How to get more customers in affiliate marketing? The cold acquisition is not what many entrepreneurs are enthusiastic about. Cold calling or emailing customers often brings quite a bit of pressure. And that is quite a shame, because cold acquisition, both by telephone and by email, can be the way to acquire new customers quickly.
The result compared to other marketing channels is much more direct.
I regularly write cold acquisition emails for companies, and I am active in telephone sales. This article will find an in-depth look at cold acquisition and how you can apply it successfully.
What is Cold Acquisition?
Let’s start at the beginning. The cold acquisition is approaching potential customers. Essential to cold acquisition compared to warm acquisition is that customers do not know you at that moment and are, therefore, most likely not waiting for your offer.
The forms of cold acquisition discussed in this article are acquisition emails and acquisition calls.
Why do many people hate cold acquisition?
We all know them, those phone calls from companies that want to sell you something.
Terrible.
Or those marketers who want to make an appointment with you because they ‘ can mean something ‘ for your company, when in fact, they just want to send a high invoice. You would say that not the finest forms of acquisition. And that may also be why we all hate it so much and prefer to avoid doing cold acquisition ourselves.
But the cold acquisition also has another side. When you can bring in thousands of euros extra turnover in a short time, that sounds quite attractive.
That is why it is good to look at cold acquisition through different glasses. One where we do not primarily try to sell, but try to help people. In this way, cold acquisition gets a positive charge, and it becomes more fun to work with. Also, I can already reveal that you will also sell more that way, but more about that later.
From seller to the angel of salvation
When I got a side job in a call center when I was sixteen, a script was pushed into my hands. I was going to call people to sell them phone plans and just had to read a script.
I don’t know who wrote that script, but it didn’t do me any good. Apparently, there was something in my voice that didn’t seem genuine. Logical, because I was not enthusiastic about the product and was not interested in what I sold.
The gains to be made in cold acquisition originate insincerity. Don’t sell things you don’t want yourself and be helpful instead of selling.
Nowadays, when I write or call a cold acquisition email, I don’t start with what great things I have to offer. I try to offer a listening ear to the customer. I focus on the problem that occurs within a company or with a person and go deeper into it.
When I have a sense of mutual understanding, it is only time to move on to how I could solve this problem for them.
That sequence is essential for good cold acquisition results. And that is why I have incorporated the sequence for both an acquisition email and telephone follow-up in a step-by-step plan under the next heading.
A step-by-step plan for the cold acquisition
Whether you are approaching people by email or acquisition call, the order of the conversation or email is quite similar. Use the steps below to make your cold acquisition a success.
Step 1: Analyze the problem
Starting your sale is not going to work. No one wants to feel like something is being sold to them without asking. That isn’t very pleasant. In addition, you probably don’t need the product or service at that moment, or at least you feel you don’t need it. As cold acquisition marketers, we must therefore first ensure that there is a reason to want the product or service.
Do you remember the scene from “The Wolf Of Wallstreet” where they try to sell a pen? Rather than promoting the pen, they first create the need for a pen. It should be the same as your product or service.
We will first zoom in on the problem that the product or service solves in the email or conversation.
Finding out the problem you are solving is the basis of marketing. Not sure what problem your product or service solves? Then now is the time to find out. When you know that, you will not only process it in your cold acquisition but in all your communication.
The problem is the trigger of why people do want to have something. To give you some examples of what such a problem entails, below some recent parties I have worked within the cold acquisition and the problems they address.
It helps enormously to explain the problem so that suddenly there is a reason for interest. The need is thus created. Often the prospect is not yet aware of the problem or is playing in the background. Describing the problem (in an email) or discussing it (by telephone) can then be decisive.
What is your company’s problem statement?
Feel free to be a little creative with this. Sometimes it can be a bit difficult to identify the problem immediately. It may be that there is not an immediate problem that you solve.
Then it is important to understand that you can also emphasize a problem based on your distinctiveness.
Being able to identify the problem is an important part of making cold acquisition successful. If you don’t have a problem that you are solving, you will do well to look further or come up with a problem.
Step 2: Show your expertise when making the cold acquisition
People often don’t know you when you make the cold acquisition. The chance that people will trust you in advance is therefore small. Once you have bonded by discussing the problem, you will need to show that you are the person or company that can solve it.
Three things are required for a successful sale. These are the trust in the product, in the company, and in you as a person. If you score well in all three areas, you probably have a successful sale.
You can gain confidence in yourself as a person by having the conversation and showing personal interest. Furthermore, you can deepen this and the confidence in the company by showing that you have expertise. For example, how long have you been in the profession, or what kind of results have you achieved before?
Using statistics or facts in cold acquisition ensures that the prospect has more confidence in you and the company’s expertise.
You could even choose to give something away for free and thereby substantiate your expertise. Think of an article on your website with tips. Or you give away an analysis, consultant conversation, e-book, or online mini-training for free as long as it shows your expertise. This way, the prospect knows that you can be trusted and good at what you do.
Another reason to give something away for free on cold acquisition is that it uses the law of reciprocity. It is human nature to want to give something back when you receive something valuable from someone.
Step 3: Make sure the prospect has confidence in the product
Then it is a good time in your cold acquisition, to specify exactly what you are offering. Ensure that you do not become a salesperson at once, but stay in the same tone of voice. You are still there to help someone.
Emphasize how your service or product solves the problem you discussed in step 1. That keeps it relevant and ensures that the conversation or email flows smoothly.
To further promote your product or service, you can name the USPs (Unique Selling Points). If you have no idea what those are, don’t worry, I’ll explain that with examples below. But naming the USPs can help you distinguish the product from other providers in the market. These are extra reasons to buy something from you instead of someone else. This is your chance!
With USPs, you bring distinctiveness and show why prospects should choose you as a provider. You show that your product or service is the best in the market and give extra reasons for wanting it.
Step 4: Complete the sale in the cold acquisition
Time for the next step, on to the call-to-action. Another marketing term. In fact, this is nothing more than the next step, but it’s super essential. If you don’t take this step because you’re afraid of being a salesperson, you’re bound to miss out on customers. Make it clear to the prospect what the next step is so that they can take that step effortlessly.
When you make cold acquisition, this step is different than with warm acquisition.
Asking directly for sale goes too far with a cold acquisition. The recipient only knows you, your company, and the product and will have to think about it anyway before making a decision. Do not aim for a direct sale, but for an appointment on location, an analysis, a quotation, a telephone appointment, an investigation, or the sending of a brochure.
This way, you make the next step manageable for the prospect, and it is more likely that they will respond to it.
Step 5: Measuring is knowing
However, the chance that if you get started with an acquisition mail, you will immediately have a sparkling success is small. You will have to do some trimming here and there if this is the first acquisition email you have ever written. Therefore choose to send the mail first to a select group and not your entire mailing list and then evaluate based on statistics. With a professional mail program, you have insight into who opened the mail and who clicked on a link in the mail. Has nobody responded? Then check whether the many people have opened the email whether you have ended up in the spam.
The same applies here for telephone acquisition. Look at how you think the conversations are going and whether you are satisfied with how people respond. If you keep hearing the same objections, see how you could best disprove them. One learns by doing.
Common Mistakes in Cold Acquisition
To make cold acquisition successfully, you will have to go through a lot of trial and error. It often does not hurt to call in a professional for this part ( I feel called upon). But if you do get started yourself, keep the following pitfalls and points in mind. I come across them too often, so please share them with you.
- Use (almost) always ‘you’ instead of ‘you’ as a tone of voice; this comes across as more personal.
- Use your normal voice and write an acquisition email in spoken language, that makes it pure.
- Avoid formal language.
- Keep it long. Time is needed to generate interest. My best converting emails are at least one whole A4 page.
- Put yourself in the spotlight and think of what you would like to hear from that perspective.
- Use a lot of enters for readability with an email.
- With telephone acquisition, it is good to mirror your speech to the prospect.
- Use statistics to optimize.
- Do not expect results from your first contact, you will be inconvenient for many people, and it can take a few days before action is taken.
- Think about the objections and how you can refuse them.
- Use the triple yes strategy.
- Make it clear what the next step is for the prospect.
- Use a professional marketing mail program such as Enormail for good statistics.
Outsource cold acquisition
In some cases, you would do well to outsource the cold acquisition. This can have the advantage that the highest possible conversion is achieved, and you get the most out of it. After all, not everyone likes marketing and sales. And I guarantee that everyone does what he or she does best.
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