Introduction
Now that you have researched enough on whom to go after, you need ways to actually follow up (the best part comes now) – WITHOUT ANNOYING.
Most of the salespeople are persistent in their efforts, which is good. But often than not, they don’t interest the prospects very well with their approach.
When salespeople are trying to touch base, prospects are aware that they are trying to nudge them for a response and move one step ahead in the sales cycle.
But the risk with following up is that you can’t do it either more or less, it should be just enough for you to get your open rates. If you touch base one too many times, chances are you get spammed, and if you do too little, your open rates could fall.
But what frequency is ‘just enough’? For that, you’ve got to experiment with your campaigns. According to HubSpot, 80% of sales require five follow-ups after the initial meeting. And it’s seen that 60% of customers say ‘No’ four times before saying ‘Yes.’
Persistence is good. But how could you be persistent and not annoy? When your follow up hit the bull’s eye. Usually, the real art is not in the first follow up but in the second and third. How you approach them makes the entire difference between closing the deal or having a customer close the door.
Prospects have no obligation to respond to whatsoever attempt you make, but how you make yourself stand out from the rest of the crowd will persuade a response.
This is where the effective use of a CRM solution could be a game-changer for your sales team. The more prospect data you have at your disposal, the more strategic and successful your follow-ups could be. Also, it’s the best way to build the right follow up strategy when you hear nothing from your prospects.
We will run through the best Salesforce tips to help you master the follow-up and close the deals.
Align follow-ups with the Sales Cloud Intelligence
When you target a particular prospect or company, it’s always good to track every small detail about them, their industry, what are their competitors, their typical sales cycle, etc. Record this information in the CRM. And with every meeting/ call/ email, ensure to capture the prospect’s responses/ actions as much as possible.
When you have to understand the prospect’s information for future campaigns, you will have enough information already to script your conversations. Whether they are the final decision-makers or influencers or does a deal, need more layers of discussion or approval.
Because of the same reasons, Account-Based Marketing is catching up popularity among the salespeople today. Many companies realize the benefits of how a CRM could help ABM approach.
You can check your CRM for the best ‘responsive’ days, best ‘responsive’ times, best responsive personas, and more. Following up based on this information will be far more effective than reaching out blindly.
Follow up with free advice and resources
You must have listed down the questions or objections your prospects might have raised in your previous interactions. When you are following up, it’s a good idea to align that CRM data to the marketing collateral, whether it’s a whitepaper, blog post, datasheets, or more.
This keeps your prospects hooked to your content/ website or even offer further educate them. When someone downloads your content, you have enough reasons to reconnect with them.
Following up this way with the content might sound like a traditional approach but makes you look like you are really listening to your prospects. This way, you make every interaction value-added.
Maintain a good labeling system
A strong prospect follow-up system relies heavily on detailed tags. This will be easier for your sales team to quickly take the right next step based on the current status. The ‘lead status’ of Salesforce Sales Cloud helps you to track lead stages that hint sales reps to track sales process and prioritize further activities.
By default, Salesforce offers the following lead tracking stages:
You can customize and build your stages based on the complexity of your internal sales process.
Follow up when you say you will
Did you know that 50% of sales go to the vendor who responded first [Source: InsideSales.com]? I was surprised too with that number. Those follow-ups that happen at the right time can have a very powerful impact on your prospects, and keep you at the top of their mind while making their choice.
A good norm is to get in touch with the prospect on the same day as the sales meeting. Maybe a ‘Thank you’ or ‘Meeting minutes’ email would suffice to ring a bell on the mention of your name.
In the future, if you want to get in touch with the right set of leads, Sales Cloud Einstein can be your help. You can bring intelligence to your daily workflows with Sales Cloud Einstein insights. Sales reps can get relevant updates and follow up reminders to help them close more deals and nurture relationships through the sales pipeline.
Einstein Scoring also helps salespeople to prioritize leads and opportunities so they can focus on those that have high chances to convert and close.
Meet where your customers are
If your prospects aren’t responding, that’s not the end of the story. You may adopt some follow up system or triggers that can be applied at different stages of the sales cycle. These triggers can include different channels of reaching your prospects – email, phone, social media, mobile SMS, and more.
Let’s see an example:
- ‘Thank you’ email after the initial sales meeting along with the MOM and action items.
- Seek acknowledgement with a follow-up email, within 24hrs
- In case you don’t receive a response from the prospect, you can try sending a mobile SMS/Call to the prospect
Don’t mistake “social selling” to only occur in the early stages of the buyer journey. The best way of engaging customers and prospects on social media is by contributing to conversations they might have on those services, whether it’s offering an original insight or merely sharing a link to a helpful article or blog post. This could be one of the finest follow-ups of all — just by being present, you’ll remind them of where they’ve left off with you.
Conclusion
Following up is not a choice but necessary for salespeople. They are a crucial part of any sales cycle. An effective follow up can go beyond just receptive calling and automated emails. The most successful salespeople never give up on following and make it valuable for their prospects by demonstrating strong industry knowledge and a deep understanding of the problems at hand.
About Solunus:
Solunus is a dedicated Salesforce partner organization, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Our unrelenting focus on comprehending the unique needs of our clients coupled with our unrivaled expertise of the Salesforce platform enable us to deliver the perfect solutions that create the best value. Our unflinching commitment to quality and affordability has earned us a 100% Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score from all our customers.
