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Effective
Follow-up Will Make Your Sales Soar!
Whether you're selling a product
or service for a living, providing customer service to existing
customers, or selling yourself into a new job or promotion, it's
important to remember that people are slow to warm up to a new
idea, product or company.
In fact, 80% of all sales occur
on the 5th or subsequent sales call after an initial sales presentation.
Yet most salespeople only persist through 2 or 3. What a waste!
Think about how much money and
energy you've put into developing strategies and advertising
campaigns. If you drop the ball here, you've just thrown your
money out the door.
It's a common misconception that
inquiries aren't worth following up. But statistics say otherwise.
Here are some facts that might just change your mind.
Twenty six point six percent
(26.6%) of all inquiries resulted in purchases, one-third of
them occur within three months of inquiring; and, 21.6% were
likely to purchase in the future.
Yet, when examining the response
systems of various companies, it was discovered that in 18 percent
of their requests for information, none was received; 43% of
the time the material was received too late to be of use, and
only 28% of the inquirers were ever contacted by a salesperson.
What a waste! It's like ignoring
your gold mine so you can go cold call.
So how do you make it easy on
yourself to stay in touch 5-7 times after initial contact? First
of all you'll need a personal computer with a good data base
or contact management program. And, if you don't already know
how, you need to learn how to use it effectively.
Secondly, you need to pre-plan
an entire follow-up program so you are not constantly trying
to figure out what to send out or say on your next call.
Remember that how and when you
react to an inquiry will likely be the first it impression the
prospect gets of your company. You'll create both conscience
and subconscious messages about your professionalism, and the
quality of your products or services. In other words, this is
not an area to be neglected or taken lightly.
Fulfillment packages can be comprised
of items such as product spec sheets, references or a well written
follow-up letter. Or, follow-up could consist of mostly telephone
contact at specific intervals. Remembering that it takes an average
of five to seven contacts to close a sale, you should have a
whole series of fulfillment packages or telephone sales messages
ready -- each one designed to target the stage in the buying
cycle the prospect is in. Each time there is contact, by phone
or in person, it should be followed up with the appropriate materials.
If you have defined your position
in the marketplace, and how it relates to your sales process
then you've probably identified the various stages of selling
which you must go through. So the next step in your follow-up
program is to design a customer call back program. Don't become
complacent with an attitude of "Ah, now that I've won that
hard earned sale it's time to take a break." Right? Wrong!!
Once you've successfully completed your first selling job, it
makes financial success to keep selling to that customer over
and over.
The relationship between seller
and buyer seldom ends when the sale is made. In fact, the seller's
economics in the selling process almost mandates that it doesn't.
Statistics indicate that it costs only 1/5 as much to generate
an additional sale from an existing customer as it does to generate
a sale from a new prospect.
So, whether you sharpen knives
or manufacture parts for automobiles, your optimum sales results
will occur if you build a relationship with your customers. Try
doing a bit more and developing better rapport. Keep notes on
the particular interests of customers and call them when you
have appropriate new merchandise or a special sale. Mail a birthday
or anniversary card on the appropriate day, etc. Whatever means
you use, stay in touch with every customer at least once a month.
A good follow-up system will
generate more sales than ever before. It's an investment you
can't afford to pass up if you want to stay ahead of your competition.
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