I am always seeing salespeople do a bad job of follow up. I mean really BAD!!!
The main reason they aren’t following up effectively is that they are calling the wrong people at the wrong time or maybe they have the worst follow-up strategy.
The follow-ups are crucial. It determines whether or not you will get a meeting with prospects. We will show you how to get more sales from your sales follow-up.
Here, I explained five major factors for successful sales follow-up that if you start doing them, you will see an improvement in the number of appointments you set and the number of new business sales you make.
1. Number of Interactions
Generally, salespeople will stop sending out follow-ups after two-three attempts. Maybe they think, “I gave my best. If they don’t buy now means, I don’t know when they will.”
Well, stop the thinking. You are thinking in the wrong way. The reality is the sales take some time.
So how many times should you send sales follow-up?
In sales optimization study, revealed five emails per prospect are the optimal number of emails that you should send.
As per the data, you will definitely get a reply email in the 5th try at maximum. Five and more attempts will give more answers from prospects. Every email follow-up you send out is an opportunity for the prospects to answer.
Of course, there isn’t the only piece of the equation. Consider if there was a thing called the perfect number of interactions. Let’s say it is five. Reaching out to the audience on this number of times at the wrong timing through the wrong channel or with the wrong email will ruin your email campaign.
Let’s look at the other factors for successful sales follow-up.
2. Other Channels for Interaction
Email isn’t the only way to sales follow-up. Combining email with contact details and social media outreach is also a winning follow-up strategy. The effective way is to send a follow-up email immediately after calling.
If you really want to get into the prospect’s circle without annoying, add social media post content by supporting the prospect’s post and then following them later. After they follow you back, you can send a direct message via LinkedIn or Twitter.
Stay away from Instagram and Facebook interactions. Those channels are personal platforms and not suitable for sales talks. Maybe, those channels are best for asking someone to the dinner with you.
But LinkedIn and Twitter channels have more crowd and very busy platforms. Here are some less conventional but highly effective channels for sales interaction:
Next factor is timing!!!
3. Time between Interactions
At what time should you check in with your prospects?
I recommend you to have a timeline, with a little more persistence. We have seen getting responses on the second interaction in a day or even 12 hours after the first. But that will not happen in every situation.
In a sales optimization study, they showed the ultimate strategy for sales follow-up described the timeline as a powerful impact on conversion rate and maintain your professional image towards others.
DAY 1: Email and Call
DAY 4: Only Email
DAY 5: Only Call
DAY 8: Only Email
DAY 14: Only Call
DAY 15: Email and Call
DAY 22: Only Email
Okay, let’s forget about the record and statistics for a moment. The time between each interaction is modified according to your business concept.
For example, you are running a clothing centre and sending an email in the evening during Thanksgiving or New Year’s Eve. Does it work?
NO!!! It’s a very big NO for that question.
Those records and statistics are maybe for other types of business, which is not similar to yours. So, create your own sales follow-up timeline for your business.
We send emails to prospects at nine in the morning to get more responses. There is also a fact about timing:
- Monday to Thursday - 9 AM to 6 PM.
- On Friday - Before noon.
- Saturday and Sunday - It's your call. Most of the people will respond only on Monday.
4. Interactive Content
The content of your email is going to decide whether is party time or preparation time. Well, the preparation time explains that you need to improve your content in emails. Then party time – well, you know it. I don’t need to explain that.
Nowadays, the “sign-up” or “follow us” emails got old. You need different aspects to approach your prospect and get their attention towards you. Also, don’t make them feel bored.
Here are four interactive content idea in email follow-up:
- Highlight the Business Value. It's all about what you can do about a prospect’s issue. Find a way to show them that you have a solution but through their problem. Don’t mention your all products, just a solution is enough.
- Educate. You may heard the word ‘Educate’ everywhere. Trust me, that’s not odd. Educating people to solve the issue or improve the company growth or themselves is the best thing to do for someone. People wanted to learn things. Offer them valuable content like a webinar, case study, e-book, whitepaper, etc.
- Through Insights. Again, your content should about them and their benefits. Either it could be a different way to solve their issue or a timeline for how they can able to reach their goals. In LeadMine, we provide intense and deep blogs for the audience for better interactions and to help them in their business.
- Share the news. The reason why social media is so addictive is that people want to stay up on daily news. They don’t want to feel like a miss out on other people. Likewise, follow-up with prospects by sending relevant business news, product updates, recent studies, statistics, competitive announcements, etc will help.
5. Eye on The Future
The first and last follow-up emails are the important emails that you send to a prospect.
After the last follow-up email, don’t think they won’t need you. They just don’t need you right now, maybe they need you later.
There is always a tiny chance that something will happen in the future, say after 10 years or 1000 deals later. That same person who hasn’t bought your product might need you and your product in the future. So, grab the future deal.
I will give you an example email for the last follow-up:
Hi {Prospect’s Name}
Do you know the childhood and business friendships are hard to avoid? Well, they understand what we need and stick with us.
We are looking for that kind of friendship with you and we will be waiting in the house. If you need help, just rang the doorbell.
We are happy to have a friendship with you!!!
Thanks
{Your Name}
A positive email will help to get in touch with them and they maybe forget you but they won’t forget your email.
Here we come!!!
Now, you have a clear idea for a sales follow-up strategy, it’s time to execute it. Remember, there is no Harry Potter’s magic line to improve your sale. It’s on your hands, it’s on your sales follow-up strategies.
As a lead generation company, we believe sale strategies and follow-ups are important. So that we give you our factors to improve yours. If you have any factors for sales follow-up that lead you to success, share with us at LeadMine.
