5 Easy steps of sales follow up

You might be enjoying good success because of your hard work, aspirations and selling skills. Your feature-rich product can also be a beneficial factor in achieving good sales number. But there is one key ingredient to dramatically improve your sales i.e. ’’Follow-ups’’.

Following up on sales is a critical step in building and maintaining long-term relationships. It involves a simple communication effort to gauge customer interest, understand their problems and identify their primary needs to which they might be looking for a solution. Without following up with the prospect to know these aspects, salespeople can never understand their product fit for customers. Moreover, if they don’t follow-up, they may never learn about some common reasons of losing customers.

Hence, a sound follow-up is vital in the sales strategy to boost your revenues from both existing customers, as well as referrals and new customers.

Let’s quickly jump to the most important five elements of ’’Follow-Up’’ that you need to perform to send your sales through the roof.

1. Sales follow up email

Research shows that 70% of people take buying decision approximately after 5 times of contact.

Reiteration in selling is crucial. But sometimes we are so tired of chasing people that we end-up sending boring and unwanted emails with content like just checking in. There is a thin line between sending a good sales follow up email that is actually going to help you and being annoying. Sales follow up should bring constant value and keep your prospect moving through the buying cycle. This is also called lead nurturing by being relevant. Deliver value to your prospects in their buying life cycle with informative guides, video tutorials and reports that enhances their buying experiences.

2. Sales follow up call

Follow-up call is an essential part of sales cycle. It is more challenging than a cold call because sometimes in a sales follow-up call, you are short of options. However, a sales follow-up call before and after meeting has the power to establish a relationship with the prospect. You can probe more by asking relevant questions to know their problems and understand situation. Be genuinely interested in helping them out. If you can’t close the deal, at-least you have richer knowledge base to better serve other prospects in their buying cycle.

3. Sale touch point

Sales touch points play a critical role in selling the product to the prospect. Generally speaking, touch points refer to an intersection between the customers and the product which is mostly done through marketing strategies. However, when we speak of sales touch points, the intersection is limited to a place where sales can take place. This churns out advertising strategies from the list and is restricted to inside and outside sales.

The sales rep should understand the importance of the sales touch point. A company might have a fantastic team working in the background, but if your sales staff fails to entice the prospect and close the deal on a winning note, the financial statements won’t be a good picture.

4. Think second sale

Once trust is established and you are fully aware of your client’s expectations, the stage is set to offer a complementary product. ’’You now have enormous opportunity to offer more products or services to the client,’’ Galley says. This boosts your sales, enabling you retain the customer and gain more brand advocates.

5. Ask for referrals

And talking about brand advocacy brings us to the next key element: ’’Referrals’’. Happy and satisfied customers will always refer your product/services to their friends, colleagues and any associate. When a recommendation comes from someone who has actually used your services/product, it has an extra layer of credibility and trust. Delighted clients are the best advocates, because third party claims of excellence carry more weight than self-promotion. Moreover, customers are always willing to refer, because they know how important referrals are in a buying decision process.