In most cases, you will need to call customers more than once to secure the sale, and that can happen for a variety of reasons.
Sometimes they promise they’ll call back and never do, even if they’re still interested. Sometimes you get their voicemail. Or they ask you to call again at a better time. Regardless, you have to follow-up and show you’re interested in solving their problem.
It’s important to not get discouraged — being persistent can make the sale, as long as you have the right attitude.
1. What if you get their voicemail?
We already have a full article explaining How to Leave the Perfect Voicemail, but the short version is: keep it simple.
State your name, your business, why you’re calling (you’re offering a service they need), what you’re offering (a free quote), and your phone number. It’s ideal to keep it under 30 seconds — no one likes long voicemails.
And it’s good practice to repeat the phone number at the end of the call, in case the potential client wants to take note right there and then.
Here’s an example of a neat voicemail taken directly from the article above:
“Hi, my name is John and I’m calling from John’s Remodelling. I’ve received your request for a kitchen remodeling service here in Boston and I’d love to give you a free quote on that. Give me a call back on this number, it’s 1-844-HOMEYOU. Let me repeat that for you: 1-844-HOMEYOU. Thank you and have a great day.”
2. Trying to reach them
After leaving a good voicemail, you’re probably hoping the client will call you back, but they might not — then it’s up to you to try again.
Because of that, you could include by the end of your voicemail at what time you’ll be trying to reach them. If they got the voicemail, they’ll likely be expecting your call.
Regardless, it’s important to try again one or two hours later — if you couldn’t reach the client on the first try, they were probably busy. They might be free now and could potentially answer the call with no problem.
3. The second voicemail
If you really couldn’t reach the client and need to move on, you should leave one more voicemail, but different than the last one.
This time, state your name and business as usual, but follow with:
“I’ve tried contacting you several times today about your painting service, but couldn’t reach you. If you’d like me to call at a specific time and day that’s better for you, just let me know. Or, if it’s more convenient, we can talk via email. Mine is [email protected]. That’s j-o-h-n-c-o-n-t-r-a-c-t-o-r, at gmail.com. Send me a ‘hi’ and we can talk through there. Have a good one.”
4. Following up
So after a few calls, you’ve managed to reach the client and they’ve asked you to follow up later. You set a reminder for it, and now you’re finally having some dialogue. How to proceed?
First, be punctual. Respect the time and day the client has asked you to follow-up on — a small gesture, but it shows you’re both punctual and reliable.
Then, listen. Take full advantage of the follow-up call to ask questions and take notes on the project — the trick is simply inquiring and letting the client do most of the talking.
And come prepared. Your potential client will have lots of questions, so you should come prepared with answers. They usually have questions about prices and time frames, so be ready to answer those with losing momentum — sounding unsure or defensive here gives a bad impression.
In every step of the way, let potential clients feel your confidence.
5. Set an expectation for the future
Before you end the call, recap on everything you’ve agreed on and set a tangible expectation for the future — the next meeting, the next call, something to look forward to.
For you, it means the job is moving forward, and for the client, it means they’re one step closer to solving their problem. It works both ways.
6. Know when to let go
It’s always better when things work out perfectly, but in reality, every now and then, you’ll be in a situation where it’s better to let go of a lead.
Here’s an example — and you can pinpoint the moment you should let go: you’ve tried reaching the client, you’ve left a good voicemail, you’ve tried calling again, and you’ve hit voicemail again. Now, let’s say you manage to reach the customer and they say it’s better to talk via email. So you send them a message, and they don’t reply. You decide to call one last time and fail to reach them again.
Here. This is the moment you should let go. For whatever reason, the client is not showing interest anymore. Perhaps it’s not a good time or they’ve just decided for someone else. And that’s OK.
You can walk it off knowing you’ve done your job.
Think about it: this client cannot say one bad thing about you — you’ve shown interest, you sought them out, you put in effort… and most importantly, you didn’t push it. When the client’s interest faded, you’ve stopped calling.
And that’s good for you too — if you’ve signed up with homeyou, you should be getting more leads any minute now. Focus your efforts on the new ones! Want to grow your business?
Sign up with homeyou and start receiving leads for jobs that will make you money today!
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