Sales Techniques to Remember - Follow Up

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Thur, 2/03/2011

It’s often said that sales is not rocket science or brain surgery, which of course it isn’t either one. Yet, it is a process, which if maintained regularly, produces superior results.

The last part of the process is follow up. This can come after each step toward the sale, and it can come after the sale is made. In either case, the time you take to follow up can be a direct correlation of whether or not you get the business or maintain an account.

Working toward the sale, the biggest fear in most salespeople is not getting the order. So instead of proceeding to ask for the order, this person procrastinates and procrastinates. Waiting too long to follow up and do the next step in the process may allow the sizzle of your offer to disappear. It can also give your competition the chance to get in front of your prospect and snatch the business away from you. Lastly, it gives your prospect the chance to develop more false objections to your product and/or service, to the point of almost needing to start the entire sales process again.

During either maintenance on an account, or following up. with a client who has rejected you for the moment, can be tricky. How often do you call back? How do you do it? The easiest way to determine the answers to these questions is to ask the client directly. They’ll tell you that it’s OK to call once a month, or weekly or every quarter. They’ll also tell you how they would prefer you to follow up. Phone, email, text, etc.

Following up leads toward conclusion and that is what a good salesperson wants. They want to move on to the next client if the current prospect is not working out. They don’t want to be strung along by the client. The sooner you follow up, the more your prospect sees that you have an interest in doing business with them. That doesn’t mean calling them every two minutes and being overly enthusiastic, but it does mean trying to be prompt and professional in your consideration of developing a long lasting mutually beneficial relationship.

What are your challenges when it comes to the follow up part of the sales process? I look forward to hearing your comments.

Until next time …