Have you ever heard the phrase, “sales are made in the follow-up” or something like that? *sigh* Yes, follow-up is important, but it’s not a crutch. That’s why you need to know how to follow up with prospects the right way and when to do it.
Believe it or not, there is a right way and a wrong way. One gets you a new deal; the other results in a really annoyed prospect who never wants to hear from you again.
Where Following Up Goes Wrong
Relying on following up with every prospect is a dangerous and terrible strategy. It can lead to low sales numbers and possibly many of your leads hating you.
The thing is, if you’re relying on the follow-up to close the sale, you probably missed some crucial steps earlier in the process. Unfortunately, this mistake makes you more likely to follow up way too much.
Fairly quickly, each follow-up email or voicemail is completely ignored, and your chances of closing the deal get lower and lower.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t do them at all, though. Follow-ups are essential—if you do them the right way and with the best intentions.
How to Follow Up with Prospects the Right Way
For example, you’ve gotten a prospect to the proposal stage. You were both on the same page about the proposal in your last conversation. Now, you just have to build it and send it over. But after shipping it, you never hear back. What happened?
Assuming they didn’t simply change their mind, it could be one of two things. Or both.
The first one might be how you set expectations about the proposal. If you just agreed to “send it over” when it’s ready and email it on an unspecified date, you’re leaving that part of the process up to chance and hope. We’ll go into this more later, but don’t send your proposal out into the void of the unknown. You have to actually present it.
The second issue is that you may have failed to set the next steps for a follow-up after the proposal.
Next Steps
Once you have confirmed a time to present your proposal in whatever way works best for you both, ask about the next steps. In every stage of your sales process, you should ALWAYS have mutually agreed-upon next steps.
“After we review the proposal, when would be the right time to follow up with you?”
Allowing them the opportunity to choose a time and method for follow-up makes it much more likely that they’ll be invested when you do. You’ll save tons of time and grief by not blindly calling or sending emails that end up ignored.
Plus, you can use this as another chance to confirm their decision. The more comfortable they feel telling you no when necessary, the better off you both are.
If they try to push you off by saying that they’ll get back to you or something equally vague, they may be trying to avoid telling you no. But being upfront with you about that would make both of your lives easier.
Your prospects should always have the encouragement they need to turn you down if they’ve made their decision.
Follow Up After Their Decision
Whether they decided to go another way or said yes, consistent and meaningful follow-ups are vital.
Following up after they say no can give you essential insight into how you can improve. And you’ll maintain the trust you built during the sales process so that they may think of you next time.
Following up after they say yes is equally essential. Failure to lock in airtight next steps could lead them to change their mind, lose trust that you’ll follow through on promises, or find somebody a little more responsive.
Again, that window of eagerness closes quickly, so you have to ensure they’ve bought into the closing and fulfillment process after saying yes.
Build it into a Process
Setting the next steps and following up with your prospects should be built into your sales process at every step in the selling cycle. If you customize your CRM to your sales process —which you should!— you’ll never miss these crucial steps.
To improve the likelihood of following your process even more, some CRMs have a function that will show you if there has been no progress on a deal after a certain amount of time. In Pipedrive, it’s called “deal rotting.” Maybe not the most attractive name, but it’s accurate.
Not setting the next steps gets labeled as rotting. That helps you pinpoint the deals that shouldn’t be in your pipeline anymore. If any opportunity is still there, set up that next step. Otherwise, let it go.
At least in Pipedrive, any next step will prevent it from rotting, no matter how far out. Whether you set it up as a future activity in an open deal or a follow-up with a lost lead, it helps keep your pipeline clean, accurate, and simple to maintain.
Make it About Them
Anything you can do to make sure you follow up with your prospects will help you close more deals and build long-lasting relationships.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean you should automate it.
Automated messages are impersonal and cold. Short automated messages have their place in sales, such as cold outreach, but most communication should be done personally and in real time.
Most people can spot automated messages from a mile away. Don’t break the trust you’ve built by falling for the convenience of automated messaging after closing a deal.
Knowing How to Follow Up With Prospects Leads to More Closed Deals
In my opinion, deals aren’t made in the follow-up. But they can certainly be lost without a tried and true follow-up process.
The most important thing about knowing how to follow up with prospects is that you don’t come first. The focus should be on them: what their needs, hopes, and expectations are.
Thoughtful follow-up will maintain and continue to build the trust and rapport you’ve developed during your sales conversations. And it will lead to less chasing and more closed deals.
Top Photo by Magnet.me on Unsplash
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