If you use the phone to develop business (get clients, create partnerships, promote your services), a question that has probably crossed your mind is: “How long should I keep calling?”  This often comes up when you have a prospect that you just can’t get in touch with, or someone who continues to stall every time you do talk with them.  You obviously don’t want to be overly aggressive and turn someone off from doing business with you; but you also don’t want to waste time calling on someone who ultimately isn’t interested in what you have to offer.

So how do you decide on a proper follow-up program?  There are a lot of different variables to consider, but the following 5 guidelines can help you get started:

1.  When deciding how long you should continue to contact a prospect remember this universal rule: there are no universal rules.  Salespeople are often looking for a simple answer, but the reality is that each scenario is different and so must be treated differently.  It’s going to take some decision-making on your part to decide if you should continue to call.  If they are a really good prospect, keep calling.  If you feel they might not be the ideal candidate for what you are offering, stop.  In general, though, it’s usually better to err on the side of calling them. 

2.   You are only being pushy if they decline your offer and you continue to call them.  It’s important to remember that the prospect can always say “no” – and you should respect them when they do.  You aren’t a mind-reader, so don’t feel you should know that they aren’t interested if they haven’t told you.  There’s nothing wrong with continuing to call someone if they haven’t told you directly that they aren’t interested in what you’re offering.  Don’t worry about being pushy, you can’t be pushy if someone hasn’t told you no.  In some ways, it is rude on their part for making you continue to contact them if they really aren’t interested.

3.  Even though it’s usually worthwhile to continue calling until you get either a yes or a no from a customer, that doesn’t mean you should call them every day – that’s being a pest.  A handy phrase when talking to a prospect is:

         “I’ll be sure to give you a call back.  Because I know we’re both busy, I’ll put it into my calendar.           When would you like for me to contact you?”

This creates a useful situation where they are telling you to call them.  It’s quite handy because when you do give them a call you are simply following up on their request, at the time that they indicated would be good.

4. Create value every time that you call.  If you simply call back and ask the same question every time, it can be annoying.  Give your prospect a new piece of information or remind them of what you’ve already told them when you call.  Remember, you aren’t the most important thing on a prospect’s mind so it’s worth refreshing their memory when you do get in touch with them.

5. What if you have a prospect who you feel is not being honest with you?  Maybe you feel that they really want to turn you down, but they just won’t do it.   If you have pursued your prospect for a while and they continue to put you off, try this:

         “I would love to call you back.  I just want to be sure that I’m not wasting your time.  Some people          are just too nice to say no.  When is a good time to contact you to move forward.”

By adding this phrase into your approach, you allow someone to decline if that is what they want to do.

In the end, the biggest way to improve your success with reluctant prospects is to be OK with getting either a yes or a no.  In our minds, it’s often easier to have a prospect in limbo (where there is a possibility of it being a yes) than to ask for an answer (which might be no).  Once you’ve accepted that getting turned down is not a horrible experience, you’ll be more focused on getting the prospect on the phone.  By using these tools, you’ll be able to determine how you should approach each phone call, and you’ll make more of them.