Quick: name your favorite way to
communicate with prospects and clients.
Does your answer involve some form
of technology? With so many high-tech
options for creating, personalizing, targeting, and tracking sales campaigns
these days, it would be hard not to pick one.
Although we love the efficiency and accessibility technology provides
us, we can’t help but cling to some of our favorite old-school methods,
including the good ol’ phone call.
Why are phone calls so great when
you can just zip off an email? After
all, emails give us time to carefully craft what we want to say, and they let
us say it any time we choose.
While we admit email correspondence
does have its advantages (documenting agreements, detailing concerns, providing
follow-up), relationships develop between people, not electronic files. People connect with people. They buy from people. They put their trust in people.
And there are times when you just
can’t beat a real-time conversation. Like
when your client has a problem or complaint.
Or when your organization is planning to make a change to the way an
account is handled. When membership
renewals go unanswered. Or when you want
to introduce your company to a prospect.
Phone calls give you the
opportunity that no written correspondence can: to instantaneously interact. Only with
a phone call can you accurately express emotion: concern, interest, enthusiasm,
empathy. Only with a phone call can you
immediately address a client’s concerns or questions. Only with a phone call can you pick up on
tone, silence, and hesitation.
Technology certainly has its place,
but for cultivating and maintaining relationships with clients, members, and
donors, no marketing speaks louder and more clearly than your own voice.
Want to learn about other
traditional sales strategies that should still have a place in your sales and
marketing efforts? Check back next
week--and all month--for more.
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