Is “Follow Up” Dead?
Is “Follow Up” Dead?
Last week I requested quotes from sales reps from 5 different vendors – printers, promotional products, and other.
I received quotes from just 3 of the 5 sales reps (which is a ridiculous problem we’ll discuss at another time) and now that a full week has passed I have received follow up calls or emails from exactly 0.
I ended up purchasing online for all 5 of these projects.
Isn’t “follow up” sales 101? Why do we need another post about the importance of follow up?
From the stats of my own personal experience from just this week, it’s obvious that the need to learn and implement follow up strategies isn’t sales 101. The fact is, rarely do any sales reps follow up. My experience this week isn’t isolated. It happens to me all the time, I hardly ever hear from any sales person I’ve ever talked to…. I’m quite sure if you think about it, it happens to you all the time as well.
Why is follow up important?
You’ve most likely heard the famous statistics that most sales are made after the sales rep following up 5 times or more. I don’t know what the magic number is, but I can tell you from my own personal experience that most of my sales and especially the biggest sales of my life have been when I stayed engaged with the prospect, continued to provide as much value as I could and finally, the sale came through.
Why don’t sales reps do their duty and follow up?
There are a few reasons I can think of:
1: They’re lazy
