Fantastic Follow-Up Techniques - Part III

At the May 9 Erie Sales Club workshop, the group discussed Fantastic Follow-Up Techniques. This is the final article in a series highlighting that discussion. Our workshop concluded with attendees answering this question: What follow-up techniques have been most effective for you -- either on the phone, face-to-face, email, or "offline"?

* Take notes during the conversation regarding follow-up items. Use these to establish next steps to remind you to send follow-up information. You're not going to remember every detail, so write it down.
* Manage expectations about next steps. Only make promises you can keep, and help your contact to do the same.
* Be specific which discussing next steps. "I'll get that information to you soon" isn't as clear as "I will email that list of Waterford addresses to you by lunchtime Thursday."
* Have a follow-up plan for yourself that includes typical actions such as clearly establishing next steps at the end of each call and scheduling follow-up actions in your Outlook calendar.
* Send gift cards for referrals. This is money well spent.
* People love handwritten notes, so make it personal and take the two minutes to write.
* Keep in touch with customers and prospects about more than just business. Stop by their office to drop off a Mother's/Father's day gift, baked goods they might like, lottery tickets for their staff, etc.
* Establish alerts in your CRM to ensure you follow-up with a contact and don't forget about them.
* Gather as much information as you can during your initial meeting so you know what you can follow-up on.
* If you come across an online article that you think might interest them (from a business perspective or personal/hobby perspective), forward them the link.
* To ensure you come across articles like this, set up a Google alert.
* Clip out appropriate information in the newspaper and mail it to them.
* Connect with them on LinkedIn and other social media outlets.
* If you are Facebook friends, you will receive an alert that it's their birthday. Don't be like every other Facebook friend of theirs and send them a happy birthday message. Pick up the phone or send them a card to wish them happy birthday.
* Establish a regular newsletter that truly provides value. For example, a real estate agent sends a newsletter to customers with news about the Erie County reassessment.
* Share follow-up best practices with your team. Have a bulletin board in the office to post activities that have worked. This will raise the collective IQ of your group.


Panelists for the workshop were Derek Van Slyke of Jameson Publishing, Brad Allen of Rossbacher Insurance, and Christie Mahany of Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services.

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting.

Fantastic Follow-Up Techniques - Part II

At the May 9 Erie Sales Club workshop, the group discussed Fantastic Follow-Up Techniques. This is the second in a series of articles that highlight that discussion.

The statistics about follow-up are alarming. 48% of salespeople never follow-up after an initial call. 25% more stop after the second call. Do the math: 48% + 25% = 73% give up after two calls. Only 12% of sales reps make more than three call attempts.

The stats also say that only 10% of sales are made on the first three contacts; 80% of sales are made somewhere between the fifth and 12th contact. All this means that the vast majority of sales are left to the small percentage of salespeople who persist.

With the stats clear that follow-up calls are so important, why don't sales reps spend their life performing follow-up calls? That's the question we posed to the Erie Sales club workshop group, plus we asked them for advice on how to improve the situation. Here's some of what they had to say:

* It's because of emotions. Reps don't want to offend the prospect by appearing pushy. They fear falling into the category of being calls a "pest."
* Advice: "Go for no." The prospect will tell you when they are not interested in your product or service. Don't quit until you get that "no" answer.
* Build rapport as quickly as possible. Establish value with the prospect; understand how you can help them and communicate that with the prospect.
* Steer the conversation away from price. Talk about customer needs and how you can solve those customer needs. For example, an insurance agent told this story to a prospect: We're not the cheapest insurance. But when you actually need to use the insurance, we'll come through for you. A customer of mine owns a manufacturing company. One day snow piled up on his roof and collapsed part of the building. Nobody could work in the building until it was fixed. Essentially his business was shut down. We moved quickly and got his business back up and running the next day. If he would have had cheaper insurance, the process would have been slower and he'd have been shut down for who knows how long. That's the value I can provide you. My customer thinks it's worth paying a little more every month. What about you?"
* Recognize and acknowledge that you've call the prospect multiple times. Ask them if and when they would like you to follow-up. "If you've made a decision, please let me know."
* Clearly manage their expectations. "I'm following up with you to talk about X. I hope to hear from you soon. If I don't hear back from you this week, I'll give you a call next week hoping we can talk."

Panelists for the workshop were Derek Van Slyke of Jameson Publishing, Brad Allen of Rossbacher Insurance, and Christie Mahany of Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services.


The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting.