Let’s talk about the value of follow up
Is there any? When you think about value of follow up, what would a +70% competitive advantage be worth to you? If you’re a salesperson or you own a business, one of the first skills you must learn in order to close more deals is to recognize the value of follow up and understand the art and science of follow-up.
How many deals have you lost because you haven’t followed up enough?
Too many! Most businesses and salespeople don’t see success with their follow-up so they give up, quit and decide it doesn’t work. They make a decision based on one or two phone calls and that’s it. And 1-2 calls, that’s NOT follow-up. The reality is they’re not working the numbers correctly.
If 90% of sales people quit after 3 attempts but 80% of sales are made after the 5th contact, then….
Great Salespeople follow up relentlessly. You must follow-up persistently, consistently and creatively so you will be differentiated from the market—because obviously, nobody is doing any real follow-up.
People underestimate how much energy and effort it takes to win a sale, to get attention, and to get in front of people. You don’t get a six pack by going to the gym once or twice. It takes consistency. Following up with persistence will get an initial conversation with someone, get their attention, and eventually secure an appointment.
Five things to get your follow up game right:
- Be persistent: Even if you are bad at follow-up, eventually you’ll get something just by not giving up. Frequency before greatness.
- Commit to follow up: Make it a daily non-negotiable activity. Schedule and block of time dedicated to follow up and outflow.
- Get creative: Remember, creativity follows commitment. You will become a pest if you aren’t creative. Bring something new and of value to each interaction. And the greater your commitment, the higher your creativity.
- Have some predictability of what’s going to happen. Nobody likes doing things that they suck at. Pay attention to successful actions and duplicate what works. Tweak and adjust what’s not. Also, just because you don’t get a response doesn’t mean it’s not effective.
- In your follow-up don’t rely on one single channel of communication. No one thing is effective by itself.
- Phone
- In person
- Texting
- Fax
- Gifts
- Articles and Blogs
Do the VAFU: Value Added Follow-Up.
How much value can you deliver to your prospect in your follow up? Practicing VAFU is how you can be persistent without getting on someone’s nerves. Make a strategy for your follow-up. If you want one whale you need to get 100 lines going off your boat. You call a guy 3 times and he doesn’t return your calls and you start thinking he’s not interested. Think of every call as a win.
Better to lose a deal because you follow up too much than too little!
The Buddha says, “In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins, not through strength but through perseverance.”
The water flows over, under, and on the side 24/7/365—it just keeps going and going.
When Grant pursued his now wife, Elena, he had to use creativity. Creativity is what separates good follow-up from stalking.
Your persistence must have creativity whether in business or relationships. Make a commitment to persist in things, and then find the line. How far is too far? Know how to cross the line but also how to reel it back.
Persistence is the single most common trait of the most successful! Remember, the greatest secrets in sales is great follow-up!!!