The Fortune is In The Follow Up

I remember years ago hearing that, The fortune was in the follow-up.  At first thought, I wasn’t sure what that really meant, but now many years later, I can contest that if you are involved in sales or network marketing that your ability to follow up will be the difference between being a superstar or barely making a living.

Here is why you definitely want to follow up and why you will be ahead of most people if you do.  First of all, following up takes time and good time management and you must be on your game.  You see, most people simply need to have their hand held to make a decision even if they are super interested.  It’s just human nature.  There is a reason today that companies still rely on salespeople to introduce their products to the marketplace because they know that people typically will have a difficult time making a decision without someone there to help them make a decision.

Did you get the word help in the previous paragraph?  I hope so because as professional networkers and salespeople our job isn’t to push people into something they don’t need or want – that’s very ignorant behavior.  I call that “Bible Belt Selling” (Beating people over the head with a bible).  The best way to follow-up is to uncover needs with your prospect initially and see if they even have a NEED for your product or service.  If they don’t have a need and you keep following up you are an Ass.  You must do your uncovering initially to see if your prospect even needs what you have to offer.  I don’t care what you’re selling not everyone is going to need your product or service.  The best salespeople I have ever met aren’t the pushiest, they are the best listeners and they know how to put their products in the marketplace by understanding their customer’s needs first and foremost.

Now to the follow up.  It’s actually very simple, once you find out that a prospect needs your product or service your job is to make an appointment.  Find out what they need prior to the meeting to help make their decision.  Set a day and time for you to see them in person or on the phone and simply uncover their quesitons and help guide them along to make a decision to either buy or die.  What you don’t want to do is spend days, weeks, or months following up to find that your prospect cannot make a decision.  I personally, try and get prospects to tell me NO right away if they are not interested.  In fact, in the past I have told people ahead of time exactly how the sales process is going to work and that its ok for them to tell me NO.  I actually would much rather have a NO than someone stroking me along for weeks or months because they are afraid to tell me NO.  You want to get to NO or YES as quickly as possible when you are dealing with prospects.

So there is truth to the saying, The fortune is in the follow-up, but more importantly you want to get really good at recognizing a buyer and a tire kicker.  Most of your prospects will be tire kickers and that’s what you want to eliminate right away.  Follow up with your best prospects and get your tire kickers to jump in or jump off quickly.  So treat your prospecting or cold calling like you are simply hunting not so much for sales, but for qualified prospects,

So treat your prospecting or cold calling like you are simply hunting not so much for sales, but for qualified prospects, set appointments, and get your prospects to a Yes or No as quickly as you can.  If you qualify on the front end before you even start the follow up you will save yourself a ton of time and energy.  You may be following up with a lot less people, but you will ultimately find that if you get really good on your listening skills that you will have alot less work following up and your closing percentage will go way up as its much easier to persuade a qualified prospect to become a customer than it is an unqualified prospect.  So unless you are selling watches, or meat door to door.  Get good at qualifying your prospects and get to an appointment and follow up until your prospects buy or die.

 

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