Increase Sales with a Consistent Communication Cadence

Have you ever wondered why some sales prospects suddenly go cold? Your initial conversations went so well and the prospect showed a real interest in your company, product, or solution. So what happened? All too often, it's as simple as a break the communication cadence that causes the prospect to suddenly lose interest. However, it's not their interest that's lost, it's their trust. The good news is  you can fix it an increase sales with a consistent communication cadence.

#RelationshipGoals

A new prospect is not any different from any other potential new relationship. Think about the process like you're dating someone new. It can be fun and even a little exciting meeting someone new. After the initial small talk and a little flirting, you exchange phone numbers and agree to talk again on a specific date and time.

On the first call, you spend a lot of time with the new person, asking questions, actively listening to the answers, and getting to know the person a little better. Through the initial conversation, you might discover what they want to achieve, what their goals are, what they like, and maybe even what they don't like.

After the initial call, you probably send them an email or text expressing how much you enjoyed the conversation, how much you're looking forward to talking again and then confirm the date and time for the next call or meeting. After a short period of regular contact, you may not realize it but you've established a communication cadence for the new relationship. 

Then, the inevitable happens. You get busy with shifting priorities, maybe a new prospect enters the picture and you let a week or so go by without any contact. What is the other person in this new relationship thinking?

1. "Am I not as important as I was a week ago?"

2. "Did someone else become a priority?"

3. "Did they discover something about me that they didn't like?"

Hello???

The next time you come up for air and try to reach out your prospect suddenly seems cold, disinterested, or just won't return your calls, emails, or texts. So what happened?

From the perspective of the prospect, you simply broke their trust. Trust in a newly established relationship is fragile and takes time to fully develop. After all, a new relationship has a very limited history based exclusively on the cadence of your communications. If you break the cadence you risk losing their trust. Once the initial trust is fractured it's sometimes hard to reestablish.

This is most likely what's happened when one of your new prospects "go cold" or "ghost" you.  In the world of sales, this problem is exacerbated by the level of competition for the exact same prospect. Once you've broken the cadence of communication and trust, you've left a huge gap for your competition to step into, make contact, and establish their own relationship with your prospect.

Give Me a Second Chance!

The first question you may be asking, "Is there any way to get their attention and restart the conversation?". The answer is, of course, you can, but it usually takes a little extra effort. Whether it's a personal relationship or a professional relationship you're trying to hit the reset button on, you might try a little humor or be completely transparent in your next communication attempt. 

Before giving up on a prospect that ghosted you, try using a breakup email like this one:

Subject Line: Should I stay or should I go?

 

Hi {Contact: First name},

I’ve tried to reach you a few times to go over suggestions on improving [BUSINESS NEEDS], but haven’t heard back which tells me one of three things:

1) You’re all set with [BUSINESS NEED] and I should stop bothering you.
2) You’re still interested but haven’t had the time to get back to me yet.
3) You’ve fallen and can’t get up and in that case let me know and I’ll call someone to help you.

 

Please let me know which one as I’m starting to worry!

 

Regards,

 

{Your Email Signature}

* If that doesn't get their attention, here are 7 more break up emails from HubSpot that are almost guaranteed to get a response.

Become Irresistible!

To improve your communication cadence and decrease the chances of being ghosted by your SQL (Sales Qualified Lead), here are a few tips to help you become simply irresistible:

1. Agree on a preferred communication channel.

   We all have a ton of people trying to get our attention every single day, so we create our own individual systems for whom we'll respond to and how we receive their outreach. Your prospect is no different. On a daily basis, we all have a couple of email addresses, the email address we use for personal communications, the email address we use for work, and maybe even the email address we use when filling out online forms or applying for in-store discounts. That being said, we might give people our work email address, give them permission to call us, or even text us so we can respond in time. Ask the prospect what the best way of getting in touch with them is when they are priority filtering. 

2. Navigate the communication potholes. 

   If your contact prefers a phone call or text, send them a text asking them to create a "new contact" in their phone with the number. They can store your contact information using your name, your company name, or even the product or service they are considering purchasing. With the insane increase in auto-dialing and robocalls, you want the prospect to know it's you when you call. If your new contact prefers email, then send an email to the contact while you are on the phone and ask them to locate it. If they can't find it, it may be in their junk or spam folders. If this is the case, have them drag it into their inbox to mark it as safe. This will keep your email from hitting the spam folder in the future.

3. Establish a time of day preference. 

   Find out from your contact where they have time in their day. If you're giving them information that can help them solve a problem, overcome a challenge, or help them achieve their goal, then you want them to be paying attention. If you call while they're in the middle of their workday, eating dinner, or at a kids soccer game they probably won't be actively listening or freely communicating. 

4. Set proper expectations. 

   From the outset, you should let your contact know how long the sales process may take and what the individual milestones are in the sale process timeline. When scheduling the next communication touchpoint, let the prospect know what you'll be discussing and what information they need to have ready to be most productive.  Pro Tip: If you haven't already done so, start by mapping out your internal sales process. Documenting and auditing your sales process will help you identify all of your contact touch points, set expectations, and uncover any gaps in your current communication cadence. You can use a CRM to document and automate a sales process complete with call outlines, emails, and scheduled tasks. 

5. Communicate consistently!

   The best way to become a trusted resource is by being consistent. Be on time for your calls, texts or emails. Nothing says you're an unreliable resource like being late or unprepared for a call. If you tell a sales prospect that you are going to make contact with them but don't have an answer or the information they needed, don't ever blow off the call. Contact them as schedule or send a note prior to your call and let them know why there is a holdup. If you're communicative and transparent with a prospect, they'll trust that you're reliable and honest.