4 Parts of an Effective CTA

How effective is your prospecting CTA?

When making a call, or sending an email, an effective CTA is a must.

If you’re going to go through the effort of reaching out to somebody, you’ve got to have a next step. If not, why are you doing it?

Follow these 4 steps to ensure effective calls to action.

This blog is brought to you by an episode of The Sales Hunter Podcast. Find it wherever you stream podcasts!

I am always amazed at the number of salespeople who reach out to me trying to sell me something, and they lack a call to action.

Well, I guess if they really want me, they know that they’ll need to reach out to me. Hold it. The likelihood of that happening is slim to none!

1. Make it simple.

Your Call to Action is all about making it as easy for the customer to do business with you as possible.

Don’t give the prospect an ‘out’ by saying you’ll send them an email later. Instead, try “Hey, call me back. Leave your phone number.” Then you still send them an email.

Learn more about what makes a great prospecting call here.

2. Set a specific time in the future.

Remember, if you have somebody on the phone, you’re interrupting them. So chances of them having time to talk with you really isn’t probable. Time to make an appointment to follow up with them.

Why don’t you call me back when you have time? Wrong!

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Give them an exact day, and don’t suggest something a couple of weeks from now. A couple weeks from now is a lifetime away.

If you’re calling in the morning, try: What does your calendar look like this afternoon?
If you’re calling in the afternoon, try: What’s your calendar look like tomorrow for 10:00 AM?

Give them a very specific time. You’ve got to lead the prospect to setting up that exact time. If you put it a week out or even three or four days, they’re going to forget who you are, the reason for the call, everything. Plus, the chances of them blowing you off increase dramatically.

via PBS SoCal on GIPHY

3. Make it valuable.

When you’ve set up the CTA, be sure to add a hook such as, “Hey, what I’ll do next time we speak is I’ll share with you some insights on…..” Make it valuable to them after they’ve committed to you.

Sometimes people will make a commitment knowing they’re going to blow you off. So I put a little reminder out there for them and say, “When we talk tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. I’m going to share with you some insights and ideas about….” This absolutely decreases no-shows, because I’ve given them a reason to attend.

4. Keep it brief.

Once the prospect agrees to a meeting, please don’t ask them to block out an hour. Nobody gets an hour, 30 minutes max. And if you are dealing with senior level people, just say 20 minutes. Let’s block out 20 minutes tomorrow, 10:00 AM.

I don’t recommend saying “a couple minutes” either, as they’ll just prefer you email it to them. You want to have that conversation. The CTA is the next step toward a conversation.