You might be reading the headline and thinking: “daaaahhh, because it’s important!”, yet many salespeople – fail to do so.
Sales is a wide world; it’s exciting, challenging, energizing and: demanding. You must be “on top of things” all the time. You must be contacting new leads, warming them nicely and consistently closing deals. All- The- Time !!!!
There are so many skills you must have and develop: Engaging a new lead, prospecting, pitching, providing value, handling objections, dealing with competition, negotiating, closing the deal (yesssss!), making sure your customers are being taken care of by their account managers, upgrading.. and more, that the oh-so-important follow up is sometimes neglected.
When we speak to a new potential customer, it’s important that we have a good conversation with him, a good connection, give our stellar pitch and WOW him.
And then what?
If we don’t follow up, keep the ball rolling, warm up the relationship and become closer with our lead – we jeopardize the closing of the deal.
The question is: how frequently should I contact the lead for a follow up? Obviously there’s a fine line between being persistent and escalating the relationship and the borderline harassment.
Use your intuition; don’t cross the line and bug your leads.
When you’re on the first call or meeting, set the next steps together with your potential customer, set a task for yourself to follow up, and include ALL the details of the call or meeting in your notes.
The second important question, which is not always asked, should be: what should I say when I contact the lead for a follow up?
When you speak the next time, whether on a cold call or a scheduled call, make sure to provide your leads with value; offer them a demo, a trial account, assistance with setting up the account, share relevant news from the industry, share future plans and product road map with them, in order to get them to be more involved. Always give something new and establish your reputation as a go-to-person, a knowledgeable consultant who’s on the customer’s side, his success is your success and you’re heading that way together, step by step.
MANAGE your leads, lead the sales process!
Finally, create a system to automate your follow up, and don’t let anything slip away.
Follow up and follow through.
Happy selling!
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Written by Danna Zakai, Professional Sales Trainer, specializes in B2B Inside Sales.
www.fine-sales.com
