Have you ever felt like your ego was crumbling away as you followed up – relentlessly – on a deal that you thought would close weeks ago? You’re not alone.
It sounds like this: “Just following up on the information we provided…” or “Call me at your convenience…” or “I wondered if you had time to review the proposal …” If you take nothing else away from this blog please know this – it will never, ever be convenient for a prospect (or even a client) to call you back – so stop saying it!
I love salespeople. Problem is… you guys and gals have this knack of following up to close the deal. It’s a natural behavior after giving a proposal, quote or presentation – to salespeople it makes perfect sense. After all… the prospect seemed interested. They said they would make a decision. Our solution definitely solves their problem. Not only that – if there are no other deals in your pipeline you HAVE to follow up! You HAVE to close the deal. You NEED the business. Have you ever ruined a weekend wondering why you didn’t get the call on Thursday or Friday … and hoping like crazy that you would get the call on Monday?
Huge problem! If you NEED the business you will do whatever it takes to get the business. You will do things that don’t make sense (in strong selling). You will leave voicemail after voicemail after voicemail followed by email after email after email … sound familiar? If a miracle happens and you do speak to your prospect you sound so needy that if you were to have an out-of-body experience and sit next to yourself you’d be embarrassed.
Solution: START PROSPECTING. I know you hate it – you’re supposed to. Doesn’t matter. You have to do it. Your job is to talk to people you don’t know about something they probably don’t want to buy – it’s called sales. The more deals in the pipeline the less ‘desperate” you will feel and behave in front of prospects. If you can’t stand the rejection see if your company needs a project manager or someone that stays in the office and writes up quotes and proposals – oh yeah… those jobs don’t exist anymore.
