managementSOLUtIOnS
The Five BiggesT MisTakes Companies make in Following Up on
By Craig mecham
sales leads
were a couple of thousand people on his list. However, he hadn’t sent out a newsletter in over a year. When he decided to finally start sending newsletters again, tons of people unsubscribed. His list dropped to less than 600 subscribers. If he had kept the communications open, and if his prospects had become used to hearing from him on a regular basis, he would have a much larger database today.
S
ales lead follow-up can be a tedious and sometimes fruitless task. Depending on what types of activities are used to generate leads, there may be times when leads are abundant and need to be handled. Here are five of the biggest problems for companies when it comes to lead follow-up:
1. They jusT don’T.
It may sound silly, but it’s true. Several sales leads generated from a marketing program, trade show, mailer or ad campaign has, at one point or another, ended up on a 3 x 5 card on someone’s desk or buried in an ACT file in the innermost reaches of a hard drive. It is understood that all leads are not created equal and some of them are garbage, but sometimes a garbage lead turns out to be a jewel. Every lead deserves at least a routine followup, especially today, where communication takes place at the speed of a mouse-click. It is easy to respond to a request with a set of appropriate documents. Sometimes, depending upon the computer system, it can even be done automatically. There’s no excuse anymore (if there ever was one) for not following up. Make it easy to do—create a system, hire a clerk, install an autoresponder, do whatever is needed, but do not fail to follow-up.
4. once is noT enough.
2. Qualify, caTegorize and acT accordingly.
Everyone knows that leads need to be qualified and categorized so follow-up activities can be prioritized. Sit down with the sales team and establish a protocol for qualifying and categorizing, thus creating lead database uniformity. If every single lead is treated as “hot” pretty soon nothing labeled “hot” seems important, and vice versa. If the leads just sit there, no one on the team will think that follow-up is a priority.
As learned from the above example, once a year is not enough communication to establish a relationship. Most people are much too sensitive about the number of contacts they have with a potential or existing customer. Of course there are boundaries. Daily e-mails to customers are probably not a good idea. Is once a week the right frequency? How about once a month? It depends. It depends on what is being sold and to whom. It depends on the price point of the product or service. It depends on the lifetime of the product or service. For example, a specialty food store may need to e-mail customers two to even three times per week to sell the advertised mangoes and 8-grain bread while still fresh and not sprouting penicillin mold. A manufacturer of agricultural or construction attachments may need to communicate on a less frequent basis or only when special information needs to be conveyed.
5. provide meaningful informaTion.
3. esTablish a relaTionship.
An entrepreneur who was looking to sell a personal trainer franchise opportunity for more than $200,000 thought he would sell a bunch from a list of 400 personal trainers he had acquired. He was careful, creative and crafted a great sales piece, which went out to all 400 personal trainers. Guess how many he sold? None. Why? Quite a few reasons, but most importantly, he had not established a relationship. A relationship cannot be attained with a list just purchased, and a relationship does not exist with someone who inquired about a product line and never received a response. The key to the relationship is ongoing communication. The more specialized and expensive the product, the more times the customer needs to be communicated with in order to get the sale. There was an individual recently who had built a list of opt-in subscribers to his newsletter. There
It is no secret to prospects that the art of selling may be taking place every time they receive an e-mail from a vendor. Prospects are hard wired to expect the hard sell and are prepared for it. So, what would happen if e-mail correspondence didn’t always use the hard sell? What would happen if some e-mails contained hints and tips that would save time or money? Perhaps e-mails are related to a vendor’s products. Perhaps not. It doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that the information is helpful and is not perceived as being of direct benefit to the vendor. For example, what if an e-mail was sent to customers and prospects telling them how to avoid the most common mistakes in getting accurate bids from contractors? Of course that’s something which relates to what the vendor would like to sell, but that’s not what the communication would be about. This approach of communicating based on a relationship rather than just the hard sell every time should prove successful in the long term. Of course there are more issues than just these five, but getting a handle on these will help tremendously. So, tackle the stack of leads sitting on the credenza with confidence and make follow-up activities an important function for business growth.
Aboutthe Author
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Craig mecham is principal of The mecham Company, a marketingconsulting firm that specializes in meeting the marketing needs of manufacturers and other business-to-business communicators. For more information, call 509.922.0535, e-mail cmecham@mechamcompany.com, or visit www.mechamcompany.com.
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| JANUARY2008