How to Re-Engage LinkedIn Prospects – Part 2

How to Re-Engage LinkedIn Prospects That Agreed to a Phone Call But No-Showed

Everyone’s been there.

You get a lead to say yes to a phone call, and then weeks or months later you find yourself asking “whatever came of that?” or “oh no! I dropped the ball!” Because you find that you’d never followed up.

This commonly falls into one of three scenarios:

1. They said yes and you reached back for a date, time, and number and they never responded and you forgot to follow up.
2. They said yes and you missed it or didn’t get back and it fell through the cracks.
3. They said yes. You scheduled a call. And either they no-showed or you missed it. Perhaps you or they left a voicemail, but then there was never a follow up on again.

Don’t beat yourself up too much, like I said, nearly everyone I’ve spoken with has done one, if not all of these, yet the world spins on. So, what are some things you can do to re-engage these LinkedIn prospects and get that agreement to a phone call back on track?

As you may have predicted, I have some suggestions for you.

The first two scenarios from above end up being very similar, they lack a timely follow-up. So, here are some approaches to flip these seemingly negatives to definite positives.

The Busy-Card

It’s famous and sometimes overused, but can be a lifesaver if used appropriately. You can simply claim that you’ve been distracted by new work and now it’s under control and circling back on the phone call they’d agreed to “back then.” Besides, chances are it’s quite close to the truth!

The Apology

It’s a close relative to the Busy-Card, but instead it ignores the details of the excuse. You simply just apologize for not getting back to them sooner and move forward with scheduling the call.

Something like:

“Tom, sorry it’s taken me so long to follow up here. Are you free to talk next Tuesday at 11am (Pacific)?”

Shrug It Off and Share

This is kind of like pretending it didn’t happen, you reach back out to them to share a piece of content. However, this can be used a couple of different ways.

1. You explain that you came to share this piece of content with them and were reminded that you two were supposed to schedule a call and it fell-off. Now you’d like to see about getting that set up. 

2. You just send the content to them expressing how you thought they might like it and if they respond you make your move on the call then. “Thanks for your response, I see that we never set up that call from my message a while back. Do you have some time this Thursday?”

The Bump-In

Also known as the “Hey, I saw that,” which is in reference to seeing some activity of theirs on LinkedIn. This is where you see a post of theirs and then message them about it.

“Hey Sharon, I saw that post you shared on how GM’s AI team spent all their cryptocurrencies on robotic dogs. Wow!

Seeing your post reminded me that we never got that call set up. Are you open next Wednesday afternoon for a quick chat?”

Potent Notables

Those milestones that LinkedIn lets you know about. Say they have a birthday or work anniversary come up; you can use that to trigger reaching out.

Now, what about that 3rd scenario where you got the call scheduled and then one of you missed it and before you knew it, weeks had passed by.

Some of the above methods could work here as well, particularly Shrug it off and Share, A Bump-In and the Potent Notables –however, only if they are the one that missed that call does that work best.

But, here are some other tactics in this situation.

If They Missed the Call

Well, the fruit is in the follow up, just reach back out on a few different mediums. Give them another call on the number they gave you to leave a new voicemail and drop them a line in the LinkedIn inbox.

“Hey Steven, I just left you a voicemail following up on our missed call a few weeks ago, let me know if you have some time next Tuesday or Thursday to chat.”

Persistence pays here. They already said yes, don’t ever assume it’s now a “no” just because the call was missed. They will let you know if they have changed their mind.

If You Missed the Call

This one can be a little tougher sometimes, but try to relate them to the notion that everyone can get pulled away.

You have to apologize and be sincere about it. Maybe something like:

A Pep-Talk

Look, we could run over scenarios until cows come home, but there are some underlying themes going on here.

1. Confidence
2. Sincerity
3. Awareness
4. Persistence

If you hold these themes as values and practice them, success will come your way.

I’m not looking to write a self-help book here, but I believe that you are here reading this blog because you believe in the work that you do. Though, sometimes it can be a struggle to convey that to others, and holding these four values will help the way your message is received.

Let’s briefly dive into the details of these themes:

Confidence: Be sure of yourself and what you have to offer. If you read back through my suggestions you’ll notice there’s a bit of assertiveness in there.

It’s almost like I’m assuming everything is fine and they’re willing to have the call at the suggested times, but it’s not aggressive. Don’t cower in what you might feel is a mistake and let that keep you from following up, this will only hurt you.

Sincerity: These were listed in no particular order, but I’d be willing to argue that this is the most important one. If you don’t genuinely care about what you do and what you can help your prospects achieve, then why is it you are here?

With that, you want to be sure to show your sincerity. If you dropped the ball, apologize for wasting their time –no one likes their time being wasted and you understand that. If you reach out in regards to a post they made or an anniversary, be sure to show that you actually care about the value of it. This is about being a part of a community, not selling something for the sake of selling it.

Awareness: Be active on LinkedIn, read what your connections share or publish. LinkedIn has enabled us to take the “small-community” business approach and spread it across the world. You can know what your prospects and competitors are up to from St. Louis to Dublin to Auckland and be a genuine part of that community – take full advantage of this.

Persistence: It pays, baby. Don’t take any of responses or non-responses personally. Don’t assume silence, or a missed call is a “no,” keep following up until they tell you “no.” If you assume it, then you’ve made the answer for them –so why not make it “yes” until they say otherwise?

Practicing persistence and process will pay off. Besides, it’s always better to be right in the long run after all 

To learn more about using LinkedIn to get more appointments with your prospects, join us for our next free LinkedIn workshop here where we’ll share the exact the 6-Figure LinkedIn Formula we used and our clients use that will add $100k+ to your revenue in the next 12 months…without spending a dime on ads. Click below for more information…