{"id":3330,"date":"2016-10-14T14:39:32","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T19:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etereman.com\/remanu\/?p=3330"},"modified":"2016-10-14T14:39:32","modified_gmt":"2016-10-14T19:39:32","slug":"the-art-of-the-follow-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etereman.com\/remanu\/2016\/10\/14\/the-art-of-the-follow-up\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of the Follow Up (aka \u201cHow to Follow Up Without Being Annoying\u201d)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3331\" src=\"http:\/\/etereman.com\/remanu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Clean-baseball-home-plate-set-in-dirt-000003831760_Small-e1476470890498.jpg\" alt=\"Reman U_Follow Up\" width=\"600\" height=\"447\" srcset=\"https:\/\/etereman.com\/remanu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/10\/Clean-baseball-home-plate-set-in-dirt-000003831760_Small-e1476470890498.jpg 600w, https:\/\/etereman.com\/remanu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/10\/Clean-baseball-home-plate-set-in-dirt-000003831760_Small-e1476470890498-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><br \/>\nMost salespeople do not follow up. Most salespeople have lousy closing ratios. Don\u2019t be like most salespeople.<br \/>\nThe key to becoming a huge success in sales is persistence and follow up. Just think about your kids. What\u2019s their commitment to persistence when they want something from you? <em>(think: candy bar at the grocery store, or new video game, or dessert tonight)<\/em> What\u2019s your kids\u2019 closing ratio? I\u2019ll bet their closing ratio is higher than yours!<br \/>\nFor years, I couldn\u2019t understand why salespeople didn\u2019t follow up on leads and opportunities. And, if they did, they did with a complete lack of enthusiasm and a lack of faith that it was a worthwhile activity.<br \/>\nSales managers everywhere run around yelling<em>, \u201cHey! Call that prospect back! Follow up! Have you talked to so-and-so lately?\u201d<\/em> And most salespeople hide. Or they say things like, <em>\u201cWell, I emailed them, but I haven\u2019t heard back.\u201d<\/em><br \/>\nI didn\u2019t get it. I would ask salespeople how important they felt follow up was to their success and they\u2019d say, <em>\u201cExtremely!\u201d<\/em> Then I\u2019d ask how consistent they were with their follow up and they\u2019d say, <em>\u201cNot very!\u201d<\/em><br \/>\nWhy the disconnect?<br \/>\nI\u2019ve realized that it comes down to salespeople not having a good reason for following up, other than the self-serving, <em>\u201cIf I call them, maybe I\u2019ll make some commission.\u201d<\/em> It\u2019s an issue of salespeople not having been trained to always have something of value to offer when making that follow up call. So you feel like you\u2019re bothering the customer when calling, because you don\u2019t have anything to say other than <em>\u201cI\u2019m just calling to follow up\u2026\u201d<\/em><br \/>\nHere\u2019s the training you\u2019ve been missing.<br \/>\nFirst, a few rules about following up:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>A lead is never as hot as the minute you get it.<\/li>\n<li>The longer you wait to follow up, the less likely you are to make the sale.<\/li>\n<li>If you say \u201cfollowing up\u201d on the phone, you lose.<\/li>\n<li>You\u2019ll only be perceived as annoying if you\u2019re calling because you just want to know if they\u2019re ready to buy yet.<\/li>\n<li>You will be perceived as persistent and thoughtful and helpful if you\u2019re calling for a good reason.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Successful follow up starts with believing that you have a good reason for calling or emailing the prospect or customer.<br \/>\nHere are a few good reasons:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>You have new information that the prospect perceives as valuable.<\/li>\n<li>You have new information that the prospect can use to make a decision.<\/li>\n<li>You have an answer to a question the prospect asked but you couldn\u2019t answer earlier.<\/li>\n<li>You can now meet a need or a want better than you could when the prospect was in the store (faster delivery, better product availability, new product launch).<\/li>\n<li>You have an article that speaks to something you discussed with the customer during their visit, and you\u2019re going to email it to your prospect for their review.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Here are a few bad reasons:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\u201cI\u2019m just following up to see if you have any questions.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThank you for coming in today, if you have any questions, please let me know!\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cJust checking in to see how you\u2019re doing and if you\u2019re any closer to making a decision.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cWe\u2019re coming up on the end of the month, and I could really use the sale, so if you come in I\u2019ll give you a discount!\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The ultimate measure of your success is a grateful prospect who says something to the effect of, <em>\u201cI\u2019m so happy you called. Thank you for sharing this with me\u2026\u201d<\/em> and, ideally, <em>\u201cOK, I\u2019ll take it! When can you deliver?\u201d<\/em><br \/>\nI\u2019ll leave you with a lesson I learned from Babe Ruth. Well, not directly from Babe Ruth, of course, but from his legacy.<br \/>\nBabe Ruth struck out more times than anyone. He also hit more home runs than anyone else. When once asked how he could get back up to the plate after striking out three times in a game, Babe explained that he just relied on the \u201cLaw of Averages.\u201d He knew that 70% of the time, he would strike out. Even if he struck out seven times in a row, the next three times would be hits. So every strike out got him one step closer to a home run.<br \/>\n<em>\u201cIt\u2019s hard to beat somebody that never gives up,\u201d<\/em> he would say.<br \/>\nKeep swinging. Don\u2019t quit too soon. Hang in there until you\u2019ve got the order.<br \/>\nAnd don\u2019t fear the follow up. Embrace the strike outs. There\u2019s a home run just around the corner. Or, as Babe says, <em>\u201cNever let the fear of striking out get in your way.\u201d<\/em><br \/>\n<em>image credit: iStock.com\/brentmelissa<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><i><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3334\" src=\"http:\/\/etereman.com\/remanu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/AVA_CaptainReman.jpg\" alt=\"ava_captainreman\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/i><br \/>\n<em>Successful follow up starts with believing that you have a good reason for reaching out to your customers. Have you mastered the art of the follow up? Comment below or <a href=\"mailto:captain@etereman.com\">share with Captain Reman<\/a> directly!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most salespeople do not follow up. Most salespeople have lousy closing ratios. Don\u2019t be like most salespeople. The key to becoming a huge success in sales is persistence and follow up. Just think about your kids. What\u2019s their commitment to persistence when they want something from you? (think: candy bar at the grocery store, or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":3331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[12,7],"tags":[516,129,14,15],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Art of the Follow Up (aka \u201cHow to Follow Up Without Being Annoying\u201d) - REMANU<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/etereman.com\/remanu\/2016\/10\/14\/the-art-of-the-follow-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Art of the Follow Up (aka \u201cHow to Follow Up Without Being Annoying\u201d) - REMANU\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Most salespeople do not follow up. Most salespeople have lousy closing ratios. Don\u2019t be like most salespeople. The key to becoming a huge success in sales is persistence and follow up. Just think about your kids. What\u2019s their commitment to persistence when they want something from you? 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