In my conversation with keynote speaker, author, and master lead generator Chris Smith, he stated that the key to selling is “to create more value and more of an emotional buy-in than the cost during the time that the customer is in front of you.” Therefore, he provided 3 WET techniques (works every time) that you can apply in order to maximize your lead conversion rate and add Chris’s “key” to your marketing repertoire.
How to Knock Down Brick Walls?
Chris finds that many salespeople quickly give up in the face of a potential customer’s “brick wall.” A “brick wall” is the resistance that a customer has right out of the gate. For example, if you are an online mortgage lender and you call to ask if they are interested in refinancing a mortgage loan, to which they respond, “I am not interested in your product, I am just curious about what the interest rates are?”
The technique to overcome this initial resistance is ARP, which is an acronym for Acknowledge, Respond, and Pivot. Here is an example of applying ARP to the online mortgage lender example from above:
- Acknowledge the brick wall – “You want to know what the interest rate is? That is a great question! Let me look that up for you”
- Respond – “The interest rates are the lowest that they have ever been in the history of interest rates.”
- Pivot – “How much were you looking to save so that a refinance makes sense?
When humans communicate, it is 55% physiology, 38% tone, and 7% wording. If you are following up with leads on the phone, the 55% physiology is no longer in play. Therefore, acknowledging and responding to the customer’s question/brick wall is extremely important. However, the key is pivoting away to get the conversation back on track. The pivot comes in the form of a question that aims to create a deeper conversation.
How fast and often do I reach out to leads?
When responding to leads, Chris believes that the number one thing is speed and that the number two is tenacity. The impact of speed on lead conversation is staggering. There is a 100x decrease in the ability to convert an Internet lead between the 5th and 30th minute. Therefore, Chris advises that you call every lead that you get in less than 5 minutes. If you don’t, train yourself to hear a ticking time bomb in your head, because every second that passes will decrease your ability to convert the lead.
In regards to how often you should reach out to leads, SalesForce performed a study around the question “how many times should I try to call in order to contact as many leads as possible?” When Chris has conversations with people at his speaking engagements, he finds that most will call leads once, twice, or at most, three times before giving up. According to the Sales Force study, if you call a lead 6 times compared to 1, the contact rate will go from 48% to 93%. Therefore, you can almost double your contact rate by increasing your effort, tenacity, and the number of attempts per lead up to 6.
How to Prepare for Phone Calls
The Art of War states that you have to win the battle before it is even fought. The same applies to business and marketing. However, Chris finds that the biggest mistake his clients make is that they are winging it on the phone. They don’t have a phone script, a framework, or a list of questions to ask.
Winging it is a huge mistake. If you are a company that is spending money on lead generation, you certainly don’t want the guys winging when calling to convert the leads. You would want them to be sufficiently prepared.
When Chris is preparing for a call, he follows a 3-step process – the Pre-Call Stalk
- Google Search the Email Address
If you have an Internet lead, then that means you have their email address. By performing a Google Search with an email address, you will instantly have access to all of the social media accounts, blogs, etc. that are associated with that email address. Names are too common, but email addresses are unique to each individual. Therefore, 100% of the results from the Google Search will be about them
- Facebook Search
Next, repeat the first step, but using Facebook instead. You can either search the person’s email address or phone number, which will enable you to find their profile. There is a gold mine of information on Facebook, from their interests, to hobbies, to what they did that weekend.
- Charlie App
Charlie app will automatically perform the first two steps above. It syncs with your calendar, so right before you are scheduled to call someone, the application will send you a link with all the “Intel.”