Wait, what?
Yes, the good old fashion telephone is the most consequential tool for most marketers. It is ignored and left out of most marketing plans. Why aren’t outbound phone calls by you or your team part of your plans? (I’m not talking about telemarketing).
When you can speak to a customer, a client or someone in your network, you get immediate and direct, unfiltered feedback.
- How is that product you bought from me?
- Did you have another related problems that need fixing?
- Was my product/service successful for the job? If not, why?
- Would you recommend it to a friend or someone with similar needs?
Coach and Advisor
When Susana contacted me about business and marketing coaching, I wasn’t sure I could help her. She was brilliant and understood her market better than most people I worked with to support them. She understood lead generation, brand awareness and all the typical tactics in a marketer’s bag of tricks.
But she never spoke by phone with prospects or leads. She hid behind texts, emails and physical mailers. She didn’t pick up the phone and call people to get to know them. With digital technology, she hid behind the 1’s and 0’s.
Testing 1,2,3
We tried an experiment to see if she could improve her ability to close more business. She tracked business leads she spoke with and clients she only emailed over six months. She had good tracking systems (CRM) and could easily document the stats.
What Susana found over several months, was that when she was on the phone, she picked up on signals and pain points that weren’t as clear or apparent in her email communication. She could feel the problem on the phone but couldn’t feel anything through email marketing.
LinkedIn, Leads and More
Susana had a big network on LinkedIn of people she connected with over many years. But she rarely spoke to them to reconnect and to remind them of her work and her expertise. By putting energy into outbound phone calls, she found that her close rate was significantly higher whenever she spoke to someone who could help.
The Power of the Human Voice
Here is a marketing challenge for you to consider.
Call ten people who you want to either do business with or who could be helpful networking partners.
Don’t call them to sell. Call them to listen to what they are doing and to see if you could be helpful to them. By understanding their pain points, maybe you can recommend someone who could help them solve a problem. Keep in touch with them over several months and follow up by phone.
I understand that not everyone answers their phone but we all listen to voicemail messages. Try calling at a few minutes after an hour when people are escaping boring meetings. Don’t give up. Keep calling until you get through.
I’ll bet that at least a few of those ten people will bring you some value and opportunity. It works almost every time and costs nothing but a little time and commitment to follow through.
The empathic marketing and sales person always win.
Over time, by listening, being helpful and supporting others, good things come back to them. Call it karma or the universe or whatever you like, but a caring voice beats an impersonal technology every time.
Give your brand a voice.
Pick up the phone and call me if you need marketing advice. 919 720 0995. I can help you grow your business, gain brand awareness and build a smarter marketing effort. Email me at jeffslater@themarketingsage.com – If you’d like to schedule a free consultation, click the link on my calendar and pick a time so we can talk with each other. A phone is a magical machine with amazing technology.
