Follow Up

You might be losing business because your follow up system doesn’t work.

Nearly 30% of those prospects who ask for a follow up call or email become long-term customers. Problem is, many sales reps forget. In the never-ending quest to find new business, their system falls apart.

To make more money, invest in a sales tracking program such as ACT or Goldmine. It will provide you with every detail of a sale from first contact through closing. The system will prompt you who to call, when and what is to be discussed next.

If you are already using one of these tracking software programs, make sure you are doing so effectively, taking advantage of all it offers, including software updates. It will illuminate your sales path and help you close more business.
If you sales tracking systems are broken, fix them. You’ll be surprised at what you’ve been missing—prospect who want to become customers.

Dust Off Those Sales Resolutions

Sales resolutions, like fitness and diet self-promises, are already starting to lose their grip. Selling professionals have fallen back into the same old rut of not prospecting, not filling pipelines and doing anything to avoid paper work or worse, making a cold call. And when it comes to organization and time management, most good sales people lack the skills.

Don’t despair, the year is young and you can get in touch with your resolutions once again and make this a great sales year.

Here are 8 steps to get your well-intentioned sales resolutions back on track:

Get out of the comfort zone, really! Tackle the tasks you hate without much thought. Pick up the phone, prospect and handle paperwork efficiently and timely.

Quit talking. Quit talking about you. A prospect wants to buy from you if you’ll only let them tell you why and they will, if you just start listening.

Forget the close. If you’ve been selling for anytime at all, you remember the ill-taught closing techniques. Forget them. Closing is a natural part of the sales conversation. Don’t push it.

Take time to research your prospect. Find out what it is that you may be able to help with. Far too many sales reps fall down here. You are not too busy to skip this.

Get in the Game. Many a sales rep rearranges drawers, handles personal errands and does anything but work a sales system. Quit putting it off and get to work.

Enough with the dumb questions. Ban the following questions to prospects: How are you? What’s new? Ban the following statements: I was just calling to check in (substitute touch base). Have a nice day.

Deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. How many of you spend far too much time dueling with gatekeepers while the decision maker remains elusive.

Track, track, track your efforts and results. If you don’t have a CRM or sales planning system like Goldmine or ACT, get one now. You’ll learn a lot about what efforts pay off most and you’ll be more organized than you ever thought.

If your sales are suffering, look in the mirror. Better yet, look at your 2009 selling resolutions and commit to them. You made them for a reason. Remember?