I have a confession to make.

I am bald.

BUT, I’m bald voluntarily. I started shaving my head in 2000 and am thankful I have a decently shaped head with no scars or nicks anywhere. I give credit to Bruce Willis who made being bald cool and in fashion.

Typically I get my head shaved every 10 days. I usually go to Great Clips and it cost between $5 – $14 depending on if I have a coupon or not. They serve the masses and Great Clips is not for everyone. My hairdresser, Carol, rocks and I request her every time I visit. She does excellent work and is a pro. After I get my head shaved, I go home and shower and get all the little hairs out and it’s highly convenient since it’s about 2 miles away. It’s very obvious who Great Clips targets as their customer.

Recently I received a complimentary hair cut coupon and decided to use it at The Gents Place in Leawood Town Center. I made an appointment and showed up. I get there, check in and the gal behind the desk offers me something to drink. Then she comes around and takes my jacket and puts in a locker and hands me the key. I finally get called to my hairdresser and as you may tell, this place caters to Leawood middle to upper class business men. It has a pool table and spa rooms and locker rooms and even a bar for members. Top notch and it definitely caters to a high end clientele.

I got my head shaved, massaged, rinsed, washed and completed with a hot towel service. I’ve never had that before and it felt great. Normal cost was $45 or so and I tipped my hairdresser and left.

So as a sales organization, who do you cater to? Who’s your ideal client?

Is it targeted towards anyone or do you have someone specific in mind?

Target everyone and you sell to nobody.

Is your product or service targeted to the masses out there like Great Clips?

OR

Do you have someone specific in mind with a certain income level, profession, geography, or type of business?

Take a few minutes and reflect on your ideal client. Do you have several transactions with small dollar amounts or fewer transactions with higher dollar amounts.

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday everyone!

Here’s the final installment of my series unofficially titled “Sample Voicemails While Prospecting or Cold Calling for Sales”.

Here’s the 5th voicemail that I use:

“Hello _____ Ray Ruecker with Connect 5000. I don’t know if you’re currently evaluating _____, but if you are, I can offer you some insights in less than 15 minutes to help you make a better decision, whether that’s with us or not. If you are please call me back at _____. Again my phone number is _____.”

My _____ is lead generation services. What’s yours?

So assuming you’ve left 5 voicemails and 5 emails that resemble your voicemails you just left over 5 weeks, you’ve now made 10 touches.

Remember, it takes 8 to 10 touches to get a hold of a sales prospect. Most sales reps make 1.7 attempts and then give up according to Insidesales.com.

If they don’t respond, move on and circle back with them 6 months later.

I’m Ray Ruecker with Connect 5000. Best of luck!

Here’s another voicemail sample you can tweak for your own offering:

“Hello _____, Ray Ruecker with Connect 5000. I’m following up on an email I sent you recently. We generated a sales call for a client that resulted in a $27M new contract 7 months later. Please call me back and I’ll share how we did it at _____.

Couple of notes:

1. People love and remember client success stories.

2. The story must be true.

3. Offer to get the prospect in touch with the client you’ve had success with. It’s like having references. Offer them before the prospect asks for them.

I’m Ray Ruecker with Connect 5000. This is the 3rd voicemail sample with 2 more to go!

Hey everyone! I hope you’re having a great year so far.

I’ve been asked several times by people on what to say if they have to leave a voicemail when prospecting or cold calling for new business.

Before I call someone, I tend to send an email first. Some people prefer to communicate by phone, others prefer to communicate by email.

Here’s my first voicemail that I will leave a prospect:

“Hello ____, Ray Ruecker with Connect 5000. I’m following up on an email i sent you recently. I noticed your LinkedIn profile and thought it might make sense to talk. Please call me back at ____. Again that number is ____.”

(This is assuming your prospect has a LinkedIn profile of course.)

The voicemail is short, sweet and to the point and hopefully arouses curiosity. I also want the prospect to go to his or her email and look for my mine as well. Sometimes when you send an email and the person is no longer there, it doesn’t always bounce back. Sometimes the person’s automatic responder will be on with their signature and direct phone number which is helpful so that you don’t have to call the main number and get screened out by the gatekeeper. You can leave a voicemail directly with the prospect.

Hope this helps. I’ll send out another sample soon. I have 4 more samples to share.

I’m Ray Ruecker with Connect 5000.

 

I’m curious to how many sales can be traced directly back to blogging.

The challenge is that many small business owners aren’t going up against the competition mainly but I would say against lots of social media noise.

I did some quick research and here’s what I found.

1. There are about 300 million LinkedIn profiles.

2. There are 1.28 billion Facebook users

3. In the United States alone, there are 31 million bloggers.

That’s a lot of noise and social media to compete with!

Unless you have major marketing and advertising dollars, how do small firms compete?

Does blogging have a measurable return on investment that some companies put a lot of time effort into?

I’m interested in hearing from you!

I’m Ray Ruecker with Connect 5000.