One of the biggest foibles that will cripple any sales person’s business growth is lack of follow-up.
In coaching Mortgage Professionals over the last decade, I’ve been told countless times by my clients how they feel that their #1 weakness in their business is poor follow-up as it relates to potential referral partners, attendees of presentations/classes they’ve given, leads from various, costly systems, and even with their own team members regarding task assignments and project management.
Why a sales person doesn’t follow-up at all or does so poorly, stems from one or more of the following (3) root causes:
- Lack of self confidence
- Lack of organization/time management
- Lack of systems
In most situations, tackling the latter two causes will cure the first, so my recommendation is if you find that you struggle with strong and consistent follow-up, turn your attentions, first, to identifying in which circumstances you fail to follow-up the most and then ask yourself the following questions:
- Do I have a proper series of follow-up call and email scripts for this given opportunity?
- Exactly how many, “touches” do I feel is required to gain the value from this opportunity?
- How much time am I willing to invest overall in the opportunity?
- What system can I utilize to automate my follow-up efforts?
- What system can I utilize that will prompt me to take each follow-up step?
- Am I able to decipher between a good and viable opportunity for me vs. an opportunity that is best passed along or left on the table for someone else?
In answering the six questions above, you will then possess a detailed needs list in which to develop your perfect follow-up strategy to any given opportunity.
The last question from the list above generally stops people in their tracks. Many sales people have the mindset that every opportunity should be tackled with with the same amount of gusto. However, throwing yourself into every co-marketing offer, potential referral partnership, seminar series, membership and board committee is going to immediately hamper your ability to follow-up and follow through effectively in order to gain a real return on investment from any one of these opportunities. I am here to tell you that not all opportunities are to be treated equally, which is a whole other article topic in and of itself, so stay tuned for that one!
Need help in creating and implementing your Perfect Follow-up Strategies? Feel free to FOLLOW UP with me. I’m never too busy to help you achieve your business growth goals!