Follow Up Your Path to Sales

If you had a successful call with an account you are probably half way to the sale. However, you are not quite there. There is still work to be done. You’ve done a lot so far – you found the prospects, you qualified them, you called and called and called. It would be awful if all those efforts go to waste. This is pretty much the case when you don’t follow up on your sales calls. You cannot expect that the prospect liked you so much that will call you back on the next day. It could happen (which would be great!) but more often than not sitting and waiting after you called is not enough to close a deal.

There are a few simple rules about the timing of the follow-up which you should follow. First, do it soon enough. If you wait a month to follow up you will send a signal that you either forgot about the prospect or he is not very important to you. There is also a good probability that a competitor already did follow up. Second, don’t too it too soon. Contacting them on the next day, unless you and the prospect agreed on it, looks pushy. Lastly, don’t call too often. Try to figure out what would be ok with the account. Even better – run it by him. Tell them that you plan to follow up in a week and ask for a confirmation. If the timing is not good for them ask when would be appropriate for you to check-in again.

How to follow up is a good question. Phone or e-mail? Both of them have their positives and negatives. A phone call is more personal but you can send more information via e-mail. It doesn’t matter which one you prefer though. It’s all about the customers. Find out which one they are more comfortable with. To access them use a combination of both – call and say that you’ll send additional information over e-mail or send an article and call to discuss it. Your client’s response will tell you which one to use in the future.

When you do follow up with your prospects, don’t just check in. Engage your customers every time you communicate with them. There are different ways for you to do so. You can bring up a point from the last time you talked. Or remind the other side how you can solve a problem they are facing at the moment. You can also send them some additional information relevant to their business that you can elaborate on further. No matter which way you chose, make the conversation valuable for your client. Cement in their minds that you want to add them value and not waste their time.

Following up on your accounts is important. Don’t miss out on your sales opportunities. Follow up in the right time, with the right means, and engage your account every time. Check out our new Barnes & Noble sample report and see how CRUSH Reports can help you stay on top of sales opportunities!!  http://estore.salesquest.com/CRUSH-reports/barnes_noble_sample

Trish Ellis
Marketing Manager
SalesQuest
trisha.ellis@salesquest.com