Sales follow-ups are very important for businesses to win a deal. After the initial pitch is done for your customer, nothing will be set in stone. It is important that you have follow-ups with the client for multiple reasons such as increasing customer satisfaction and creating a long-term relationship with them. In this article, we will look at why sales follow-ups are so important to businesses, and how you can follow up with your potential customers.
A sales follow-up is when a sales representative contacts a potential customer after the first point of contact is completed. Usually, the communication method chosen for a sales follow-up with a client will be by a call or email. Brevet shares that 80% of sales require five follow-ups on average to complete the deal. This statistic highlights how important follow-ups are with sales as for most deals that are won, it is a necessity.
So, we know that sales follow-ups lead to more deals being won, but what is so important about sales follow-ups that lead to more deals being won? Small Business Trends highlights that only 2% of sales are made during the point of first contact. This section will look at the reasons why sales follow-ups are so important.
Firstly, sales follow-ups increase your customer satisfaction by your team giving better customer service. After first contact with a customer, if a client shows interest, they will want you to get back in touch with them. This is because it will be more inconvenient for them to go out of their way to get back in contact with you. Instead, if you contact them, they will be more satisfied with your service as it saves them time.
By having follow-ups with your clients, your customers will stay aware of your product or service. Follow-ups can act as reminders for your customers, as if you do not do it, you may be out of the client’s mind, and they will pursue a different business.
Having multiple follow-ups with customers will allow them to get to know your business better which will build trust. The more a customer trusts your business, the more they will be willing to purchase a product or service. Providing customers with a personalised service will help build trust. You will build a rapport and an atmosphere that you are there to help the customer solve their problem, instead of to sell them a product.
The most obvious reason to have follow-ups is to increase the number of sales your business makes. Customers will be much more likely to purchase your product or service when you communicate effectively with them and build a solid relationship.
There are multiple follow-up methods that you are able to pursue with customers and it is important that you use as many methods as possible because if a customer is not available by one method, they may be available with another one. For example, if you are unable to get in contact with a customer by calling them, an email or social media communication channel will be a good idea. The communication channels that are commonly used for sales follow-ups are as follows:
By being able to communicate through multiple different channels, you will be able to contact a wide variety of clients and not make them feel like you are spamming them on one communication channel.
If you want to follow up with a client by email, there are some tips and tricks you can use to make sure the email is received well, and you keep the customer’s attention.
Personalise the email – At this stage of the sales cycle, you will know some of the customer’s personal information and you will need to use this to your advantage. For example, in the email, make sure that the customer’s name is used, and the subject title is relevant to the customer’s context. This will help you grab the customer’s attention, and they will be more inclined to open the email.
Have a clear goal for the email – You must make the reasoning clear as to why you are sending this email. Re-explain the customer’s context and why your product will be able to help them. Restate details about the product or service’s name and what it will do for your customer.
Always show the value of your product or service – Emails that are just to catch up with a customer are not gripping enough and you may risk losing your client. Instead, in sales follow-ups, you should always make sure that the value of your product is being reiterated to the customer to keep them aware of how their problem will be solved. As well as this, adding value to your product and service in follow-up emails is an effective method of keeping customers interested. For example, offering a new feature or giving them details on a feature they were not aware of will help keep the customer engaged with your business.
Always include a call to action – A call to action is perhaps the most important part of the email. This should be easily visible and stand out in the email. This call to action will be responsible for your customer staying involved in your business and its product. This call to action could be directing them to schedule a meeting with you, to your website, to your product page, or for them to get in contact with you a different way. Without this, your customers may not carry on the sales process with your business.
To get the most out of your email follow-ups, you must find the balance between sending enough emails to keep your customer’s attention, but not too many emails where you overwhelm them. A good tactic is to send weekly emails to customers and base the emails on a wide variety of topics. This could include emails about events, newsletters, celebrations and more.
Businesses can run into some challenges with their sales follow-ups. Some of these common challenges are:
If you want to transform the way your business does follow-ups, then TEB is the software for you. TEB is a sales automation software that will completely transform the way your sales team operates, increasing your efficiency and productivity. TEBs stand out features include:
If you would like to find out more about how TEB will enhance your sales process, get in touch with us here.
