5 Tips to Increase Success on Prospecting Calls

Posted on by Kaitlin Dunlap

While conducting a recent team meeting, I asked the staff to share their thoughts on what it takes to have successful prospecting calls. The result of this question lead to a handful of outstanding tips, which prompted me to write this article so I can share them with you. 

According to the Dunlap Marketing team members, their five top prospecting call tips are:

  1. Listen carefully to the prospect’s tone and behavior, then adjust your approach to match
  2. Try holding the prospect’s attention long enough to deliver the intended message
  3. Get the prospect interested enough to start talking
  4. Keep calling, do not give up
  5. Be polite and grateful

Listen carefully to the prospect’s tone and behavior, then adjust your approach to match

In my early days of selling, this was called “mirroring the prospect”. I believed and saw this technique work in the early stages of my career, and I continue to see it work now.

You might ask yourself – how can I mirror a prospect I can’t see?

If the prospect answers the call, but sounds like he or she is in a hurry, consider talking a bit faster and tell them, “I know you are busy so I am going to quickly get to the reason for my call”, then do as you said you were going to do. 

The objective is to match your tone and talking speed to that of your prospect.

Try holding the prospect’s attention long enough to deliver the intended message

This notion of holding attention long enough to deliver your message reminds me of writing call scripts. Call scripts should be short and to the point. Your prospects are busy and were not waiting for your call. Because of this, keep in mind that you should be grateful they took your call and avoid making them feel like you’re wasting their time. 

A good way to cut back on time spent on the front end of your conversation is to consider not asking the prospect how they are doing or how their day is – often this falls into the category of wasting time.  Rather, as an ice breaker, use a friendly and engaging voice and speak with a smile on your face. You might be surprised how this approach not only saves you time, but also yields better results.

Get the prospect interested enough to start talking

This goes hand in hand with holding the prospects attention, mostly because if you can get them talking, you have likely caught their attention. In most instances, the best way to get someone talking is to ask them a question. 

Before you can ask a question, I feel it is important that the prospect knows why or what you are calling about – make this brief and get straight to the point.  Once they know the purpose of your call, you ideally want to ask a probing question that identifies a pain or deficiency within their current situation.  In our office, we have a goal of asking this initial question inside the first 15-20 seconds of the conversation. Your approach here is to get your “foot in the door”.  Do not feel like you have to push yourself all the way in, just get your toes in, especially if you represent a longer sales cycle offering. 

Three probing questions you can try using are:

  • Does your current provider ____?
  • Does ____ present a challenge for you?
  • If there was one thing you can improve, what would it be?

Keep calling, do not give up

Tactful persistence is the key to success. 

If your call goes unanswered or your voice mail is not returned, it is not good to assume your prospect is not interested. Chances are, it simply means your prospect is busy and has more pressing issues to deal with.  At some point in time, your offering will become important to them.  Your job is to stay engaged so you can learn where they are in the buying cycle or life cycle of their current situation.  You want to identify trigger dates so you know when to turn up the intensity to have constructive conversations.

If you have difficultly speaking to the decision maker during early stage prospecting, try connecting with other people in the company in an effort to learn about their current situation, future timing, and satisfaction level. This information can be uncovered by different people inside one company – not just your top contact person. And most importantly, these nuggets of information will help you gauge your future timing. Capture this information and set follow up reminders in your CRM to call back accordingly.  Even more, ask for email addresses and send periodic emails that contain relevant information.  Be disciplined with your follow up tasks.  Over time your efforts will pay off.

These habits are most critical for salespeople who manage smaller, more finite-sized prospect lists.  The smaller the population of who your prospects are, the more tactful persistence will pay off for you and your prospecting efforts.

Be polite and grateful

Always make your prospecting phone calls with a smile on your face.  Some of my staff are outstanding at speaking to a prospect as if the person is right in front of them.  This is a gift. 

Be respectful and do not be afraid to call your prospect back if they tell you they are very busy.  Politeness and gratitude require you to have faith that the game of numbers is in play – and if you play the game properly, you will get your fair share of opportunities.

If you force a conversation, the likelihood is you will compromise quality outcomes (in our office, we prioritize quality outcomes over quantity of outcomes).  The more you force, the more disappointment there will be down the road when implementing next steps.

If you feel like you need to be forceful, consider asking the prospect for a better time to call back.  Record this information in your CRM and call them back at that time.  If they do not answer, leave a voice mail and try again later in the day or the next day.  It might not be easy to get them back on the phone, but keep trying.  When you do connect, chances are better that you have a more productive conversation.

Being polite and grateful often go hand-in-hand with tactful persistence. Tactful persistence is most rewarding when you are also polite and grateful.

For more information on successful prospecting, feel free to reach out to me at miked@dunlapmarketing.com or call at (281) 496-9870 x140.

What is Good Call Frequency?

Posted on by Mike Dunlap

Tactful Persistence is the Key to Success

How often should you reach out to a target prospect?  

This is a question we are asked a lot when setting up an outbound telemarketing campaign.

The answer depends upon several factors:

  • Is this a first-time interest in the conversation with the person or company?
  • Is there a known need?
  • Is there a known relationship?
  • Is the prospective company a high-value target for you?

For Dunlap Marketing, making multiple attempts is an important contributor to our success.  Mostly we reach out by making phone calls with the reinforcement of sending one-on-one emails and voicemails.  With calling we balance the number of call attempts over a duration of time.  Time becomes a good friend.  Over time you can call early in the morning, late in the morning, early in the afternoon, and late in the afternoon.  Mixing up your call times gives you a better chance of connecting.

The “How To”

Apply good common sense to call frequency. You want to avoid your target prospect feeling that they are your only prospect.  You have other prospective companies to develop, so find a balance between spending time with other quality opportunities. 

Back to persistence, this is an important trait to have because persistence is often necessary to reach the person you need to speak with.  Decision makers are very busy, and guess what, they are not waiting for you to call them.  It’s no secret that people are often difficult to speak with.  Our belief is you have to earn the opportunity to speak with them, and tactful persistence is often required to earn the opportunity. It is important to trust the fact that just because you are unable to speak with the person, does not suggest they are uninterested. Often, it just simply confirms the fact that they are busy!

To specifically address the question: how often should you reach out to a target prospect – with first time campaigns, where the prospect data file is not huge, it’s common for Dunlap Marketing to start a campaign with the agreement of making 5 call attempts over a 4 to 6 week period of time.  As a general rule, our belief is it’s good to penetrate the list by making multiple call attempts if possible.  It gives you a more accurate feel of what the quality of opportunities is going to look like. 

This represents just the tip of the iceberg based on call frequency.  This type of campaign can rest for a month or two, then you can start calling into it again.  Unless you spoke to the right person, the likelihood is no one in the company will ever remember you called in prior times.  On the other extreme, with campaigns that we have been working on for years, it is very common to see appointments that we set today as having 50 or more call attempts over the past few years. 

If a prospect is important to you, do not be afraid to be tactfully persistent with trying to make contact.  However, it is very important that you do not over call and always be courteous to everyone you encounter while navigating to the right person.  To state the obvious, when you finally do reach the right person, be prepared!

The Exception

When done properly, tactful persistence is almost always a good trait; however, when you have a larger prospect database to develop, it may not be as necessary to practice persistence, as with smaller data files.  The larger the file, the more you can play the game of numbers, meaning, there will commonly be a segment of your target prospects that are more likely to answer their phone.  The larger the file, the more you can skim the top of the list, connecting with those who are easier to connect with. 

You may find that you are successful in filling your pipeline by making 2 or 3 call attempts.  Take advantage of this if you can.  As you develop the prospect list over time, you will find the level of challenge will start increasing as it relates to connection rates.  This is very typical.  The offset is you do a better job of saturating the list.

Ultimately…

A byproduct of skillfully working through your target prospect list is you can create multiple silos of categories.  You can prioritize your silos by who may have short-term interest, mid-term, long-term, or no interest at all.  This is all very good information to know as it helps you determine how to spend your time moving forward.

Part of the value of tactful persistence is it allows you to be creative with keeping your name in front of target prospects and how you integrate other marketing methods to communicate ongoing.  This all becomes beautiful marketing and it will generate terrific results for you.

In closing, this article brings to mind two of my favorite sayings, both of which I firmly believe in relating to how we live our lives and how we conduct business:

  • “Tactful persistence is the key to success”
  • “You never get a second chance at a first impression”

Both sayings significantly play into the intent of this article; work hard, be patient, do not give up, and always respect others.

You can contact Mike Dunlap at miked@dunlapmarketing.com or call him at (281) 496-9870 x140.

Dunlap Intern Q&A Cont.

Posted on by Kaitlin Dunlap

By: Tammy Tran 

Welcome back to our internship series! Recently, our interns gave us a glimpse into their day-to-day tasks at Dunlap Marketing. From market data research to cold calling, our interns were fully immersed in learning about behaviors of prospective clients. They have put in their fair share of hard work this summer! These future business leaders have learned a lot this summer and without further ado, let’s dive into part 2 of our intern Q&A!

Click here for part 1 of our intern Q&A. 

        

How would you describe your experience this summer?

“Overall, my experience at Dunlap was positive and I am truly grateful to have participated in their internship program. Everyone here welcomed me and the other interns immediately and made us feel like very crucial parts of the company, which is something rare for an internship.”

–Owen Steinle, Sport, Strategy, Sales, Baylor University 

“Overall, my experience interning at Dunlap Marketing this summer has been amazing from the leadership of Mike and Kaitlin to our weekly breakout sessions to gain industry knowledge from other professionals.” 

  -Tammy Tran, Marketing, Texas A&M University 

“I would say that I had a great experience at Dunlap this summer, I was able to do quality work while also being in a great work environment. I am grateful that I was able to work for Dunlap this summer and I believe that it is an internship that sets me up nicely for the future.”

–Marshall McDuffie, Finance, Baylor University

            

What are your major takeaways from the internship?

“My major takeaway from working at Dunlap is that my communication skills have vastly improved. I am now able to talk to anybody and not have any kind of anxiety on the phone. Secondly, I learned a ton about being a young professional, improving my resume, building my network, and how to create a stable financial budget – which were all topics we covered in our weekly breakout sessions”

-Marshall McDuffie, Finance, Baylor University

“One of my major takeaways has been improving my communication skills, especially through cold calls and setting appointments.” 

-Tammy Tran, Marketing, Texas A&M University

Is there anything that you have learned here that will be beneficial in your future within the business world? If so, what is it?

“One thing I learned is the importance of being involved in professional organizations. There is an assumption that when you graduate from college, leaving all your university’s programs and clubs, you will have to be “on your own” in the professional world. I learned this is not the case and there are numerous opportunities to be in an organization with like-minded people working in the same field as me, which is comforting.”

 -Owen Steinle, Sports, Strategy, Sales, Baylor University

  “I learned the first impressions you have with others, business or social, are vital to the relationships down the road and those connections and networks can help shape your career path.”   

-Tammy Tran. Marketing, Texas A&M University 

It’s been a terrific three months here at Dunlap Marketing! We are proud to be part of our intern’s continued growth and anxiously await to see the impact they will have on the business world. For even more on our 2022 summer interns, check out our Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Summer 2022 Intern Blog PT 1

Posted on by Kaitlin Dunlap

By: Tammy Tran

Summer has flown by in a blink of an eye and our Dunlap Marketing interns are gearing up to return to campus. For the past seven years, Dunlap Marketing has been passionate about developing the next generation of aspiring business leaders with our summer internship program which allows college students to gain valuable real-world experience and essential knowledge, all while growing their professional skills in a supportive and encouraging environment. The heart of our internship program is without a doubt, our dedicated leadership team that works hands-on with our interns to prepare them for their post-graduate careers.

This year Dunlap Marketing was excited to welcome three college students, from Baylor University and Texas A&M University, onboard our program. They worked on various entry-level campaigns, such as research calls and basic surveys. “We have been gathering marketing data through different mediums all summer. We have called hundreds of people, representing numerous companies, to help these companies better understand their target market,” said Owen Steinle, Baylor University. Contributing to the success of these campaigns, interns gained skills in cold-calling, lead generation, social media marketing, and B2B marketing. 

Here’s what our interns had to say about their work this summer!

“Throughout my internship at Dunlap Marketing, I got opportunity to work on several B2B campaigns, work with Kaitlin to learn the ins and outs of social media logistics and apply my creativity with managing the Dunlap Marketing social media accounts.”

– Tammy Tran, Marketing, Texas A&M University

“In summary, I would call what we did this summer ‘marketing grunt work’ because we captured the data that might initially seem insignificant, but in reality, is absolutely crucial to the marketing and sales processes.”

– Owen Steinle, Sports, Strategy, Sales, Baylor University

Of course, our summer internship programs would not be complete without our weekly breakout sessions led by Kaitlin Dunlap Cuevas. Breakout sessions function to bridge the gap between what they’ve learned in class and how to apply it. Interns had the opportunity to have Q&As with both, Mike Dunlap and Kaitlin Dunlap Cuevas and learn from industry experts on young professional involvement, personal finance, resume optimization, and much more. It has been a wonderful summer with the addition of these talented individuals, and we can’t wait to see what comes next for them!

“My favorite thing about working at Dunlap was the breakout sessions. I learned a ton from talking to Kaitlin, Mike, and the other professionals that we met with. I felt like they were so beneficial for all the interns, and they became my favorite part of the weeks.”

– Marshall McDuffie, Finance, Baylor University   

Stay tuned for next week’s blog where our interns talk about their experience being Dunlap interns and what they’ve learned. For even more on our 2022 summer interns, check out our Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. To read about our previous summer interns, check them out here; 2021, 2020, 2017, and 2016!