Once you have your lead funnel nicely dialed in, sometimes there can be challenges getting leads to actually attend the initial phone call with you. Even if they have booked in their own time into your calendar.
You have to understand that decision-makers are extremely busy. And, until you’ve spoken with them the first time, you’re really just ‘a person out of the internet’. So, understandably, your sales call will not always be high on their priority list.
This is quite standard in modern Digital Marketing. So here are some strategies we implement with our clients to ensure their Appointments attend their session:
1 – Calendar Invite That “Sells” The Call
Your calendar invite should “re-sell” the benefits of attending the call!
Firstly … in modern sales it’s important that the prospect will get a benefit from attending the call – you should be educating them and giving them clarity.
Now, if you are truly making the call worth their time – then ensure your calendar invite tells them exactly why they’ll learn.
2 – Email a video the day before
The day before their call, email them a video or piece of content – something that tells them more about what they might learn from you on the call. Or, perhaps something that educates them more about your work or client success stories.
In that same email, you can also remind them of their call time.
3 – SMS the day before
The day before, send a templatised SMS reminding, and re-selling, tomorrow’s call. This also ensures your mobile number is saved in their contact list, so that when you are calling it’s not a random number.
4 – Double Call Strategy
If a lead has booked a time with you and doesn’t pick up the phone – try calling them 2 or 3 times in a row to improve the answer rate. We usually only advise this strategy when the lead has booked a time in your calendar (ie. when it is fair to “hassle” them just a little).
5 – Add extra form fields
Force your online visitors to answer a few extra questions before they can book their call. The extra effort required to fill out these fields makes it more likely the lead will also attend the call.
Of course, this also means that your Cost Per Lead will increase. But, as a result, you’ll have higher quality leads, more intel for your sales process, and less wasted time following up.
6 – Industry Leading Follow Up Sequence
It’s quite normal to have to “hunt down” leads to get them onto phone calls. So even if they don’t answer the first call, it’s best to have a process of follow up calls you’re running every day.
It’s normal to require 3 or more follow-up calls to get hold of a lead (industry leaders with full sales teams will follow up 25+ times to reach a lead!).
And, it’s worth following up on leads that didn’t answer every 1 – 3 months as well.
Remember – THEY have requested a call from your team. And, you are paying for every lead that comes through. It’s important to get your value.
7 – “Thankyou Page” Copy
After a lead books their call, they should be immediately sent to a “Thankyou Page” reminding them of why they booked it. On this page you’ll re-sell them the benefits of actually attending the call with you and your team
Wrapping It All Up
Once a lead has requested a call, it is YOUR responsibility to make sure you speak to them and deliver the valuable call they requested.
The above strategies will put you ahead of the game and make sure you are getting the value from the lead generation you are paying for.
