My neighbor across the street needed a new retaining wall along the side of his house. The original retaining wall was made of timber that had rotted with age. It was obvious that he needed to do something about it and quickly! Being a diligent consumer, he wanted to get a number of qualified companies to bid on the project. He made telephone calls to several local contractors. Sadly, the majority of contractors never returned his initial telephone calls. He did manage to get four companies to come out and look at the job.
One of the contractors gave a price right on the spot. The other three promised to follow up with estimates within a couple of days. Only one of the three followed up with the promised quote by mail.
Of the two that actually submitted a quote, only one followed up with a phone call to discuss his proposal and ask for the business. The job would take about two days and was worth $10,000 and only one guy thought it was worth following up on.
I was baffled. How can these business people afford not to follow up?
I won't even comment on the fact that some companies didn't even bother to return a phone call from a prospective customer. Instead lets look at the four contractors that invested time in stopping by and looking at the job. Fifty percent never even followed up with a quote. They never had a chance to win the business. Two contractors spent the time to visit and prepare a quote but then only one followed it up with a telephone call to ask for the business. All it takes is five more minutes of their time to make a phone call to follow up. I am sure some of these contractors are working under the assumption that if the customer wanted the work done then he would call, right? Well, the only person they were helping is their competition.
This may sound ridiculously obvious, but you would be surprised how often businesses neglect to follow up with prospective customers. So here is the point of this message: Follow up with each prospect after you deliver a quote. If you feel a little uncomfortable try this: Ask Permission to Follow Up When you agree to send a proposal or a quote just ask your prospect, "May I follow up with you to discuss and answer any questions you have regarding my proposal?" Gaining permission to follow up should eliminate any worries of being pesky.
Follow up pays!