Fact:  following the initial call to a new potential client, the majority of sales people rarely call that client ever again.

Fact:  it is likely to take an average of seven to eight attempts before you win a potential client.

Fact:  it is unlikely that you will gain volume quality business the first time you contact a new potential client.

Fact:  by using a simple contact management system as a key tool in your sales and marketing strategy, you will start to build and maintain long term business relationships with live, prospect and dormant clients.   

Here’s how:

1. Qualify the clients on your database

Before client details are even added to your database, ensure that each organisation meets your ‘target client’ criteria.  For example, initial criteria might be simply that they recruit in your sector and are located in your geographical region.  Further criteria could be that they are solvent, they allow you to do your job and they pay their bills on time.  These aspects about new clients and are learned as you start to work with them but there are early indicators to help you, such as the client providing explicit agreement to your terms, agreeing to meet you and spending time to explain the nature of the vacancies. 

2. Make initial contact

Ensure you have a valid business reason for doing calling these clients (covered in Practical Selling Step 1-Cold Calling) and set yourself realistic goals for each call.  This is important, because if you expect to win business at the first call stage, you will be setting yourself up to fail

3. Set the next contact time

This step is vital.  You need to make the decision on how often to be in contact with the client in the future.  Sometimes this will be because there is potentially some business to have but most of the time, there will be nothing but the aim to build the relationship with the client to aim for initially.

4. Call when you agreed to call

If you have agreed to call a client back at a certain time, then do it; it shows you are reliable and that you listen.  This helps to enhance perception of you and your business, because it is an indicator of how you will perform if the client uses your services in the future.  Whatever you do, ensure you are remembered for the right reasons, not the wrong ones!

5. Set up effective admin processes

Record every salient point from telephone conversations and meetings; you will be able to build on this the next time you call and the alternative is to start from scratch every time.  It is also usual to send some information to the client so that they have your contact details (email or a business card in the post is normally sufficient at this stage).  And don’t forget to organise a prompt for the next call.  I have seen so many examples, where the client has not been called back due to someone forgetting to diarise the next call and the result has been a loss of potential business (isn’t it a killer when you hear that a competitor has some business that you could have won!).

Your call contact management system does not have to involve state of the art IT systems; if your database is less than perfect, find “work-rounds” to this – I have seen part manual, part IT systems work very well and in some cases, where the IT system ideally needs to be replaced but budget constraints prevent it, a good old-fashioned 100% manual system can still work wonders.  Where there’s a will, there’s a way!

6. Meet your clients

Please meet your clients!  In today’s market, clients are looking for added value services and even traditionally telephone-based recruitment is moving towards a more consultative approach.  By meeting a client, you are much more likely to understand the culture of the business, the type of person to fit and to build trust and confidence in the working relationship.   

If, however, it is impossible to meet clients, then “work-arounds” can be found; one of the best I have seen is where a recruiter “met” a client by video link and asked all the questions he would have asked in a face to face meeting.

7. Measure your success

Clearly, you need to be carrying out a certain amount of sales activities; however the quality of these activities is vitally important, otherwise, you could end up being a busy fool.  Decide on a minimum weekly number for each activity and make sure you hit or exceed this.  Then decide on the conversion ratios you feel you should be working to, for example, client meetings arranged to telemarketing calls made and business gained from meetings arranged.  (Other indicators of quality in recruitment include: jobs filled to jobs taken; interviews diarised to CVs sent; first interviews attended to first interviews diarised; job offers to first interviews attended and placements made to offers made).

I have been involved with setting up a large number of businesses, either of my own or other peoples.  In virtually every case, there were no existing client databases and they all had to be started from scratch, dong the things illustrated in this and Practical Selling Step 1 - Cold Calling.  If there is no magic wand to successful selling and it is simply about getting the basics very right – which I truly believe it is, then you have every chance to make your sales work for you. 

Good luck!

Denise Walker owns and runs Absolutely Business, a management consultancy, delivering business consultancy, training and training services.

t  0118 9821535  e  [email protected] w  www.absolutelybusiness.co.uk