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An Effective First Step To Use Faxes For Lead Generation
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An Effective First Step To Use Faxes For Lead Generation Faxes can be productive and cost-effective generators of sales leads. But the first step isn’t sending the fax, it’s laying effective groundwork. And that means getting proper approval to send the fax. The following is one of the more common conversations people have used to send a fax to a prospect. You’ve probably received phone calls like this or maybe even made them yourself: “Hi. I’m from (company). Who in your organization handles the (fill in the applicable product or service)? Great. Could you please give me his/her fax number? Thank you.” It’s short, sweet, casual, to the point, and non-threatening. And if the receptionist responded in the affirmative, you have the information you need to send a fax. Everything you want…or is it? Actually, if you approach sending a fax this way, you could do yourself more harm than good. You’ve gotten the name and fax number of your prospect, but you really haven’t received permission. As you know, unsolicited faxes may very well hurt your sales effort with a particular prospect (even though the prospect could very well need the information). In addition, unsolicited faxes are illegal. So avoid the short, sweet, casual approach. Get proper permission instead. You can get approval from an assistant or secretary. When you call, be very specific about wanting to send a fax, then ask for permission. Get that person’s name and verify the company address and fax number. That’s the most basic way to gain approval. Now, let’s take it a step further. The payoff will be worth it. Call the recipient or recipients at the company that you will actually be sending the faxes to. (You can get their names and extensions from the receptionist.) Don’t just ask them if they would like to receive your fax. Spice up your pitch. Find out if they would like to receive fax information about saving money, saving time, or any other particular benefit (but not all of them) that your service or product will provide. Gaining approval in this manner leaves an opening for dialogue between you and your prospect, and an opportunity to make your first conversation much more significant. But don’t be discouraged if the conversation is brief and does not go any farther than getting the approval you requested, because now you have a legitimate reason to follow up. Call the prospect back in a week to confirm that he or she received the fax. Then announce a new feature or benefit to pique a little more interest. If you want, you can outsource the first phone call and let your sales staff make the follow-up call. That way, your sales staff will always be calling a “pre-contacted” lead source. Having correct numbers and a fax that’s expected will help warm up the sales process, especially for a technical product or service.
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