Mothy

Account Executive

"Local Presence" but not actually?

I was reading the comments on the Cold Call Reenactment with Van (Y'all suck dicks guy), and one was kind of interesting saying "I am based in [territory], but am working out of our [Actual location] office, I'll be back in [territory] next month, and would love to swing by and talk more in depth" in order to get in person meetings.

In person meetings are a big focus for us in 2024, and I am curious if anyone has tried a similar approach.

In the same vein, I am thinking about getting an Outreach number with an NYC area code, to see if that might increase my answer rate, since New England seems to have an aversion to picking up the phone compared to other regions.

I realize it's pretty dishonest, but not quite on the level of spoofing phone numbers.

Has anyone here tried something similar? What was your view on how well it worked?

🔎 Prospecting

📞 Cold Calling

11 comments

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Phillip_J_Fry

Opinionated

Director of Revenue

What are you looking to accomplish here? You could just as easily say that you're going to be in the area around X date and would like to meet up.

If you're selling to territories outside of where you live, your company has already deemed a 'local presence' to be unnecessary. Why try to act like you live in their backyard?

Also, if you're not from the area, I feel like they could pretty easily, yet accidentally uncover the lie just by talking about local events, restaurants, etc.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I plan to use exactly this approach with my customers. I’m going to let them know I’ll be in their metro, and try to schedule a meeting. Simple.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

I like this much better. It's a lot more honest. I'm not much for dishonesty

Mothy

Politicker

Account Executive

Mostly trying to see if using a local number increases answer rate, but having a back pocket reason of why I am using a local number. Could be just wildly off base. For the record, I’ve been staunchly anti local number, and prefer to use my regular one, but just trying to think of anything that might give a little extra oomph to help with pipeline in 2024.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

You could A/B test responses, but honestly, calling, catching them live or leaving a voice mail - not sure the area code is going to make that much of a difference when spammers from out of the country are spoofing numbers too.

Mothy

Politicker

Account Executive

Spammers is exactly why I’ve been anti local presence for so long. Guess we’ll A/B test in January and see what happens!

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Good luck

Founding BDR

Haven’t tried it, but it’s one of those strategies where you see really divided opinions. IMHO - I don’t love it. If the relationship progresses and it’s found out that you used that tactic, there’s a good chance some trust will be lost.

Mothy

Politicker

Account Executive

Definitely my primary concern. I think the wording that the commenter used makes it more likely for something to go wrong. In practice I would likely shift towards something like "I cover the North East, and travel there every few weeks, but for the most part I work out of [where I live]."

Not dishonest, but also doesn't explain having an area code from NYC. I'll probably grab a phone number, try it out for a few weeks, and go from there.

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Don’t lie about your location or area code. No one’s cares where you live and you don’t want to start out with a lie.

pirate

Big Shot

🦜☠️ Account Executive

Funnily enough I was traveling a lot in Q4 in region X even having OOO email that you're meeting customers in X makes other customers in X act like they're having FOMO and are interested why you here and not meeting them... I often say oh I'm there every month even though I might not be.

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Mothy

"Local Presence" but not actually?

11 comments

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