Your job entails selling, but what is the best strategy to employ when a formerly hot prospect has cooled off? Perhaps you never heard back from a key player, or there was a departmental reorganization and communication lines were interrupted, or, worse, you somehow failed to follow up.
Where to Begin
It is a mistake to assume that once the prospect has cooled that you can restart the negotiations at the same place they were left. A better approach is to start anew, using the prior situation as a foundation for creating new opportunities.
How to Handle the Email
A good approach is to email your prospect. However, do not make your email re-introduction a sales pitch. Instead focus on the relationship between you and them, stressing new services, products, or discounts that you have added since you last spoke. Keep the tone simple and conversational. Your approach puts you back onto your client’s radar, but does not make their life more complicated. Focus on non-aggressive communication and make it easy for the prospect to communicate back with you. For example, don’t write “let me know if you need anything,” but instead ask them a simple question that invites them to reply, such as “does it make sense for us to open our discussions again?” Your goal is to restart a conversation, find out more about where the prospect is now, and eventually create a sale.
It Can Be Done
To sum, reinvigorate your cold sales prospects by focusing on rekindling the relationship. Keep your tone simple and conversational as you work towards jumpstarting the sales process.