It’s a new year and here at ReachForce we are in the process of analyzing all of our programs to determine which ones drive the most sales conversions.  Very quickly we realized that people that respond to our programs seem to over and over again.  But what about those that never respond?  They are killing our response rates and conversions.

With every program we as Marketers run we are able to bucket people into “responders” and “non-responders”.  We typically do different things with these two groups.  Responders can either move into other programs that try and further qualify the lead for sales or they go directly to sales/inside sales for more follow up and further qualification.

Now – what do you do with the non-responders and inactive contacts in your database?  By leaving them in the current mix, you’re only hurting your program ROI and possible sales conversions.  Continuing to do the same thing over and over again with these non-responders is insanity, right?

So instead of writing these people off, change up the mix and try something new with them.

In our 2.0 world, there are so many new possibilities for reaching your prospects in a way they respond to.  Here’s a few ideas to consider:

• Webcasts – some people are visual learners and want to feel like they are interacting with live people.  Email them an on-demand webcast or invite them your next live webinar.

• Podcasts – some people like to listen vs. read [a whitepaper or eBook]

• Survey – we use explicit surveys here at ReachForce to gather lead qualifying information.  Now, yes we do incentivize people to take the survey but the results we get back are fabulous.  It helps our lead gen and sales team to prioritize their follow up and it helps us weed out no fits (also helping increase our next program ROI).

• Social networks – where else are your prospects hanging out?  Get out there with them and try and make contact.  Remember you can’t enter the social world with your used car salesman pitch, people will roll their eyes at you and never interact.

• Channels – are your prospects also customers of some of your partners, see if they can help with introductions or more insight into the prospect account.

• Offers and Incentives – be sure to change them up and test what works best.

And if all else fails, it might be time to clean up your data.  Make sure you have the right buying contacts in the right companies or it doesn’t even matter what you are sending or offering.

With every program we put together here at ReachForce, our #1 goal is to drive more hand raisers.  That means we have to create programs using multiple vehicles.  Is vehicles the right word here?  Maybe not, but you know what I mean.

So how are you reaching those stubborn prospects that give you no signal of interest?  Hopefully you’re not just giving up on them …