BY Rachel Cagle
Did a promising lead slip through your fingers and you’re not sure why? Ask yourself one question: Did I make a follow-up call? Even if you had a great discovery call, a follow-up call is essential. Chris Beall, writing for SellingPower, says he has never encountered a good reason for salespeople to not follow up. “Ask Google for the specific phrase, ‘salespeople don’t follow up,’ and you get thousands of results with titles like, ‘Why Salespeople Don’t Follow Up,’ and, ‘In Sales, the Follow-up is Everything,’ he writes.
Follow-up sales calls are effective for a few reasons, according to Beall. You may also need to know how to make a follow-up sales call. We have a few suggestions.
Respectful Persistence
Follow-up calls prove that you saw potential during your discovery call with your prospect, potential that is too good to let slip through their fingers. As long as you don’t cross the line into pushy, a well-worded call can drive home the point that you truly believe that your product or service could work wonders for their company.
Added Value
A discovery call is nice, but there’s only so much you can do to pitch your product or service when your chief goal is to collect information about the prospect. Your next call gives you the opportunity to put the information you learned about the prospect and their needs during the discovery call into action. Follow-up calls are always more personalized and every salesperson knows that personalization is one of the keys to landing sales.
Potential Changes
Perhaps during your discovery call you learned that the prospect didn’t have the means to buy from you at the time, but may have the means in the future. How will you know when the appropriate time may be if you don’t make a follow-up call a few months down the road? Let the prospect know that they and their needs are still top-of-mind to you and that you’re eager for a chance to help them solve their problems and, even if they’re still not ready to buy, you’ll leave a good impression.
How to Make a Follow-Up Sales Call
Our Selling to SMBs survey shows why prospects are swayed to do business with specific sales reps. You can use that information to justify your follow-up sales call. For example, 45% of SMB decision-makers say they want to do business with sales reps who provide relevant ideas to help their business. Given that finding, go through the data you collected during your initial discovery conversation with the prospect.
Did they mention a statistic or a general industry trend they are struggling with? Business owners are always looking for a less expensive way to deliver their product or service. If you can connect the solution you're selling to that pain point, you have a good reason to reach out to the prospect. Just let them know you were thinking about their problem and that you've come up with a way to make a difference on their bottom line. When you start a call with that opening, they'll listen.