During the last 17 years, I have heard hundreds of voicemail messages that salespeople have left their prospects and have read even more prospecting emails. When I talk to salespeople, I often ask how many people get back to them. Unfortunately, it's a very small number.
The problem is that most salespeople don't think like business people. They focus on their agendas, which involve selling something, instead of demonstrating how they can help a prospect solve a problem. In other words, they leave messages that sound like every other salesperson's messages.
One of my clients, the vice president of a mid-size company, said, "This one salesperson keeps calling and leaving me messages, but as soon as I hear his name, I hit the delete button. And when he sends me an email, it goes directly into the junk folder." Ouch!
I seized on the opportunity and asked my client what it would take for him to return a salesperson's call or respond to an email. He responded, "He needs to give me a good reason. He needs to demonstrate that he actually knows something about my business and the problems I'm dealing with and that he might have a solution I haven't already considered."
