the Peer Community, you'll get:

Peer Discussions and Polls
One-Minute Insights
Connect with like-minded individuals

Director of Enablementa year ago

From my experience, this typically happens when the prospect fails to see the value proposition that you are offering

If you’ve managed to get them on a call (without being overly pushy) then there’s likely a glimmer of hope with the deal, but you may have misrepresented the solution impact.

Remember that you need to understand the pain before you implicate it. If a lead attempts to disengage very early in a conversation, you need to assess that call to identify why. Be granular, use data, and learn from it for the future.