Prospect FAQ - Do prospects get creeped out?

The idea most people get is of a stranger, smiling creepily at you across the table, trying to come across genuine with good intentions. Yes, it is not comfortable at all. It doesn’t change when it happens in a business over the phone. Consider a scenario like this - you’re going about your daily routine and a call from receptionist comes in. Someone wants to talk to you. You have a minute or two spare so you take it. There, on the other side, is a person from Company A. You recognize the name because you’ve been on their website few moments ago. You only had a quick look at what they do. Nothing else. You’ve barely even looked into their products/services properly. But here is this person talking to you as if they knew your whole life story. They even know everything you’ve looked at on the website, or somebody in the business has, they say. So you get the heebie-jeebies, make an excuse and slam the phone back down as if it was possessed. This was a surreal experience and you’re not entirely sure what to think about it.

If you’ve been in this situation, trust me when I say that your business definitely does not want to make your prospects feel like that. No business does. There is nothing you can do with a prospect who is trying to avoid you like the plague because you’re the weirdo who seems to be stalking them over the internet. You might as well take that lead file, print it off and burn it physically because you’ve just done it online.

So the answer to this question is - yes prospects can get creeped out only if you handle the data and information incorrectly.

Fear not, there is a correct way to handle tracked prospects and their information on the call so they don’t go running for the hills.

There are just 3 points to keep in mind.

First and foremost, before we dive into how to handle the tracked information, businesses need to realize that if someone is truly serious about not wanting to be tracked, they already have various blockers in place. Hence, with a solution like CANDDi, if someone uses blocking add-ons in browsers, we will respect that and we will not track that individual. Meaning? People we do capture are either fine with being tracked, or aren’t that familiar with the technology to yet make a decision. Hence, you need to handle the data in a slightly different way to avoid freaking them out because there is no way of knowing which is which. We always suggest the following.

###2 ways how to handle tracked information so you don’t spook your prospects

1. NEVER call people when they just landed on the website: Unless your prospect knows you are tracking them, do not call a website visitor the second they hit your website. This will be the first seed of weird that you will sow in their mind. It’s just too much of a coincidence. Some people might like it, but the majority doesn’t. Personal experience.
   
   What we recommend? We say you leave it couple hours, eg. if a visitor comes to the website in the morning, call them in an early afternoon or before lunch. The exception here is an enquiry. Enquiries have higher chances of converting the sooner you get in touch.
   
   
2. DO NOT mention you know they’ve been on your website, let alone a particular page: Even a neon sign could not scream “stalker” louder than you are explicitly saying so. Whilst it feels natural and logical to tell your prospect why you’re calling, there is a way how to do so, but it is not a direct statement.
   
   What we recommend? Instead of - “Hi, I know you’ve looked at our website….” - try something like - “Hi, it’s janie from Company A. I was hoping to discuss with you our product/service to see if this could be of relevance/interest…”. With the first example, there are chances that your prospect’s defences will go up because: (a) you’re a creep, stalking me and telling me what I’ve looked at and I don’t like it; (b) so what that I was, I didn’t explicitly asked you to call, I was just looking. So instead of being so upfront about knowing every second of your prospect’s journey through the website, play it lowkey. Use the knowledge if the page views in the topic you want to discuss - “I was hoping to discuss product A to see if…” - because you know they’ve looked at product A. We found through testing it ourselves and our clients adopting this approach, that this icebreaker goes down much easier and prospects respond to it in a much better way.
   
   

Once you get in a conversation like that, it’s just a matter of your sales skills. Whether you convince the person to buy there and then or whether they need some more nurturing. It’s about responding at the right time to build a human connection with your prospect.

Do I hear you say - this is a bit too secretive for my taste? Or they didn’t ask for a call, why call them? I understand where you’re coming from. I will be addressing those concerns and questions in the next blog of this series. For now, the answer to your question if prospects get creeped out - Yes, they do but you can handle the information in a way so that they don’t.