In a perfect world, customers would come into your business fully educated in your offerings and know exactly what they want to purchase. But seeing as how that’s rarely the case, you employ salespeople to not only educate those customers and help them select their purchases, but also suggest add-ons that both improve the customers’ experiences and enhance your profits. Because a large portion of your customers come in undecided and even conflicted about what they really want, there’s a high probability that some will want to mull their decisions and come back later, despite your best efforts to answer all their questions and quell their objections. Some salespeople refer to this sardonically as the “be back bus”.
Any sales trainer will tell you that once a potential customer walks out the door, your chances of closing that sale drop precipitously. That’s true, of course, but that doesn’t mean your salespeople should dismiss those walkouts as lost opportunities; even though they present a greater challenge, they’re still valid leads.
Get That Contact Info!
Left to their own devices, your walkouts will likely get distracted by their lives and possibly even forget about their interest in your products and services. To keep them engaged, your employees have to learn a good way to get in touch with them.
Email and text messaging are okay, but a phone number is even better. Despite today’s increasingly digital world, voice-to-voice communication is far stronger because emails and text messages are too easily filed away in people’s “do-later” list, which is just another way of saying their “blackhole”. So, your employees should ask for their phone numbers. Asking directly may work, but here’s a better idea: your salespeople should suggest they’re going to do some additional research on the customer’s behalf to help them find the right answer for his needs. Then say, “What’s a good way to reach you once I find out that answer?”
Immediate Follow-Up Is Key
Your business should keep lead calendars, which ought to be specific to each employee but be auditable by a sales manager. This is done to maintain a consistent point-of-contact with potential customers so they don’t have to reexplain themselves, and it helps keep potential sales separated if your employees are commissioned.
It’s not unreasonable for your salespeople to do follow-up calls or messages within 24 hours of the customer leaving your store. But after that, your employees should be sure to space those attempts by a few days (and up to a week) so it doesn’t feel like they’re being pests. A good “excuse” the employees can use when making these follow-ups is to make sure their voicemails (or emails, if it comes to that) are being received. “I’m just checking in to make sure my message got to you yesterday,” for example.
About Long-Term Follow-Ups
A lead may end up saying that he’s decided against making a purchase at this time—maybe he’s got other things going on that are more important, or maybe money is unexpectedly tight. These things happen. While this can be frustrating for your salespeople, let’s not get too down about it: “not now” doesn’t mean “not ever”.
You employees can use those lead calendars to check back with these potential customers every few months—especially if your business sees new products and services come and go, they’ll have the opportunities to present those as follow ups: “I just saw we have this new product coming out and I immediately thought about you.” Doing so is a nice touch because the employee is keeping the interaction personalized, which helps forge a relationship. Moments like these help to establish a foundation for the future. Don’t get discouraged! In the end, the employee will hopefully get the sale and also help bolster your business’s reputation in the process.
How We Can Help
In addition to our training services where we can help educate your staff on these points in finer detail, we can also help you hold everyone accountable through mystery shopping. Many of our clients have us include a question about whether the salesperson requested contact information, and we can even check back with our mystery shoppers to see whether the employee followed up the next day. If you want better lead capture for your business, as well as richer sales that include add-ons, that’s what we specialize in. Reach out to us today!
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