Increasing Sales Using Customer Follow Up

What I find most perplexing is when I contact a small business owner for some type of service or product and never hear back from them! Follow up is very important to building the customer relationship and increasing your opportunity for sales. Not only when a customer is initially calling you, but when you are following up with a new or existing customer about your product or service.

Here is an example of how follow up can result in building a relationship or closing a sale. You contact a potential customer and they are busy, not interested, just purchased, etc. Your initial reaction may be to just move on to the next customer and forget about them. What I propose is asking the customer permission to get back in touch with them... “Could I give you a call back in two weeks to see if you had a chance to look over my proposal/brochure/etc?” If the customer says yes, make a note of it and be sure to call them back. When you contact them again after the wait, start your conversation by saying… “ I recall when we spoke two weeks ago you were in the process of selecting a product/service to…” This restarts the conversation and puts your business right back in front of them. What should you do if a customer says they are not interested? Ask them when it would be a good time to follow up with them, say in a month or next quarter. By asking permission to follow up, and then doing so, you are starting to build their trust in you and develop a relationship.

Statistics have shown that you need to contact a customer 7 to 8 times for them to try your product or service. Using follow up, you are more likely to contact them when they are ready to make a purchase decision. It is also important that when you are contacting a customer to try to find out what their current needs are and fulfill those needs with your product/service. If it is not an area you can help them with, refer them to someone that can. Building relationships and sales are based on trust, reliability and a great product/service that meets the customer’s needs.

I suggest combing through your existing customer database and reaching out to your previous customers. Has it been awhile since you have contacted them? Call them, send a thank you card, email or postcard letting your customers know you appreciate their business. Get the conversation going again and remind them that you are there to help with their needs. Follow up is a great way to build relationships, cement those deals and grow your revenues. Good luck!

Questions, comments or concerns…leave me a post & let’s chat!