You've cold-called your way through a list and talked to people who were either ready to buy, interested but not ready to buy, or not interested. So often, the ready-to-buy group becomes the focus of inside sales representatives, and the rest of the list is forgotten. What you really need to do is keep your brand in front of those interested-but-not-ready-to-buy folks so that when they run into a problem your organization can fix, you're the first company that comes to mind.
Here are four ways to engage your cold call list after the sales pitch:
Send an email newsletter
One of the easiest things you can do to keep interested-but-not-ready-to-buy folks (and even your not-interested folks) engaged with your company is through an email newsletter. A monthly email filled with relevant articles, helpful content and industry news is the perfect way to stay in front of your contacts.
Many of you have shied away from sending out an email newsletter because of the time commitment and consistency it requires. You might be able to write enough content in the first few months, but when things get busy, it's the first thing to fall off your to-do list. I'm here to tell you that you don't have to generate all of the content you send!
A few years ago I was sitting in a session at Content Marketing World that was extremely thought-provoking. The speaker shared several stories from around the world about how content marketing helped to drive small businesses' success. I immediately projected all of their ingenuity, creativity, and success onto the speaker since he shared the stories. That same principle can be applied to your email newsletter.
Our secret to consistency is by using the incredible content that other companies are already generating. There are so many great articles online that authors and businesses are begging to be shared with your audience, and as long as you point your contacts back to their website, you're good to go.
Create content for your website
Even better than sharing other people's content is sharing your own! Write about topics your future buyers care about and want to engage with.
What questions are they asking? What questions are they Googling? We're big believers in the Sales Lion strategy of 'they ask, you answer:
This strategy is incredibly simple - listen to the questions your customers have been asking you all along! Use this information to drive the content you create. Make sure you are detailed, informative, non-biased and answering their questions as comprehensively as possible.
This content not only allows your prospects to continue engaging with you through other channels and help them through the buying cycle, but it also helps other potential leads find you through search. It's a win-win.
PS - add your blogs to your email newsletters too.
Enroll your leads in drip campaigns
As defined by Pardot, "drip campaigns are automated processes that send a set of messages or content to sales leads at the right moment to move them through the sales cycle. Drip campaigns allow you to consistently “touch” leads with relevant information based on time intervals, actions taken by prospects on your website, or other parameters, freeing up valuable marketing and sales resources without neglecting your prospects."
Take your group of interested-but-not-ready-to-buy folks and send them additional content to figure out what they're really interested in. They way they engage with that email and content offering will help you learn a lot more about their problems and/or interests.
Take Incept for example - we help our clients generate top of the funnel sales activity. While our initial pitch may have been about cold calling to support lead generation activities, that's not the only way we support our clients. We may include introductions to other services in our drip campaigns so see if that's something that aligns more with their problem and/or interests. Cold calling wasn't a good trigger? We might try sending a lead generation follow-up blog, a white paper about strategic list building, or a video about our customer service work.
Call Them Back In 90 Days
Just because they weren't interested in your solution three months ago doesn't mean you shouldn't continue to check in with them periodically. Ninety days is usually a good starting point, but depending on the length of your sales cycle, you might need to shorten or extend that window.
So whatever you do, make every effort to continue engaging with your leads!