So this post is, in some ways, a repeat. I’ve made this point before. But never in its own post. And I’m making it again because it’s something between all these Calendly invites, and side hustles, and more that everyone has gotten worse at.
We’ve all gotten worse at getting back to prospects and customers — fast.
Contact Me has its place, perhaps. But why does a prospect have to wait days to just set up a Zoom? Or to get a demo?
As a sales exec, you may not know actually the product well. You may not know how to create urgency. You may not know the competitors perfectly. But one thing is in your control today — you can be more responsive. In fact, you can be hyper-responsive.
A few recent examples:
Example #1: I was recently chatting with a VP of Sales about a job position, which I get he wasn’t 100% sure he wanted. But he took 4 days to get back to the startup on it. And then said he was in no rush, and could talk about in 2 weeks.
Don’t hire that one.
Example #2: A little while ago, I reached out to 3 top support vendors. None allowed a free trial anymore. And when I hit Contact Me? No human even got back to me the same day. Sigh.
Customers should feel like Kings and Queens.
Customers care about their businesses, about their time, about their jobs, about doing better. It’s not a transaction to them. They may not even have time later in the week. If they really reached out, it’s because it’s important.
Try to make them feel important back. Try to get back to them immediately. At least, a bona fide email within minutes if you possibly can.
That, you can do.
Now to be clear — you may need to total change your process and culture to pull this off. Automation has in many ways made this worse. But figure it out. How can we make sure every prospect gets responded to in 15 minutes? And how can we make sure their demo is scheduled at least within 24 hours?
And if you’re an AE yourself, just do better than the basic here. Do better than the systems you are given. Watch at least some customers care. Especially when the competitors don’t try this hard.
A related post here:
(Next Week image from here)
