THE GIFT OF FOLLOWING UP

Published in

FITTEAM

3 min readApr 26, 2022

No matter what business you are in the “follow up” is key. You may be wondering what I mean when I say follow up, which would be completely fair considering follow up tactics should be used several times throughout the journey of a sale.

Let’s dive a little deeper into the sales cycle and focus on when a follow up is needed and some of the best ways to go about it.

FIRST CONTACT | LEAD CREATION

It is very rare for your first interaction to ever lead to a sale. In fact, “According to IRC Sales Solutions, only 2% of sales are made during the first point of contact. This means businesses stand to lose potentially 98% of their sales leads if they do not follow up.” This stat makes it crystal clear that most sales simply would not happen without a follow up. During this first follow up phase, timing is critical. If possible, you want to schedule a follow up while engaged in your first encounter. For example, you meet a customer in line at the grocery store who ask’s “What is FITTEAM?” you have a chat and exchange cards/numbers. At the exact moment is when you introduce the follow up by saying something along the lines of “I happy to share more information, should I call you tomorrow at 9:00AM?” Or maybe you went the sample route, “I call you tomorrow around 5:00PM to check-in and see how you enjoyed FIT” No matter your approach to the initial contact you want to try your best to initiate a follow up with in 24 hours.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS | ESTABLISHING CONNECTION

You have officially made it past the meet & greet and initial interaction, now you are on to the next phase. This is your first real follow up, in a perfect world we would all love for the sale to be made at this point but as we learned from IRC Sales Solutions, only 3% of sales are made at this point. This is where your active listening skills will come into play. Listen to all their reservations once heard offer solutions to these reservations. For example, “I’ve tried supplements in the past, they never work.” You can respond by relating to their experience then providing a solution such as a 3-way call “Why don’t we connect with Susie she has such a similar story I would love for you to hear her experience.” This is where you would try to get Susie on the line if unavailable schedule a follow up for later that day or even the next day if you must. Or maybe your solution is to send samples saying “No harm in trying for free, let me drop off some samples”. Then once you drop the samples follow up to make sure they were received and tried them. At this stage you can also try to expand upon your connections. Explore other forms of communication such as linking on social media and trying to connect on a more personal level. You will repeat these follow ups essentially until you have made a sale or been explicitly asked not to make further contact.

SALE MADE | RELATIONSHIP ESTABLISHED

You may be thinking follow ups — done, I’ve made the sale this is where you would be wrong. This stage is where you begin to follow up in the hopes of establishing a relationship and building trust so that your customer remains your customer. These post sales follow ups create customer retention which is key to success. You want to follow up on each of your customers experiences with every step of the sale, receiving the product, using the product, how they felt and so on. Understanding your customers experience and feedback can help you improve and keep you ahead of competition.

Follow ups are the ultimate gift to business. They allow your business to grow, they allow you to make connections and ultimately lead to your business success! We encourage to take the action of following up and apply it not only in your business but in your personal life. The ability to check-in with one another is an amazing tool for growth and success.

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THE GIFT OF FOLLOWING UP

Written by FITTEAM GLOBAL