Looking for a revolutionary idea to grow sales during this crisis? Read on to discover…
An Idea Whose Time Is Now
Wendy Weiss, The Queen of prospecting®
There is a global pandemic. You and your team are all working remotely. You’re worried about what’s going to happen to your business and you’re worried about what’s going to happen to sales. You’re worried about how to stay in touch with your existing clients and you’re worried about how to find new opportunities.
Here is a revolutionary idea: Make phone calls.
According to a recent article in the New York Times, “The Humble Phone Call Has Made a Comeback.”
In recent years a common refrain has been, “the phone is dead,” because of caller ID, voicemail and millennials who don’t like to talk on the phone at all. With our current crisis, however, something has shifted.
The New York Times reported that:
“Verizon said it was now handling an average of 800 million wireless calls a day during the week, more than double the number made on Mother’s Day, historically one of the busiest call days of the year. Verizon added that the length of voice calls was up 33 percent from an average day before the outbreak. AT&T said that the number of cellular calls had risen 35 percent and that Wi-Fi-based calls had nearly doubled from averages in normal times…. The surge in voice calls is for both business and personal purposes, said Chris Sambar, AT&T’s executive vice president of technology and operations.”
Anecdotally, my experience over the past several weeks has been that clients and prospects are answering their phones more, and when they do answer, they are very chatty. People who are not used to working remotely are happy to have another human being with whom to speak. The two members of my business development team have reported the same experience. I have also heard this from a number of colleagues who are prospecting. Granted, this is a very small sample, however, the New York Times article backs this up. People are talking on the phone more.
There’s opportunity here. Now is the time to reach out to existing clients, see how they are and offer your support. Now is also the time to also reach out to new prospects. You may not make an immediate sale; however, you can start to build relationships that will result in future sales. The vehicle to make this happen? The telephone. The time to make this happen? Now.
