Most of your business's potential customers are not going to instantly buy from you. Making a simple presentation of your products or services and hoping for a sale is not really effective. Maybe it's time to improve your sales follow-ups.
A sales follow-up is what you do after your initial presentation to encourage the potential customer to take action. Did you know that 80% of sales require an average of five follow-ups for the deal to be concluded? ? However, 44% of salespeople only follow up with a prospect once before giving up. After four follow-ups, 94% of sellers abandoned. Reluctance to follow up is understandable. Salespeople know very well that their profession can have a reputation for being pushy or aggressive.. However, do you know the number one reason why a prospect doesn't contact you again? ? Decision-makers must juggle, on their working time, with a large number of conflicting priorities and different demands. SO, how to perfect the art of follow-up ?
Use a variety of tracking methods
You've sent two or three follow-up emails to your prospect and haven't heard back ? Pick up the phone. otherwise, if you are connected on a professional platform such as LinkedIn, use it to track. Try different tracking methods, because depending on the person, the methods of communication are different and what attracts the attention of one person will be ignored by another. On the other hand, if a person specifies a particular method of communication, respect her.
Space out your calls
The quickest way to bore your prospect and discourage them is not to follow up too much, but space them too closely. The best thing you can do in terms of spacing out your follow-ups is to understand your prospect's timeline. Set reminders on your calendar to ensure you never miss the opportunity to follow up at the right time.
Bring added value to every follow-up
You can get better results by engaging the prospect at every follow-up and making sure you're providing value to them. In other words, it's not about you or even your product. It's about him ! Find out about him : ideally, you should strive to remember something significant about each prospect. Showing you care helps create the kind of human connection that drives sales. Take notes on the prospect's pain points and the problems they are trying to solve : you are not just selling a product, you are selling a solution to a problem. Include a link to an article, a relevant blog or video in your follow-up email, related to your prospect's problem : by providing useful content, you prove that you are interested in a mutually beneficial relationship rather than a quick sale. Finally, inform them of a special offer or limited time discount, it’s a great way to reconnect with a prospect you haven’t spoken to in a while.
Always define the next steps
One of the Biggest Tracking Mistakes Sellers Make ? Not clearly defining the next steps in the process with the prospect. Be as specific as possible. “I’ll call you next week” is vague. “I will call you on Wednesday, 9 h 30, it suits you ? » is much better. If you follow up by email, the subject line can make or break your follow-up success. You will need to create something attractive that will make people want to know what you have to say. You can personalize your subject line using the recipient's name (one study showed that it increased open rates by about 29%).
Be brief and know when to stop
Your follow-ups must be brief and precise. A follow-up email should not exceed six lines in total. And a follow-up phone call should usually last no more than about ten minutes. You only have a short time to grab your prospect's attention and make them want to act, so be direct. At some point, monitoring can become aggressive, pushy or just unhelpful. When should you stop ? Since 80% of successful sales require five follow-ups on average, let's use this figure as a baseline. A final email before stopping contacting the prospect is recommended. This is called the breakup email. If the prospect was interested, but had not yet responded, this will push him to act. If this is not the case, you've ended the pitch and the prospect knows they shouldn't expect to hear from you again.
For over twenty years, during their professional career, Sylvie & Annick Miquel supports entrepreneurs, teams, heads of private or public bodies. As BNI Executive Directors in Reunion, BNI National Directors in Mauritius, and as a certified John Maxwell coach, they want to help entrepreneurs, their family and community. One of the primordial notions which is at the center of their mission : “Help as many entrepreneurs and liberal professions as possible to develop their sales, thanks to our structured approach, positive and incentive marketing by recommendations. »
You have brakes ?
Many sellers fear the follow-up stage of the sales process : fear of boring the prospect, to be considered spammers, or even lose a potential sale due to too much follow-up. You may even be afraid to follow up in case you hear a resounding “no.”. But there's one thing you need to understand : a clear “no” is a gift. It means you can cross this prospect off your list, stop wasting time and move on to someone who is interested in what you offer. In conclusion, be persistent, it’s knowing that you have a product or solution that can help meet a need of your prospects. If you start to view follow-up as part of building a relationship with a potential client, you will understand its importance and stop being afraid of it. SO, action !
