How Often Do You Follow Up After Making The Sale?
But how much effort do you put into following up after you've made the sale? Do you think, "I got the job, now I can start working on that next lead"? Do you find yourself making excuses not to follow up? "I don't have the time...I'm too busy working on getting the next customer...Now that I have the account, it's my employees' responsibility to deal with the customer..."
Sure, many of you are great at getting the new account under way and spend extra time getting your employees going. But what happens after a couple weeks? Your employees are handling the account so it's time to move on to getting the next one, right?
Making the sale is just the beginning. Following up is what really impresses the customer and goes a long way towards building that relationship. And it's not just the immediate follow-up right after getting the sale. Following up with your existing customers is just as important - maybe even more so because you need to nurture that relationship if you want to continue working with that customer. You never know when the competition might be lurking and if you let your guard down, you just might get blind-sided!
I'd like to challenge you to make an effort to follow up with one customer a day for one week. Sound like that's a lot to ask? Not really. It doesn't take all day to make a quick call or to stop by their office for a quick visit, but your customers will remember you for it. And l'll guarantee you'll feel better about your relationship with those clients when you do this on a regular basis.
It takes a concentrated effort to connect with your clients on a regular basis, but it's critical to your business success to make a plan for follow up. Perhaps schedule two or three days a week to make phone calls and in-person visits to your clients. And be sure to SCHEDULE the time so you can't make excuses for not getting to it. You won't regret the time spent building those client relationships. Get started today!
