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Following on from last week’s lesson giving you an outline on your sales, we have so far done some research, found our target customer, sent them some details and checked if they have gotten it.

They are not in

Quite often the person you need to speak to may be busy. This is especially true where you are targeting MDs or decision makers. It can be genuinely hard to tell if the person is just ignoring you because they aren’t interested, or if they are just busy. First of all, don’t try calling them or emailing them every single day. Leave it a week after your initial email. Secondly if you are instead talking to the gatekeeper, tell them it’s okay if he doesn’t want to speak to you, you’d rather get them off their list if they are not interested. This should give you a good indication if this prospect is actually bothered.

Not Dead Yet

If you have sent an initial email, called to follow up, called a few more times, thEn I would recommend you don’t give a client any more of your time. For the moment mark them as a cold lead, leave a note to contact them again in 6 months and try then. Until you actually get a no don’t rule someone out altogether, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the amount of prospects I’ve thought were dead only to come through and buy something.

No Unturned Stone

Don’t become disheartened if you are getting a lot of rejection, or people seem to be ignoring you. This is par for the course. As I said earlier it’s as important to find the people who don’t want to buy from you as those who do. It is however important to look at those customers who were not interested and examine why. Few people will actually give you the real reason. They would rather say they are happy with a current supplier than that you are too expensive or you leaflet looks crap. It’s always a good idea to test out different methods/different ways of saying what you do and seeing which is most effective.

Feedback and comments are a key arsenal in improving your sales.