Use Variety in Your B2B Inside Sales (Videos, Hand-Written Letters, etc.)

[Lex Love]

B2B selling is becoming more and more complicated and customers are doing more of the sales process on their own than ever before.
These folks are becoming increasing resistant to giving their time to yet another pitch, and catching attention early and powerfully is critical to earning an audience for your product.

If you feel like you are yet another voice in a very loud crowd, consider mixing up the way you reach out to your customers. Think skewing value in your SALES APPROACH. Just how you don't know which attributes of your product will win over individual customers, you don't know which contact method works best for them either. I've had old school customers who love good ol' fashioned phone pitches. But I also have introverts who avoid any direct human contact at all costs but readily respond to any email I send. The point is to maximize the opportunities to be received well and also set yourself apart from the noise.

The more creative and out-of-the box way to reach your customers, the more likely you are to grab attention and earn a second conversation. Other than phone calls and emails, here are some ways to consider reaching out to your customers:

- Sales Videos: I have had tremendous success with these. Prospect who would never give me the time of day would respond immediately after sending them a tailor-made video.

- Hand-written cards: sometimes old tech becomes new again. I guarantee you most if not all of your competition have not sent your prospects a hand-written letter. Your prospects will be way more likely to read through one of these than an email.

- Mailing relevant literature: lots of business people love to read. Sending them a gifted book (must be relevant to them and hopefully connect back to you) can make you stick way out and the urge to reciprocate will often alone be enough to earn you another conversation

- Video conference: Instead of setting up a follow up, consider doing a video conference. Seeing your face can increase trust and humanize you to your prospects

- Add a meme to your email: I know this can sound hokey and tasteless--and it totally can be--but I have had WAY more positive responses than negative ones when I embed a funny meme. They may feel unprofessional so know your audience but I have found that memes are so unexpected in a sales email that they almost always elicit a response.

- Video message card: I'll be honest I have never used one of these but there is an obvious appeal. This has the benefits of both a video and a hand-written letter. These can be kind of expensive so don't expect to be able to mass send these. But imagine receiving a card in the mail with a targeted pitch to your specific needs and inside is a hand-written note. Talking about sticking out.

- Fax: Yeah. Fax. If your contact has access to a fax machine and you send them an eye-catching fax, I promise the odds of your message being received are substantially higher than an email. Your prospects might receive dozens of emails from your competitors a week. When is the last time they received a fax?

There are probably plenty of things I am forgetting or haven't even used myself. The point is, your sales process has myriad ways to skew value all by itself.

 

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