Shoan Snoday worked as a representative for Microsoft which allowed him to partner with Danka, Gateway2000, and Dell Computers, writing their system and processes. The last company he worked with representing Microsoft as their marketing manager was a small boutique in San Diego and Southern California. In 2014, Shoan started his own marketing agency. His new career enabled him to work side by side with Jeff Walker, Frank Kern, and other big names in the marketing space. He is also a marketing digital partner with the largest traffic and conversions and he’s a partner with Infusionsoft who has over 600 employees.
Shoan also has a podcast called Automation Rehab where he works with some of the top marketers and salespeople in the world. A lot of his guests have spoken on big stages such as Social Media Examiner, Icon, GKIC, and more.
The difficulty in the cold process
Top salespeople can establish a system that makes it difficult to see new opportunities. Cold prospecting can be like that unless you lean into new patterns of communicating. Once these new campaigns are shown and executed it can bring new life, even into the most seasoned salespeople.
With new technology, it’s getting harder to make contact in the more traditional ways. For example, a new feature on the iPhone will make it so that anyone calling who isn’t on the contact list will automatically get sent to voicemail. Shoan tells his team to text their prospects before they call so they get a heads-up the call is coming. With a text, the pick-up rate is much higher. When they reply to your text, then you have an engagement which is the goal.
Getting that engagement
Sloan believes traditional “snail mail” is being underutilized. Shoan has a flash drive with only a 2GB memory that he sends his prospects. In it, he has a “Read Me First” text. This way, regardless of the device the prospect is using, he’ll be able to read it. It’s a text file that explains the content of the flash drive. It has an introduction video and a .pdf document that serves as the lead magnet. You are going to build value in that .pdf by adding links to set an appointment with you, some sales training video series, or your website, landing page, or contact page.
Once this USB package has been put together, Shoan shoots the prospect an email telling them about a lumpy envelope that is coming with the flash drive in it. He then calls or texts the prospects reminding them of mail they’ll be getting. The admin then calls again, checking on the prospect and making sure that they did get the lumpy mail. This is what “coming from all angles” means. They are following up without being annoying.
Aggressive vs Assertive
There is a difference between being aggressive and being assertive. When the prospect replies that he got the lumpy mail, asking a question like, “Well, did you read it?” is an example of being aggressive. This is not a welcoming query for the prospect. You’ll want to train your admin and give them a script to follow.
If you still aren’t able to get the prospect using the lumpy mail, your next strategy is sending a second envelope with testimonials. The testimonials will help in building value. Along with the testimonials is a data-driven dashboard. You admin will again send a text or an email confirming if they got the mail or not. This particular campaign is a 30-Day strategy.
Overcome the learning curve
Many salespeople say that The Lumpy Envelope strategy is something they haven’t tried before but it’s proven to be effective. Shoan offers five tools to add to your marketing arsenal and these are things that most salespeople already have. There are the lead magnet and a series of PDF files on the training about their products and services. There’s also the testimonials which are also a marketing tool. You can ask your previous clients to write a testimonial or write them yourself and ask for permission to attach a client’s name. Shoan did this for his book Fill your Wellness Center Overnight.
Reach out to people
The pandemic has affected so many industries and many people in sales say this is a bad time. Shoan has a different opinion. He suggests that this is the best time to reach out to people. In sales, we don’t want somebody else to call our prospects. This is the best time to be in front of people, even when it’s just virtually. Now is the time to prospect as others hide. Thrive in this vacuum by reaching out to clients. Now is a perfect time. They’re in their homes and they have the time to talk to you. This is called the re-engagement phase. You can do this for all those cold prospects in your database. These are the people who never came on board.
Think of selling like dating. We need to court our prospects. We don’t want to make the call and offer our products right away. We need to ease into it and woo our prospects in becoming clients. This goes for re-approaching clients who moved onto another company as well. With less new leads, rediscover old interactions.
“How To Turn Cold Leads Into Hot Prospects” episode resources
Connect with your current clients right now and engage them. Make a survey and ask them to rate your service from 1-10. Those people who answered 6 and below, call them and ask them what’s wrong. For those who said 90 or above, ask them for a referral. Keep talking to people and keep engaging.
Reach out to Shoan Snoday on LinkedIn. If you are interested in more sales stories, you can talk to Donald directly. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns.
This episode is brought to you in part by Crmble, the easy-peasy CRM for Trello that helps you manage your contacts and leads without investing in complicated solutions, sync all your data, manage custom fields, and get powerful reporting on your sales. Try Crmble now for free at www.crmble.com/tse. This course is also brought to you in part by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. It will help them elevate their sales game. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can go and visit www.donaldk4.sg-host.com/closemoredeals also call us at (561) 570-5077.
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