Calls to action are one of the most effective ways to grow your sales. The most effective calls to action entice your prospective customer by offering some information that is of value to them.
These “Click Here and Get This” offers can be delivered through online paid advertising or on your website.
And they can give you great results – if you use them right.
How Building Material Companies Respond to Leads
As an avid learner and someone interested in best practices for building material sales and marketing, I click on a number of these calls to action each week.
Sometimes, I click on them just to see how a building material company will respond. For instance, I recently requested samples from 14 competitive companies to see how soon I’d hear from them, what they’d send and whether there would be any additional follow-up.
I was amazed by the results – not by how great they were, but by how poorly these companies responded. Only four of them actually mailed me a sample. And of those four, only two of them bothered to follow up after sending it.
Not receiving what you requested is rarely a problem because when you click on a “Click Here and Get This” offer, you’re often doing it to get access to a download.
But that shouldn’t be the end of it. I exchange my valuable contact information for that download. What’s even more interesting than the download itself is watching how companies respond to me telling them who I am.
There are three types of responses:
1. No response or follow-up. Internally, there’s probably a report to management about how many people downloaded the offer, but if there’s no planned follow-up, this whole effort has little value.
2. Well-planned and executed follow-up program. These programs are designed to nurture the prospect, build a relationship and move at the pace the customer wants to move based on where they are in the sales funnel.
3. Aggressive, “I’m going to sell you today” response. This is almost as bad as no response at all. I have noticed more companies taking this intrusive and unwelcome approach.
How to Lose a Sale
I recently saw an offer for a report on how architects specify products today. Since that’s something I would want to read, I clicked on the offer and provided my contact information in exchange for downloading the report.
The next day, I was contacted by an appointment setter from this company. They were using a very good script, so I agreed to schedule a call.
But things turned around a few days later when I got on the phone call. I felt like I was on a call with a salesperson from a boiler room full of people selling worthless stock investments.
The salesperson happened to be representing a media company that wanted to sell advertising to reach architects. But he didn’t care that I had no interest in or need for advertising to architects. He just kept selling and selling and selling – until I finally hung up.
The other type of response I have experienced is where someone sends an email or leaves a voicemail trying to set up a sales call the day after I downloaded their report or white paper.
I’m not ready for a sales call yet – I barely had time to look at the download. When you move too fast in your response because you assume that any willful show of interest means I’m ready to buy, you run the risk of turning me off.
Responding to Leads Is All About Timing
If you’re going to use marketing automation and the very effective tool of calls to action, you need to do it right, with a carefully planned and timed response.
Don’t make the mistake of either not responding or responding so fast and aggressively that you lose your prospect’s interest. Calls to action are a great way to get people to give you their information, but if you want to get the best results from this very effective tool, it’s all in the way you respond and having a little patience.
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Thanks for the following comments. I’d like to hear your feedback and suggestions on how to sell architects.
“Really enjoyed reading this! Your insight and knowledge is very valuable for anyone selling building materials.”
Tyler Wennet
Sales Representative
Source Direct Imports
