Do your sales people seem to be chasing their prospects to return phone calls, set up the next appointment, or even acknowledge receipt of the proposal?
If they are, you’re not going to like this next sentence….
…your sales people are spinning their wheels and wasting their time on too many deals that will never ever happen.
Your sellers need some solid tips and recommendations for follow up with sales prospects after the first visit.
I’ve got the solid tips and recommendations, but first I’m going to share a few from another well known sales trainer.
See I listened to her short video tip this morning – all excited to add more tools to my tool box.
Not only was I was quite disappointed, I outright disagree with several of her suggestions.
Especially because we train sales people worldwide to include this one closing formula in their sales conversation to eliminate even needing any one of her suggestions!
First let me share her suggestions:
- Mail (snail mail) a hand written thank you note after the first meeting
- Include a related article if applicable or available with the thank you note
- Call the cell phone rather than the office phone and if you get voice mail, don’t leave a message (your number is there and the curious will call you back)
- Send email follow-up and if no response, send the same email 1 week apart for 3 weeks
Except for the first tip – send a hand written thank you note – the others aren’t useful to build a relationship, long term business or close more deals in less time.
In fact, they are totally unnecessary if the sales person consolidates and closes the conversation effectively the first time.
That’s where the root of the problem is. How a sales person concludes each conversation – determines the outcomes, speed and advancement of the next one.
Sellers tend to invest the least amount of time in concluding the sales call – costing them time and money and added aggravation!
What does our formula for an effective consolidation and close look like?
- Recap of the conversation detailing the problem opportunity, want or need expressed.
- Ask if you heard this correctly and confirm whether it is a priority to do anything about and if it’s on the radar to do something now.
- Agree on next steps. Give the prospect an assignment with a deadline. You’ll do your end – get more information, a proposal, a presentation. What are they doing to do? (There’s always something you can give them to do – set up a phone call for you with someone else, invite people to next meeting, provide an org chart – you get the idea.)
- Calendars out – and set the next meeting date and time together. See that it’s entered in their calendar.
I bet this is a little different than what many of your sellers are currently doing.
Too often they say something like, “Great. You’ve given me valuable information and I’m going to put a proposal together for you. How about we talk in 2 weeks?”
If that’s the case, the sales person will be spinning their wheels with the other sales trainer’s follow-up suggestions. Because there’s no firm commitment to even go the next step with your seller.
Teach your team our no fail formula and see what happens.
Chances are you’ll weed out the tire kickers, gain more qualified buyers, reduce the long sales cycle and close more deals.
By the way, if you’re a Sales Manager who’d like to know how your sales reps can crush their numbers monthly without spending tons of money on outsourced sales training, then check this out http://bit.ly/1U5OTlD
