There is a startling statistic that should be keeping us sales professionals up at night. We should write it on post-it-notes and stick those notes in our offices, cars and on mirrors as a constant reminder of the sales we’re leaving on the table.
This is the statistic: 96% of sales professionals quit following up after the 4th follow-up attempt. If they don’t get the sale, they stop following up with the prospect. But the majority of sales are made between the 5th and 12th follow-up effort. Just imagine how much more money you’d be making if you kept following up.
As I often say, doing follow-up in sales isn’t sexy, but it sure does help pay the bills. Follow-up is a critically necessary but generally overlooked part of the sales process. There are many reasons for this, but fortunately, one fantastic solution.
I think salespeople don’t follow-up for one or more of the following reasons:
- Fear of rejection (worry of being seen as a “pest”)
- Getting sidetracked with other work demands
- Being disorganized
- Not sure how to follow-up effectively and confidently
- Thinking it’s a waste of time if lead isn’t a “hot prospect”
But here’s the thing. If a lead hasn’t outright said no to you, they are still a prospective customer. An effort was made to generate that lead, so we shouldn’t be too quick to ignore it.
There are many reasons why a prospect may not be answering your calls or be ready to commit. People are BUSY! People are skeptical and need to make sure that what you’re offering will solve their problem. And consumers have lots of options which they may be evaluating.
Having a Follow-Up System in place is the best solution to address all of the reasons that a lead might not be responding to you or making a decision to buy. The key thing is to be strategic and employ multiple follow-up methods in your system.
I define a Follow-Up System as: A system whereby you “drip” on your prospect over time so that they start to know, trust and like you. In the process, you stay top-of-mind during the buyer journey until such time as they make a decision.
A Follow-Up System should incorporate manual and automated tools. And it should employ traditional and modern communication methods. Such a system has many benefits for you and your sales closing rate including:
- Built in accountability for you and/or your assistant who is doing the follow-up for you
- Tracking mechanisms
- Keeping you top-of-mind with prospects along their buying journey
- Freeing you up to focus on other aspects of your business
- Peace-of-mind knowing that you have an organized system in place so that your leads aren’t slipping through the cracks
An honest self-assessment will tell you if you need to be more systematic with follow-up (so will your sales). If your closing rate is low, if you generally quit by the 4th attempt, or if you find yourself hesitant to follow-up because of the reasons I’ve noted, you need to develop a follow-up system. The time it takes to develop one will be worth every minute you spend on it in increased sales.
Pipeliner CRM empowers salespeople in following up. Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.
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