Automating Sales Follow-up

How many times have you called on a “small business” owner/prospect only to be told that now is not a good time to even talk, much less buy?  After a few more follow-up calls and no progress made, you are ready to give up. In fact, most salespeople give up before they call five times. Yet 80% of all sales are made at or after the fifth call. 

How do we get to that magic sales closing time without irritating the prospect?  After the second follow-up call we are beginning to feel that we are too intrusive, yet we know that the prospect needs our product and will probably eventually buy it – unless we are too irritating in our follow-up initiatives and are told to stop calling.

Here’s a suggestion.  After the second follow-up call, mention that you don’t want to regularly intrude into the prospect’s busy schedule, but would like to keep in touch by sending an email periodically that provides information that is of interest to business owners.  Close by saying you’ll call again in a few months and see how things are going.

For the next few months, maintain contact automatically with Marketing Automation Software.  You will have already prepared a series of 8-10 emails that can be used for this period of time in almost every situation.  Each email in the series was designed to provide useful information and to be a gentle reminder of what your product can do in that particular situation. 

Add this prospect to the mailing list and let the software keep in touch.  It is likely that the prospect will reach that pivotal point when he/she is ready to buy and your product will be fresh in his/her mind.  If that hasn’t happened at the end of the series, you will automatically be reminded by the software to make that promised follow-up call.

When you call, you will already have your lead-in pitch ready.  You have been providing him/her with a service.  Talk about the emails you have sent and the information they contained.  Inquire regarding any other information needed to make the purchase decision.  Then branch out into your sales-closing routing.   

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