20 Reasons to Call Your Customers Now
Whether you’re an experienced virtual seller or just getting your “inside legs” after transitioning from face-to-face field selling, we all need more reasons to call our customers. This is because we don’t get to “bump into” customers in the hallways and because we tend to get less accomplished in sales phone calls (See this blog here on call goals).
So why do we need a reason to call? Because “touching base” is a mortal sin. Wait, too much? Nope, seriously not overstating that. Never ever, ever just call to check in. Your prospect’s time is valuable, and if you’ve nothing better to do than check-in, don’t call at all. (You’ll notice I’m interchanging customer and prospect in this article. Treat them the same.)
And why do we need multiple calls? Because we’re fighting “out of sight, out of mind,” and because we have our own goals to accomplish. We may not have gotten all the information we needed in our previous calls, or we may just be trying to avoid the dreaded “gone dark” that happens more in virtual selling than face-to-face.
Your goals for calling back are to get more information, get a status update, or just stay top of mind, but unfortunately, those aren’t great prospect-facing reasons to call. Doubt me? Try leaving a message like this and see if you get a call back:
“I’m just calling to get a status update and check-in. Call me back…”
You’ll be waiting a long time.
So the goal instead is to call with a customer value-add reason and then accomplish your goals. That brings us back to the topic at hand.