Prospecting- How to Cut Through the Noise
Today it is harder than ever to cut through the noise and get your prospect’s attention. Then when you manage to gain their attention, you only have a few seconds to gain their interest enough to get a follow-up conversation.
The average American is exposed to around 4,000 to 10,000 messages a day, and less than 100 of those will be remembered. On top of that, human attention spans have gotten even shorter, dropping from 12 seconds to 8 seconds. There are a few approaches you can take to cut through this noise and be more noticeable to your prospects.
1. Personalize Your Communication
Have you ever gotten an email that you knew was also sent to 500 other contacts? People catch on to mass emails, and a little personalization can go a long way. The same goes for cold calls.
It’s important that you do your research before reaching out to contacts. That way, you will not only be able to better understand their needs, but the prospect will see more value in talking with you.
When sending emails, it’s important to tailor your message to the recipient and show them why you are uniquely qualified to help them. Validate yourself and find a way to show that you are credible and they can trust you. A good way to do this is finding something you have in common or someone you both know. Then, focus on communicating value by pinpointing a pain they experience and how you can alleviate that for them.
2. Communicate Value
According to Gong.io, when talking with your prospects on a first call, you have 5 seconds to earn 5 minutes. Since you only have a limited amount of time to pitch to your prospect before losing their attention, you have to find a way to communicate value immediately.
The best way to do that is create a framework that you can follow for each call. We suggest a framework that follows these 5 steps:
- State their goals.
- Elaborate on their challenges.
- Tell them what it means.
- Paint a picture of a better tomorrow.
- Prove you have done it before.
For a more in-depth explanation of these steps, check out our blog, “Why Your Reps are Blowing THE Most Important Sales Conversations”.
Another key to getting your prospect’s attention is to never ask for anything at first, but instead provide valuable content. When reaching out through email or social media, the first thing you do shouldn’t be asking for a conversation. You need to offer a valuable piece of content like a free e-book or helpful blog article with no expectations from them. This builds their trust and helps establish you as an industry expert.
3. Be Where Your Audience Is
When doing social media prospecting, it’s important to be aware of what social platforms your ideal prospect is on. Here are some statistics from Pew Research Center on usage of each social channel by age.
Another thing to keep in mind is knowing the right times to contact leads. For both contacting and qualifying leads, you have a 114% to 164% greater chance of success by calling during the optimal hours of 8-9 AM and 4-5 PM, than during the worst times (11 AM – 2 PM).
4. Less is More
Nearly 70 percent of an organization’s product information can be found by a B2B buyer doing their own research. If you have too much information on your website, buyers can feel stressed and overwhelmed. If they are doing their research before a conversation, you want your buyers to have a clear picture of your offering before they talk to you.
When it comes to emails, the shorter the better. An easy way to keep it short and to the point would be to write as if you were talking to your prospects in person. Read the email out loud before sending to make sure it reads well and communicates your message clearly.
When talking with a prospect, you need to keep your wording simple and easy to understand. Prospects don’t want to take the time and extra effort to understand a complicated message, so you have to make it simple enough that a 6th grader could understand what you are saying.
Next Steps
Now that you know how to cut through the noise, it’s imperative that you take it one step further and provide a valuable interaction that leads to a follow-up conversation. The best way to do that is have a messaging framework prepared that communicates value to your prospect during every conversation.
Getting sales teams on the same page on how to deliver high value conversations is no easy task.
That’s where MasterMessaging comes in.
Our custom messaging solutions are strategically scripted, cadenced, and executed to increase conversion rates for maximum impact on your company’s revenue and profits. If needed we can also increase lead volume. Our system fits seamlessly with your existing sales process to ensure successful adoption & smooth rollout throughout your entire organization.
The content of our training workshops is taught by a 35-year sales veteran who specializes in elevating value by understanding the science of decision-making. Every rep will walk away with mastery of a conversation framework scientifically proven to communicate high value in every conversation they have with prospects and customers.
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We’d like to offer you a free e-book to help you communicate value in your sales conversations. Click HERE to download.
Call: 678-561-6260, Email: dkurkjian@mastermessaging.com or instant message David Kurkjian on LinkedIn to start the conversation.