THE IMPORTANCE OF FOLLOW-UP IN SALES
One of the biggest marketing mistakes you can make is failing to include proper follow-up in your marketing and sales cycle. A study done by the Association of Sales Executives revealed that 81% of all sales happens on or after the fifth contact. They also found these rather shocking statistics:
- 48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect
- 25% of sales people make a second contact and stop
- Only 12% of sales people make more than three contacts
What does this mean? It means that only 15% of sales representatives successfully follow-through to the stage where 81% of sales take place. Does it make you wonder how many opportunities your business is missing out on by skimping on the entire follow-up process? Stop wondering and start doing something about it!
First, let’s look at some of the common ways the opportunity to follow-up is missed. This will allow us to learn from our mistakes and avoid them in the future. Secondly, let’s look at the types of consumers you should be following up with, and fives ways to follow-up with them. Finally, we are going to discuss the best marketing tools to use in your follow-up process. Let’s get started!
Common Ways a Follow-Up Opportunity is Missed
In Dan Kennedy’s No B.S. Direct Marketing book, he refers to a business as a bucket. And if your business is a bucket, then missed opportunities to follow-up with prospects would be holes within the bucket that cause time and money to leak out. Here are a few reasons why your sales team might be missing out on follow-up opportunities:
- Failure to gather contact information
- Failure to follow-up with new leads
- Not rescuing lost customers
- Failure to follow-up with referrals
- No instant follow-up with new customers
3 Types of Consumers that Need Follow-Up
It’s important to stay in communication with your prospects and customers in every step of the purchasing journey. In an article on businessknowhow.com, they describe three types of people you should be following-up with:
- Suspects: consumers in your target market place.
- Prospects: consumers who have responded to your marketing, but have not actually made a purchase.
- Customers: consumers who have made a purchase with your business.
This last category is frequently overlooked because the sales representative has already made the sale, and they are now looking for more prospects. If you’re not following up with your current customers, consider this: it costs seven times more to get a new client than it does to sell to an existing client. If you’re not keeping in contact with current customers, you might want to rethink your strategy.
How to Follow-Up with Each Consumer Type
Your tactics for following up with different types of customers should be different depending on where they’re at in their purchasing journey with your company.
- Suspects: these consumers need enticement to come into your business. Send them a special offer, or a free trial.
- Prospects: the consumers need persuasion to finalize their purchase. Re-emphasize the value of your business, and educate them on how it can fulfill their need and benefit them personally or their business.
- Customers: these consumers need to know that your business cares about them as an individual, and that your business wants them to come back for another sale. The ultimate goal of following-up with a customer is to get them to give you a referral. Send them a thank-you note right after their purchase. Later down the road send them relevant information that will aid in a second sale.
The Best Marketing Tools for the Follow-Up Process
Following up is about connecting directly with the customer. Direct marketing, such as direct mail, email marketing and the good old-fashioned telephone call are the best marketing tools to get through to each type of consumer. An integrated marketing approach utilizing all three of the tools is the most effective. Don’t forget that it takes five touch points or more to reach the stage where 81% of sales occur.
Following-up is essential in the sales and marketing process, but it can be overlooked if it is not properly planned for. There are many tools to help businesses consistently follow-up with consumers. If you want to get started with a direct marketing campaign to foster a successful follow-up campaign, contact our full-service agency today to learn more about Conduit, our marketing software tool, and receive a free demonstration.