Follow up – One of the key challenges to Sales People

One of the key challenges faced by sales people is “Followup” –  This post covers 

• Follow up basics
• Follow Up blues and Remedies
• Channels for follow up with prospects.

Follow up Basics –

A real example – 

A sales person from a bank called me up with an offer of OD on my savings account and my first response was, I don’t think I am interested in any loans like this at the moment. However, the caller convinced me to listen to the entire details of the offer first before I could give my response. I listened to her patiently and I wasn’t still not sure if I  should go with their offer as I was comfortable on my financial front. I told them the same that I wouldn’t need such an offer and I am busy. 

The caller took permission from me to call me again when I am available to discuss and I reluctantly agreed. After 3 attempts from her, we  finally got on the call discussing the offer again. That is  when I realised that the usage of the fund from OD need not be for my personal expenses but can be for my business expenses too. I immediately said yes to that offer and she closed the deal. Now, imagine, what if she stopped calling me after the first or 2nd call; neither she could have gotten the deal nor would I have gotten my financial arm strengthened further.

That is the POWER of FOLLOW UP.

Follow up Blues & Remedies –

Some Salespeople are not comfortable with follow up.

The very first reason is  FEAR – Fear of rejection. People can’t take rejections easily as it alters their egos. Second is assumptions, when a prospect is silent or doesn’t respond, they assume the prospect is not interested. 

Here is how to overcome this challenge –

• Starting to accept the fact that  rejections are common in sales.
• Believe in the product or service you sell so that you could follow up with greater conviction until you get a response
• Don’t settle with silence or no response or may be kind of scenarios. Instead continue your follow up  until you get a clear YES or NO from them .

Channels for Sales Follow up –

1. In – person meetings

While the digital era offers a good number of ways to follow up with your prospects, an In person meeting always has a higher potential in either eliciting a clear response or clinching the deal.

2. Emails to prospects

 Emails are less intrusive and are always good for followup. But the content in email along with the good subject line drives the opening rates for  emails. While drafting emails, please note, the content is in the interest of the prospect and always reminds them on how your product or service can address their pain points. Show them some testimonials of similar customers. You could also innovate in adding video messages or GIFs in email as long as they are professional.

3. Phone call

When it is urgent, this is the option you should go with. Pick up the phone and speak to the client, needed, call again and again until you get them on the call. But keep in mind the position and job role of the prospect, because senior people tend to have meetings and your call can disturb them. Choose wisely, when to call and how often to call. 

4.SMS

Less intrusive but not so great response generator considering the opening rates of sms and the content you can share in SMS

5. Whatsapp

This is the next big channel after Email. Optimise your followup but thumb rule don’t annoy them. 

6. Social Media

Stay in the prospect’s radar by actively engaging on their social media posts but don’t overdo as it can be treated as stalking.

7.Events / Meetups / Coffee Tables

This is another brilliant option to meet those hardly available prospects to get to the table. Plan it depending on the industry and the product you deal with. Of course, your marketing teams would work with you on this.

8. The good old  Gifts

Send some goodies or other relevant stuff on their birthdays or festivals,etc. and wait for the opportunity to call them next.

9.Via a sales friend

Relatively less used but very effective approach.If you have some salespeople ( from non competing businesses )as friends who are probably working on the same prospects, using their help in reaching out to the prospects and tryst weight of referrals is invaluable.

Remember, even the Chat GPT founder Sam Altman also believes in the power of follow up and he is successful in closing multi million dollars in business for his venture capital firm Y combinator.

Final Thoughts –

• Ending each conversation with a prospect with a clearly defined next steps would make your follow up process easy.
• Never settle with silence or no response or May be kind of answers from your prospects, follow up until you hear a clear Yes / No.
• Don’t carry assumptions in your mind like when a prospect doesn’t answer your call, he is not interested in your proposal. In actuality it could be possible that the prospect is too busy to answer or at the least he doesn’t even have your number saved.

Doesn’t matter if you have extraordinary communication skills or you are influential or you are persuasive. If you fail to follow up, everything is nothing.

So stay positive, keep your follow-up on.

Happy Selling!