“The Follow Up” is the most overlooked and underutilized tool in sales. In this day and age of technology, data, and the ability to have a deluge of information at our fingertips, the simple follow up is becoming a lost art.
A typical day in a sales person life might go like this:
· Answer emails
· Do expense reports
· Attend scheduled meetings
· Check on current projects and quotes
· Present quotes to customers
That is a pretty full day. And the next day, a good sales person does it all again. All those quotes and opportunities add up. The sales funnel is full. The boss is happy, because you are busy.
But then something happens - all those good opportunities, those lucrative quotes, they just fade away. And one day the boss calls and wants to know what ever became of that $25,000 RFQ from Acme Company last November. And you don’t know. You stumble on the phone trying to come up with an answer for the boss. He/She knows that you don’t have a clue, and they start digging deeper. And it all unravels. Fortunately, this can all be avoided.
FOLLOW UP! There is no task more valuable than following up on a sales call, a quote, or a lead. Let’s look at them individually.
Sales Call Follow Up:
A simple email after a meeting, thanking your client for their time, with a very slight and gentle recap of the meeting is a powerful thing. Your customers time is valuable. You are thanking them for it, and you are showing them that you have DONE something with that segment of their day that they allotted for you. It isn’t necessary every time. But for a customer that you see less than once a week, it is a very good bridge to the next communication.
Quote Follow Up:
Think about how many orders you have received after a revision was done to the original quote. Now think about the quotes you DIDN’T follow up on, that didn’t result in an order. In most cases, if you provided a quote, so did someone else. And SOMEONE got the order. If it wasn’t you, well, you lost. And you probably lost to a salesperson who checked in after their quote was submitted. When I follow up on a quote, we almost NEVER ask “how was my price?”. Most professional buyers will see that question as a) rude, and b) an indication that you have room in your price. Neither is a positive impression.
Instead, we ask variations of:
· Have you had a chance to go over the drawing or spec sheet? Is everything in order?
· Do you have a timeframe as to when you will be placing this order?
· Are these volumes going to remain constant? What is the EAU?
Almost anything related to the project that keeps you communicating is good. Many orders are lost because the quote was submitted, and the salesperson moved on. Remember this; quoting isn’t the job, CLOSING is the job.
Lead Follow Up:
There is nothing more basic, more Sales 101 than lead follow up. If you are a new salesperson, you will learn volumes about your new career by following up leads. If you are a veteran, you will create more profitable opportunities by diligently following up leads than any other sales related activity.
A qualified lead is typically exactly that; QUALIFIED. The potential customer has probably been on your website, asked for a brochure, requested a sample. They are very interested in SOMETHING you sell, and they have already decided for themselves that you or your company is at least worth investigating. They are literally pre-qualifying themselves as a customer.
We touch leads 3 ways (not 3 times. We might follow up a lead 10+ times). We immediately phone call, email, and attempt to set up an appointment. Our goal, what we want to accomplish (aside from a sale) is a face to face meeting. Meeting in person boosts the odds of an inquiry converting to a customer tremendously. A large portion of this job is just showing up. The sales person standing in the lobby, sample and spec sheet in hand, is the salesperson who is going to get the order.
It's so easy these days to email a drawing and a quote, ship a sample, and call it “done”. But the easy way isn’t always the best way. A buyer, an engineer, a project manager...these guys want to put a face to a project. They want to know that their inquiry was so important to you that you jumped in your car and drove across town to shake their hand.
We have a policy of following up every sales lead. Every single one. And we sell some pretty low cost items, like hookup wire and shrink tubing. But we will come and see you if you are looking at our products. Why? Because we are betting that $.08 per foot hookup wire you inquired on isn’t the only thing you buy. And if it is? That’s just fine. Because even if you are just going to spend $1,000 a year on hookup wire, you are a new customer, and that’s a $1,000 we didn’t sell last year. Have you ever been to the end of a quarter looking for a $1,000 order to make your number? We have.
We all have a busy schedule. Shake it off. Figure it out. Do your expenses at night. Get your haircut on Saturday. Whatever it takes - make time to follow up!
