Article 101

Find them.
Flirt with them.
Finalize the sale.
Forget them.

You invest plenty up-front to create or explore a business relationship.
You stop following up at some point, whether they buy or not.
You lose out on lowest cost sales but for a small effort to create an automatic follow-up multi-touch system.

There is a real problem out there in sales land.

People are investing a ton of time and money to generate leads and get appointments. Yet, neglect an inexpensive quick component of their sales process that would automatically generate qualified leads and many times pre-sold accounts.

Even when a new account is signed up, most neglect a simple tool that increases retention, cross selling and referrals.

Let's see...

Kill myself prospecting, spend tons of money, but at best only get 50%-60% of the value of that time and investment due to the lack of a small effort to create an automatic follow-up system.

Or, make Herculean efforts to close new accounts but once the first check has cleared make feeble efforts at best to communicate consistently with them to increase cross-selling, get referrals and keep them a healthy account longer.

Logically, these truths make no sense. In a land of make the most sales for the lowest cost over and over again, why wouldn't someone make a single small effort to drastically increase their return on sales investment?

Two reasons.

1. Lack of orientation.

Call, meet, close. Everybody knows that. It's drilled into our heads. But doing things, even simple inexpensive things that get people to call you... or have them fairly
pre-sold when you contact them... there are few of those memos kicking around.

2. Lack of know-how.

What do you do? Where do you start? How do you do it right? Not difficult things when you have a little info, but difficult to get your arms around if unfamiliar with it.

How does an automatic follow-up system help you?

When you are prospecting, a follow-up system ...

... generates leads from people you never speak to.
... generates callbacks from people you do speak to.
... provides consistent multiple touches (Rule of 7) that generate credibility and
communicate value. What do you do now to communicate credibility and value?

When you have already sold them, a follow-up system...

... Keeps the relationship strong.
... You are less likely to lose them.
... Reduces churn.
... Educates them about other offerings.
... Generates word-of-mouth and referrals.

NOTE: The most profitable organizations... without exception... are those that do the best job of retaining their current accounts and generating referrals. If you think doing a great job is sufficient to accomplish this you are delusional.

Many times an effective automatic follow-up system is an investment of between 10 - 20 hours and as little as $20 month... but more on that later.

Best wishes for sales success,
Scott Channell

copyright 2007-2009 scott channell

Article 140	The 4 F’s. Your Follow-up Disconnect
	by Scott Channell