Following up is dreaded by most sales professionals and it’s certainly not at the top of any “to do list”. However, only 2% of sales happen at the first meeting (MarketingDonut) and 70% of sales people stop at one email (YesWare) so following up really is a must to do task for any sales professional serious about hitting their targets.
It’s important to remember however that timing is everything and people buy when they are ready to buy not when you’re ready to sell. 50% of all sales happen after the 5th contact, but most sales people give up after just 2 (InsideSales). This highlights that following up is super important in order catch that right time for your prospect.
Being persistent really is more important than ever in order to be heard through all the noise. This is one of many blogs out there stressing the importance of following up; the reason for that? Because it really is!! Yet there are still a huge number of sales professionals that see following up in such negativity.
Top 3 tips:
1. Prioritise! Some leads are hotter than others. They all need following up, however direct your efforts into the hotter ones early on.
2. A multi-channel approach is vital. Don’t just send 1 email. Use more than one method to touch base with your potential customers – email, phone, Linked In, direct mail. On average it takes 16 touch points!
3. Your potential customer may have forgotten you. Don’t take it personally!! Re introduce yourself, re-establish the connection and have a clear call to action. Say how would you like to move the conversation forward?
A Study by Lead Response Management revealed some interesting statistics on when the best times are to reach out to prospects:
- The best time to contact leads is between 16:00-18:00
- The next best time to contact leads is between 08:00-10:00
- The best days to call are Wednesday and Thursday
- The worst days to call are Monday and Tuesday
Because of how difficult following up with a prospect is perceived to be, it’s vital for sales teams to be trained on how to handle these conversations, and how to handle having conversations with people who have different personality styles. High performing sales organisations are twice as likely to provide ongoing training as low performing organisations. For more information on our 90 day programmes on to supercharge your sales teams, get in touch here.
When it comes to following up the most important thing to remember is to just do it! The statistics are all there in favour of you doing it, and if you do, you’ll be sure to smash those 2020 targets!