Engineering sales: How to talk with potential customers

Using our senses to build trust through communication mediums

There are many mediums for communicating with clients, however, not all mediums are created equal. Some of the mediums used at the beginning of a sales cycle should be replaced fairly quickly to improve response time and trust, and increase the chances of closing.

Below are a list of communication mediums used by sales teams, along with their pros and cons. In ascending order each new medium builds more trust with a client due to how it utilizes our senses, increasing the chances of a close.

1. LinkedIn InMail

Trust level: low.

Overview: A great way to start a cold conversation, especially if you are willing to pay a small amount: $25 for 10 InMails/ month; $75 for 25 InMails/ month and $400 for 50 InMails/ month (you get the InMails refunded to your account if they don’t respond). InMails can start communication with the correct person quickly, without days of searching for an email address. However, this medium builds very little trust and can often lead to a low response rate since the client has no previous history with you that warrants a reply. In addition, many clients are quite aware that anyone can simply search their name or company on LinkedIn and message whoever they find.

Pros:

• Easy to create first contact with just client’s name, which can be obtained via their website, or simply searching LinkedIn.
• Guaranteed to reach their LinkedIn inbox with a notification being forwarded to the email they have attached to their LinkedIn account.
• They can view your profile, quickly being able to see who you are and decide if they want to respond.

Cons:

• This medium is used extensively by recruiters and therefore has, to some, a negative connotation in the startup community.
• Must be careful with the copy (even more so than an email) not to come across as spammy. You have a LinkedIn InMail Feedback score, and only senders with a feedback score 3 stars and above (out of 5) will have their message recipient notified you sent them an InMail.

Next move: Try and push to email exchange.

2. Email

Trust Level: low (especially at start of communication).

Overview: For a lot of people this is their most comfortable communication medium and will prefer to stick to this since it is the most convenient.

Pros:

• People spend all day in their email client — you’ve got a great chance of your message being seen over mediums checked more sporadically (e.g. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook).
• Increases trust over LinkedIn InMail since you will have had to obtain the client’s email address from a trusted source, e.g introduction.
• People will often spend more time constructing responses to emails than they do on other mediums. This can be especially useful for more technical subjects that need a more detailed response.

Cons:

• Asynchronous communication can lead to long lead times for a reply, especially if the client is in a different time zone.
• Due to spam and solicitation, many inboxes can have hundreds, if not thousands of messages, so your message has a high chance of either getting lost in the masses, being de-prioritized and archived, going into spam or simply ignored.
• Clients can easily ignore messages, especially from people they have only had a few points of communication with.

Next Move: IM, Phone call, Video call.

3. IM (instant messager)

Trust level: medium.

Overview: The client will probably have had to share their Instant Messager ID with you, which shows a certain level of trust and that they are expecting to be contacted through that medium. You want to use a system like Adium that enables you interact with many IM services through one interface.

I’d make sure that the client knows you will be contacting them over IM. Unexpected messages from users with no IM conversation history can often be ignored.

Pros:

• Although technically asynchronous, people tend to use IM in a synchronous manner, leading to fast response times.
• Useful for clients in different time zones where you can often get through the same amount of information in 10 minutes that would take you days over email.
• More casual than email, leading some people to feel more relaxed and share more information than they would over email (more applicable to younger generations).
• Many IMs (e.g Skype) have a notification when someone comes online. If you sign on, even if the client isn’t talking with you at that point, they are reminded of you.

Cons:

• Not a comfortable communication medium for some people (especially for older generations).
• Many people don’t stay signed in to their IM accounts (only using them for specific calls/ conversations), meaning unsolicited messages can go unnoticed.

Next move: voice call/ video call/ face to face meeting.

4. Voice Call

Trust level: medium/ high.

Overview: A classic and still a goodie since it is the first one on our list that utilizes a second sense, sound. While Email, InMail and IM all utilize sight, no other sense it used. By hearing someones voice you can learn a lot about them (e.g where they are from through an accent, what they prioritize via their tone), this increases trust between the parties.

As a disclaimer, asking someone to ‘jump on a call’ can come across as very sales-y. Voice calls should be utilized with your audience in mind, e.g developers may prefer to stick with IM, while clients from business development may want to have a call early in the relationship.

Pros:

• Harder to say ‘no’ to someone.
• Can communicate complex ideas quickly that would have been difficult over text based mediums (email, IM).
• You can utilize tone in voice communication (pauses, emphasis, laughter) to get across a more complete message, while also enabling the client to feel more relaxed.
• Once someone has had a call with you, they are far less likely to ignore emails.

Cons:

• Can be hard to jump straight into a call. Generally have to spend time building some rapport over other channels prior to call.
• Synchronous communication can take time to set up due schedule constraints.
• If talking with clients whose first language is not English, they can often find it hard to understand English speakers with strong accents (my Scottish accent often has foreigners struggling). Don’t be offended if you find some clients would prefer to stick to IM, since often they are not comfortable enough with their English ability.

Next move: Face to Face meeting.

5. Video Call

Trust level: high.

Overview: The same as a voice call but with the added benefit of including the sense of sight. Since you can now both see and hear the client, an extra level of trust will be built since they can see your facial reactions to the points being discussed, making it far easier to note if you are being sincere.

Pros:

• Same as Voice Call ‘pros’.
• Can use the video capability to demonstrate products.
• Forces people to focus fully on conversation instead of multi-tasking when just on a voice call.

Cons:

• Many people aren’t signed up to a video call service.
• Some may not be comfortable adding the video component onto a voice call. The video function should only really be used if you have a reason to (e.g product demo), otherwise it can come across as odd, asking a client to turn on the video for no reason.

Next move: face to face meeting.

6. Face to face meeting

Trust level: high.

Overview: Once you can lock down a face to face meeting all future communication (over any medium) immediately becomes a lot easier. Utilizing four senses: sight, sound, touch and smell, participants should walk away feeling like they have a much stronger understanding and trust of each other. This familiarity increases the trust the client has in you. This extended trust enables multiple things: faster response times to emails, more likely to take risks with you on new products and simply being a champion for you within their organization.

Of course there are many different types of face to face meetings, from a 15 minute coffee to a week vacation for client entertainment. The more of an experience you can make it, the stronger the trust level will be due to the personal experience. Every time you send a new email to your client, they can now associate it with the communication of a friend, rather than just another vendor.

Pro:

• The ability to discuss deal terms face to face. Prior to the advent of modern technology, this was the only way you could build trust.
• Give a live demo of the product.
• If the meeting is at your office, it allows the client to learn a lot about your culture.

Cons:

• Geographical constraints can prevent face to face meetings.
• Hard to get into people’s schedule.
• If you make a bad impression at this stage it is hard to counteract it. For example if you make a bad impression on a call, you can always overrule it by making a great impression face to face.

A good way to optimize for face to face meetings are conferences, where multiple clients travel to the same location. On the point of geolocation, there should always be a note for each client, in whichever CRM you are using, outlining where they are based. So when you travel to that location you can quickly discover which clients you can set up face to face discussions with.

Summary

Although there are other communication mediums, such as Twitter or Facebook, I feel the ones outlines are the most commonly used by sales teams on a daily basis. Social media is more of a public exercise which is great for marketing but not for sales that require more of a personalized approach.

Essentially, you want to move through each of the channels as efficiently as possible to garner a higher level of trust between yourself and the client. Obviously, some of them have blockers, such as non-English speakers with a video/ voice call or geolocation of clients for face to face meetings.