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3 Simple Steps to IMMEDIATELY Increasing Your Number of Decision Maker Contacts Per Day

Productivity - Prospecting

Written by Jim Domanski

Imagine what would happen if you could increase your decision contacts by, say, three per day. Doesn't see like all that much but that's 15 per week and that's 60 per month which translates to over 700 more decision maker contacts in a year.

Okay, what if it was five more decision maker contacts a day? That's twenty five in a week, 100 per month, a staggering 1200 more a year. Not too shabby.

More contacts means more opportunities to sell. Do the math. Apply your contact to sales ratio and multiple it by the average value of a sale. Cha ching or what?

The 3 Simple Steps

There are three things you need to do to increase your contact:
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Step #1: Send an E-mail.The first is something you may already be doing: send an e-mail to your prospect. Sending an e-mail is a way to create some awareness and prepare your prospect for a follow up call. Integrate e-prospecting and voice follow up is the way to go in the B2B market.

Step #2: Track the Open Rate. The second thing you need to do is keep track of those who open their e-mails. The way to do that is subscribe to ContactMonkey software. No... this is not a blatant pitch. It's just dang good idea that works. (more on it below)

Step #3: Make Your Follow Up Call. The last thing you do is pick up the phone and leverage the opportunity presented to you.

E-mail Tracking Software on Steroids

Okay, let's talk about the software. ContactMonkey is an e-mail tracking software that works on your Outlook and tells you when your prospect or client opens your mail. You also know if they opened it from their work station or if they opened it on a handheld. Handy info to have when thinking about making a follow up call. Here are some more features.

Instant Notification - Real Time Alert

Here's the neat thing: you get instant notification -real time- that the recipient has opened your e-mail. Simply by glancing at your Outlook screen (there's a sidebar ) you'll see who opened your e-mail. At that moment you pick up the phone and make your follow up call. You know the person is there so the odds that they will answer increase dramatically.

It doesn't take a genius to see the tremendous implications of the software. For example, yesterday morning I sent out some e-mails. At 6:05 I saw my publisher has opened an e-mail I sent the day before. At 7:50 a.m. I saw that a client who has been dodging my calls and not returning my e-mails had just opened the e-mail. I called at that moment (on my cell) and the conversation began and we closed a training deal. What a coup! Before 10 a.m. two prospects opened my e-mails and I called them both. The sales dialog has begun. By noon, I got a hold of my ever-elusive web guy who never returns my call. Busted!

These five live contacts happened as a direct result of being able to see who is doing what and all it required was a glance every now and then. I am more productive and efficient because of it (and a little wealthier).

Here's another great feature: whenever your client opens the e-mail AGAIN, you'll get notification. If you missed the recipient the first time around you might get another shot at it.

No 'Read Receipt' Required

Tracking capabilities used to be standard on Outlook several years ago but eventually a 'read receipt' was required to be sent by the sender. As I am sure you know, recipients rarely check the box telling the sender (you) that they got the e-mail so the feature is rarely used. Contact Monkey is different. Your prospect or client does NOT get a read receipt request. They don't know the e-mail is being tracked. Some have argued that's a little sneaky. No more sneakier than the prospect using caller ID or screening your call via voice mail.

I know that some CRM software offers the same feature but you have to be logged into the software and you have to be tracking the specific client. With Contact Monkey you don't need to log into the software and/or hot key back and forth. Even as I type these words I see that an author (who writes fictional mystery books) has just opened the e-mail I sent him this morning. Neat!

But it's not perfect. The software does not work in every circumstance. It currently works with Gmail for Chrome and Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010. For me, just under 50% of my e-mails result in a notification. But I'll take that in a New York minute.

Incredibly Cost Effective

Get this: about $5.00 a month (yes, five measly bucks)! You'd be nuts NOT to check it out and try it. Hey: that's 16 cents a day! Are you kidding me? Look at it. Give it a spin. See for yourself. Think of what 20 or 30 or more decision maker contacts per month would mean to you.

Easy Peasy

Last thing: it is dead easy to use. It took about 32 seconds - literally- for me to install (and I'm useless when it comes to technology). After that there's nothing left to do except glance at your Outlook from time to time. You don't have to touch single key except the occasional refresh.

One Note of WARNING

As much as I love this software don't get lulled into staring at your Outlook waiting for alerts to pop up. It gets tempting. You still need to make cold colds. You still need to be productive. Don't get complacent. You still need to apply elbow grease and common sense.

Summary

Look, it's getting tougher and tougher to reach decision makers and that affects YOUR bottom line. All that ContactMonkey does is level the playing field a bit. It gives you an edge, a bit of leverage. I love it. So will you. Visit their website at www.ContactMonkey.com

Jim Domanski -
	Jim Domanski is president of Teleconcepts Consulting and works with B to B companies and individuals who struggle to use the telephone more effectively to sell and market their products. The author of 4 books on tele-sales, Jim has been seen on various radis and television programs such as CBC’s Venture Magazine. Dubbed by the Financial Post as “Canada’s reigning tele-management guru…” For over 17 years he has worked with companies big and small throughout the US, Canada and parts of Europe. Read More >>
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