Frequently, in the course of a sales call, you will promise a customer that you will follow-up. Maybe you need to get back to them with a quote, or perhaps some technical information. Personally, I always make it a point to be sure that I follow up. What amazes me is how often people are surprised to receive my follow-up. Customers have come to expect that sales people won’t keep their commitments to follow-up! Sad to say, but a lot of sales people are really bad at this, and it hurts their customer relationships, and ultimately sales and profitability.
So why are many sales people so bad at following-up? It’s probably because we are busy, and we don’t make follow-up a priority. It’s a big mistake! When we don’t follow-up, it tells our customers that they are not important to us, that we don’t care about their business.
But when we do follow-up, they are pleasantly surprised, and the message becomes “You are important”. And believe me, customers need to feel important.
So how to we avoid failing to follow-up? To begin with, write it down! I keep a notebook open on my desk at all times, and carry it with me when I am out of the office. Don’t write your notes on a loose piece of paper, you will loose them. I carry a pad of Post-it-Notes to use when my note book is not handy, and I stick the note in my book as soon as I can so that it doesn’t get lost.
Set aside time each day to review your follow-up notes. If you can’t do it right away, put it on your to-do calendar. If you have been at a show or seminar where you expect lots of follow-up requests, set aside some time soon after the event to do the follow-up.
Don’t procrastinate. If you take too long to follow-up, that is almost as bad as not doing it at all. And the longer your list of incomplete follow-ups gets, the more likely that some will never get done.
Do you need help in setting up an effective follow-up system? Contact us HERE for a no-charge no-obligation needs analysis.