It’s amazing how often quotes aren’t followed up. Or they are, but half-heartedly.
There are 2 ways of looking at this. First, once someone has expressed an interest in your product or service to the degree that they want to know more, that is a good strong buying-signal. So if you’re considering where your next piece of business will come from, chances are it’s from this category.
And so if you’re only going to follow-up one or 2 contacts today, surely it ought to be those you’ve already given details to?
Second, I also work on the basis that you will often have put some time and effort into quoting someone. Admittedly it does depend on what you sell. If you sell a commodity product, you may have put little time in, whereas if you sell some type of tailored consultancy type of service, chances are you will have put considerable time into the exercise. It is reasonable therefore to want some sort of payback on the time you have spent. It is not unreasonable to request a bit of time back from someone you’ve sent a quote to. Enough time for them to say “Yes”, “No”, or “we’re still considering it”.
Keep your methods of contact varied too
You may drop them a note via e-mail and not get a reply. The same may happen to a phone call. But make sure you keep the channels of communication varied too. A couple of e-mails or phone calls, interspersed with a letter perhaps, or a note dropped through LinkedIn. You will find that some people are happier communicating via one method than others. Just the way it is. You could even send them a text if you know them well, and if you consider it appropriate. Not something I ever do, but not a reason why you shouldn’t.
Eventually, you have to let common sense in too. If they’re not responding to any of your messages, and you’ve tried a number of different ways of communicating with them, you have to assume that some of your messages are getting through. So, they’re choosing to ignore you, which almost certainly means you haven’t won the business, well not yet at least.
So while you don’t want to give up, and that’s a good thing, maintaining a constant barrage of communication is hardly likely to help your cause. So back off gradually.
The importance of following up
Apart from the fact already mentioned that these are the best opportunity you have of future business, you also want some feedback about your proposal.
So keep the channels of communication open and look to learn as much as you can from following up any quote or proposal you have put out there. Both those you win and the ones that slip away.
Happy hunting.
Sales training for telephone sales and telemarketing teams from To Market around the Midlands : Birmingham, Coventry, Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, Loughborough, Peterborough, Cambridge, Newmarket, Kettering, Wellingborough, Corby, Northampton, Rugby, Lutterworth, Milton Keynes, Hinckley, Nuneaton, Kenilworth, Leamington Spa, Warwick, plus wider parts of Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.
OP 161216