How do you set clear and realistic goals and expectations for your follow-up calls?

Keep Calling is my motto! Why? It's still one of the most effective prospecting approaches. That's because I have control over whom to call, when to call, and what to say! If I'm not in control, I cannot manage! I'm not saying passive prospecting is ineffective, it's just if I have the chance, I prefer prospecting proactively! Calling is not to qualify the prospect, but to set up the initial convo with them. When I pick up the phone to dial, I just think that there's someone on the other end of the line possibly holding a $ check to hand it over to me/my company in return for solving their problem. The only problem is that, they don't know about me/my company, yet. Keep calling!

Technically, what we have not achieved is always stated as higher than realistic. To improvise from realistic to a higher realistic we are required to achieve smaller figures and then from there constantly improvise. Setting lower limits would harm the performance and would put the organisation and its goal at risk. Never let your team remain in a comfort zone for a longer time. Once they stop moving out of the comfort zone, they start withdrawing either due underutilisation of their skills or sudden over work pressure.

Start with Your Goals and the expected end result! After that you can think about your activity plan. ?s to answer for an activity plan: - How many sales/month do you need to close to reach your goals? - How many presentations or proposals must you make? - How many initial meetings must you have to uncover the required number of presentation opportunities? - How many conversations with prospects must you have to schedule the required number of initial meetings? - What prospecting activities must you do to have the required number of conversations? Be realistic! If the numbers you come up with are not realistic, it's not going to work. Finally, translate your “number” into appropriate daily behavior, or prospecting activities.

This comes down to your business needs, ICP, tools you use etc. If you are targeting a niche market, being strategic and researching your prospects will help you build a more strategic approach, and it will be effective. However, if you have tens of thousands of companies in your ICP, and there's a PMF, getting in front of as many people as possible should be the goal. Sales is still a numbers game. Just pick up the phone and keep calling.

Breaking the pattern is what top performers excel at. A prospect would expect some typical behaviors from you on a call (cold call or sales call). Meanwhile, never assume they are available or they are busy. That's a mistake most sales people make. Our job is not assumptions but questions. So, ask for permission! Some killer pattern breakers and asking for permission phrases that I use are - - Hey {Prospect name}, this is {your name}. This is a cold call. Wanna roll the dice? - Hey {Prospect name}, this is {your name}. Got a minute, happy to tell you why I'm calling. - (opening)...This is a cold call and a lot of people don't like it. If you want to hang up, I understand it. But if you have a minute, happy to tell you why I'm calling.

There are some certain steps to be followed and some minimum touch points. It used to take 8-11 touches to get in front of the prospect but recent researches show that that has increased to 18-22 steps. Persistence wins, but there's a fine line between being persistent and being pushy. Have a main sequence, and have at least 5 emails, 7 cold calls, 3 LI touch points over the course of 30-45 days in your main sequence. Have a nurture sequence, and include at least 1 LI step, 4 emails, 1 phone call over the course of 4-6 months. Your outreach should always aim to bring value to your prospect. If you ever end up sending a "just wanted to follow up" or "just checking in" email, chances are you've run out of value you can add.

Email open rates and reply rates are important but what's more important is the relative reply rates. If the open rate is 50% and the reply rate is 5%, you're looking at 10% relative reply rate. When measuring reply and booking success of an email, measure based on the open rate. Open rates are not always about your subject line, Technology makes it more and more difficult for your emails to go into your prospect's inbox. Once you figure that out, think about ways to better your CTAs. Don't always go for "Do you have 30 minutes sometime this week?". Break the pattern and show patience.