When someone calls you and they sound distant, as if they are reading from a screen, how do you react? No doubt, during the sales process, you’ve been courteous, useful, fun and energetic. It’s during the follow up call, more than ever, that you need to stay that way.

Now that you understand the benefits of the follow up and know how to effectively prepare your content, it’s time to deliver it.

The following points will greatly assist you in delivering a strong follow up:

Be energetic and enthusiastic – Have you ever noticed how when you greet someone they return the greeting in the same way. For example, when you say, ‘Hi, how are you today?’ the response is likely to be said in a similar ‘proper’ manner, “Good thank you, how are you?’ – ‘Very well thanks…’ Certain character types will like this, but if you want to be remembered, a greeting more in line with an energetic ‘Hey! How are you?’ will commonly be met with a similar energetic response. Remember that most people want to be happy, and “Positivity breeds Positivity.”
Be remembered for your energy, not forgotten for your professionalism!

Be confident. Be prepared. – Don’t call someone stumbling over your words. Prepare. Know your content and deliver it with conviction. As soon as someone conducts a follow up on me and stumbles over their words I immediately assume that they are just going through the motions as if someone else has told them to, and that they lack care.

Be diplomatic – If your clients are looking at going down a competitor’s path, keep your cool – the worst thing a sales person can do is get defensive about the prospects decision. For example:
“Are you crazy!?!?” “Have you listened to nothing that I have said???” – Losing your cool is like committing sales suicide.
“Oh, Ok, I see how that works, cool… Ours is similar in that respect but is a bit better rounded in the….” – If you argue with the client over why yours is better you will find them step into the shoes of your competitor and sell themselves on their solution.

Be concise – Rule Number One, they are not wasting your time, you are wasting theirs! It is impossible for a client to waste a salespersons time. With this in mind, don’t beat around the bush unless you have a relationship that allows it. Respect your clients time and they should respect your words.

Provide value – Can you offer the client any new valuable information? Has anything changed since your last interaction? Has the model been updated? Is a new promotion running? Did you learn a new feature?

These are a few useful tips that should assist you with conducting your follow ups. As always please post a comment if you have any tips on follow ups. Otherwise if you think that someone else might find it useless please forward it on.

Training yourself to appreciate the value of a follow up, and making them consistently, is the first part. The second is successfully delivering that follow up to achieve the best outcome. For the purposes of this blog entry I am going to use the example of a sales person following up a client on a quote that they have delivered.

You don’t run into battle with no armor; you can’t cook without ingredients; so why do so many people follow up without any preparation? Before you make the phone call there are a number of things to consider. What do you want to achieve? How can you become more ingrained in the customers buying process? How can you be seen as an irreplaceable resource as opposed to a sales person trying to make a sale? Why does the client care if you win the business? The answer to these questions can be summed up in one word… ‘Care.’ How much do you care about all of the above? Does the client see that? Do they know that you care about the outcome, and that your assistance is in their best interests? These are the questions that you need to consider when you are going to perform a follow up.

Some examples of this offering include:

• Drawing the client to specific parts of the quote which are key differentiators for your company.

• Further drilling down on their needs and cross referencing these against your proposal to show where they overlap.
• Offering more information on any aforementioned points.
• Relating their decision making process to an allied client in a relevant field and how they went about it…

You want to prepare your follow up so well that you can answer any questions confidently as well as be working in the clients best interests. Don’t follow up to say, ‘where’s the order?’ Follow up to say, ‘how’s the process going? Can I be of further assistance? What time frames are you running on? I firmly believe that we have the best product for your situation, and I will do anything to try to convince you to go with us, as it will ultimately serve you the least headaches and the most flexibility!’ Just be careful not go in with that last one unless you are oozing passion… Effective preparation will give you the outcome that you seek.

Next week, part three will discuss delivery.

What are your perceptions of a follow up? Do you prioritise them? Do you value them? If the initial action is talking the talk, then following up is walking the walk. Say what you are going to do, do it, and then follow up to confirm it was done to the expected level.

I am a salesperson and to me follow ups are one of the most important things that I can do. Let’s say I send a quote and don’t follow it up; I don’t make sure it arrived and I don’t try to point out the benefits of my quote. What’s the point of investing the time into the quote if you aren’t go to make sure it gets there? Most clients won’t give you a second chance if you fail the first. Following up ensures that you give yourself every opportunity to provide the best customer service possible and helps you control the outcome.

What if a builder finishes a small installation and doesn’t confirm with the client that they are happy with everything? What if something went wrong and the builder wasn’t aware of it. In this circumstance the builder may have a toxic client out there spreading the bad word, one that could have been remedied with a phone call. If the sales call helps you get the initial sale, then the follow up call helps you get the next.

A follow up is your way of caring about the outcome – whether it is beneficial to yourself or to someone else a follow up should always be regarded as a stake in the outcome. Consider this next time you are being followed up, or following someone else up, don’t see it as being negative or something that you have to get out of the way. See it as a genuine concern for the result. Once you achieve this, you will come across more confident in your delivery of the follow up and respond better to receiving one.

Next week part two will cover preparing to give a follow up.

My name is Cameron Douglas, I am 24 years old, and I live in Brisbane, Australia. My career is in corporate sales and my job is performing in pubs and clubs as a guitarist/singer. I am a silent director in a marketing firm and hold a degree in business management from QUT. I married young, and I bought a house young. My passions are music, surfing, business and communications.

I have started this blog for several reasons:

1. I want to share what I learn in business, life and education. I don’t do this blog as a full time gig, as so many bloggers do, but instead use it as an outlet for everything I learn in my life.
2. I don’t believe I can provide someone with advice or a solution, if I am not doing it every day. I feel I have something to share as I have entered the corporate world at a young age. Being part of this world at a young age has taught me what life can throw at you. I’ve met some incredibly successful people, and seen some incredible places.
3. In the near future, you will notice some posts in the category “Generation Y Not.” As a member of Gen Y, I grow tired of being labeled and stereotyped by Baby boomers and Gen X’s who try to decipher the great mystery that is Gen Y. Next week I will be attending a seminar on how to communicate to Gen Y’s… I wonder how old the presenter will be…

I hope that I am able to provide something of value in the areas of business, sales, customer service, communication, generational divides and life as I battle through my 20’s, and hopefully I will be able to assist you through writing about what I learn.

Stay Tuned…