Are you of the school that says once you close a sale with a new customer, it's time to go find another one? Guess what? You're "Old School," and you're leaving easy money on the table. You're also making your job a lot harder than it needs to be.
Let's say it really is 5 times easier to sell an existing customer than it is to find a new one. Then you should spend 80% of your selling time staying in touch with current customers and only 20% of your time prospecting for new business. (Oh, look...we created another 80/20 Rule!)
Unfortunately, most of us reverse this ratio, at worst, and go 50/50 "acquisition" and "retention," at best.
Here Are the Real Sales Follow Up Conversion Stats:
- It takes 12 contacts to convert a prospect to a customer
- 80% of all sales happen after the 4th contact
- 50% of all salespeople quit after only 1 contact
- 50% of all sales leads result in a sale-for somebody!
Scariest of all...your customer is your competitor's prospect! That means if your ratio is out of whack, everybody will be following up with your customer but you!
Now put on your "80/20 hat." You've got a lot going for you already. If you are doing a good job for them, your present customers are the easiest to approach. They'll take your call because they know you. They already think you're the subject-matter expert in your field. Therefore, if they accept what you recommend, they'll often do so without shopping around.
If you give reasonably good service, are scrupulously honest and sell a product or service that's in demand in your marketplace, you'll find current customers will respond favorably when you ask for time to show them more of your products and services.
Does this mean every current customer will buy? Of course not. But many will...and your commission check deposits the same whether you sell to new or existing prospects. And it sure beats making cold calls, spending more money on advertising or investing more time in socializing on social media. Imagine a steady stream of receptive buyers who look forward to hearing from you with your next great idea for them! That's what you can expect from a good sales follow-up system.
There are many ways to stay in touch with existing customers. My favorite is to call up and invite someone to lunch or coffee. But depending on how many customers you have and where they're located, that may not be feasible. So here are my next 3 favorite ideas.
3 Ways To Follow up with Customers
- e-Newsletter, sent quarterly, bi-monthly or monthly to keep customers "in the loop" with what you're up to
- Automated Drip Marketing Campaign, triggered off a first sale and scheduled to send a message once a month for a year. Then, even if you get busy, your customer will still feel appreciated.
- Exclusive Offers. Everyone in business today is looking for shortcuts, new ideas, competitive advantages and proven strategies-anything that guarantees risk reduction. A simple, personalized message with a special downloadable offer of a white paper, special report, case study involving a similar business or a "coupon" towards a next order is often all it takes to make the phone ring or to initiate an email inquiry.
This year, The Database Diva offers 2 new programs to help you gain mastery of your sales follow up to current customers.
- e-Newsletter Training Course. If you want to learn to "do-it-yourself," in this class we'll teach you how to produce a customer e-newsletter that gets opened, read and responded to. Held monthly for 90 minutes
- Do-it-for-You e-Newsletter. We will publish a monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly e-newsletter for you, completely turnkey. We handle your copywriting, design, list segmentation, sales call list creation, metrics reporting and flagging of your opt-outs and bounced email addresses.