Business relationships, like all relationships, require healthy communication to flourish. Every deal closed is a result of information exchanged between your client and you over a course of time. There are instances of deals being closed in the first meeting but that is a rare occurrence. It generally takes more than one meeting to get a deal signed.
Whichever field you may be working in, following up on a client is something your superiors stress on. For instance, when I was selling Hyundai cars, every day I had to sit in front of a desk and do the follow-ups on my potential clients. Truth be told, I lost many deals because of not properly following up.
Allow me to share one such experience.
There was this elderly couple who visited my showroom, they were looking for a hatchback to take their grandchildren to school. I sold them the idea of the newly launched Santro as the perfect vehicle for the task. They agreed and left saying they would contact once they made up their mind. I got excited and complacent at the same time. Since it was at the beginning of the month, I was sure I had one struck off from my target. Days passed, and there was no word from the couple. I tried to contact them but I had lost their number in my pile of prospective client’s contacts list. I was too lazy and overconfident to follow up frankly. I knew this was a sealed deal and was busy making castles in the air rather than looking for the lost contact number. Eventually, I found the number after searching at the end of the month. I had not sold a single car by then, and they were my only hope.
When I called them, the lady picked up the call and said they had bought a Santro from another dealer. The man had fallen sick, and a sales consultant from that dealer had contacted them, and because he went to their place to do the paperwork. They happily bought it from him.
Now, this little bitter experience taught me one thing, had I kept the number properly and followed up on them, I would not only have closed the deal but would have made a relationship with this couple leading to future references. Someone cashed in on my pitch, simply just by following up.
In retrospect, I feel I should have been mature, but when I was busy making 150 calls per day, keeping a track was hard. Only if I had some form of technology for that. Something that would remind me to follow up the next day.
Now almost after a year and a half, I have come across GoDial, a mobile application that not only makes calls automatically from a given list, it stores the feedback and sets a reminder for a follow up. Making sure you never miss out on a deal. The auto caller and auto dialer works seamlessly on a smartphone doing the excruciating task of calling, storing feedback, and setting reminders for a follow-up.
On a certain day when you are making around 100-200 calls, it does become tough to keep track. The human brain is a complex organ, it already participates in numerous actions and it would be bullish for us to hope that it would remember everything.
In an age when we have something as simple as a water drinking reminder app, an application that reminds us to follow up and helps in closing deals is a necessity. GoDial is the app that needs to be on your smartphone if at all you do not want to miss out on a deal like me, because of not following up.
The subtle art of following up is not a tough art to master. With a bit of help from GoDial, you will be very well en route to becoming the Beethoven of deal closures.
“Your Ability To Communicate With Others Will Account For Fully 85% Of Your Success In Your Business And In Your Life.”– Brian Tracy
For remember, pitching is not all, following up and successfully signing the deal is what is going to make you the master of selling and earn those incentives.
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