Quit “Checking in” and start Selling

Develop Follow up skills to be Relevant, Resilient, and Sell more

Most of the sales teams I work with are in long-term relationships with their customers. It’s not a one-and-done sale. They sell their customer over the course of years, decades, or their entire selling career. Some of these salespeople become close business advisors and even family friends with their customers. They go to their weddings, kid’s graduations, funerals, etc.

Why is this important for you to know? Because your prospect is not going to throw out his long time, business advising, family friend salesperson because you showed up at a one-hour presentation on your products with a marketing generated graph of how your product generates a higher ROI than your competition.

You are going to have to go back, again and again, to convince a prospect to buy from you instead of their current supplier.

Do you follow the typical prospecting pattern?

– A phone call to get the appointment

– First appointment where you tell them all about your product/service

– Possibly (less than 50% of salespeople actually do this) ask for their business at the end of the first call.

– Then “Check-in” with the prospect every 30-60-90 days to “see if anything has changed” or “See if they wanted to meet again”

If this is how you are prospecting, read my recent Coach’s Corner article from Feed & Grain Magazine.