On the way to work this morning Elvis came on the radio with “A little less conversation a little more action” and I couldn’t help but turn up the volume!
It made me think though of how sales people follow up on their prospects for some reason!
I know….I’m weird!
Picture this:
You’ve had a great meeting with a prospect, you’ve gone away thinking that you can do business and then you call a couple of days later to “touch base” (I know, I hate that term too!) and they say, call back later and then you go into ping pong mode with emails and calls.
The thing is, a lot of sales people follow up on calls just to get updates to see if the prospect has a “yes” or a “no” for them. The prospect knows the reason why you are calling!
You then wonder, how long should you leave it until you call the next time? Would calling back in a couple of days look like I’m desperate?
Instead of these follow up calls where all you’re doing is calling, why not put new prospects into an education and positioning follow up series?
The aim of this is to keep in the front of the prospect’s mind without being a nuisance or looking desperate.
Done in the right way you can look really professional if you execute this correctly.
Here’s what I mean:
DAY 1 - You meet with the prospect
DAY 2 - You send an email saying thanks for the meeting and the next steps you agreed
DAY 4 - They receive something of value to them or their situation like a report, a news article you’ve found, a website link of interest
DAY 8 - You call them. To see if there’s any news and to talk about the resource you sent them
And then you put other actions in place. Note that you’ve spoken to the client twice yet you’ve had “4 touchpoints” with them.
A little less conversation, a little more action does pay off! It’s all about doing the things that your competition are not and it’s not about being a pain in the rear end and bugging them with calls all of the time.
Being in the front of their minds is the most important part and a combination of calls, emails, post and the like go a long way in achieving this.
Happy selling!
Sean
Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training
Telephone: 0800 849 6732
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