- Wait a minute, I'm just texting on a deal, that I'm working on, and following up, I'll send this out. Let's say, after a closing call, after sales call, the prospect says to you, I want to think about it, maybe later, or maybe call me back, I need to talk to my business partner. How do you follow up without coming across too aggressive?
Without coming across salesy? What do you do? Because when you fall up too much, it seems that you're desperate, and you never want to be desperate.
If you don't follow up enough, then chances are, you might lose that deal, what do you do? What do you do when they say they're not interested? It has a lot to do with your first initial call.
So by the end of your first initial conversation, let's say, if you're closing on the phone, why they didn't buy? what exactly did they say? Did they say that, hey, I need to talk to my business partner.
Maybe it's selling B2B and they say, hey, we don't have a budget this quarter, but maybe we could look into it next quarter, right? Or maybe they say the time is just not good, we've got a lot going on, maybe a little bit later. Whatever the objection might be, always remember, write this down, that prospects lie, they lie.
They lie to your face. - You want answers? - I think I'm entitled.
- You want any truth. - I want the truth! - You can't handle the truth!
- So whatever the objection they might say may not be the truth. You and I both know that, they don't want to hurt your feelings, they don't want to be direct, or they just don't want to look stupid, because they just don't have the budget or money to buy whatever you sell. So if you have done your job as a closer, if you have properly qualified them upfront, you will know the truth, why they are not buying.
I never let my closers, I never let any one of the students that I trained, get off the phone without a commitment. If it is a no, just give me a no, but what I don't want is, I want to think about it, right? I want to get to the bottom line.
If they say, I want to think about it, I need a timeframe. Do we talk to them a week later? Do we talk to them a month later?
I need a timeframe, I need some kind of commitment. So most sales guys, most sales professionals, they waste way too much time, on prospects that they will never close. They don't have the desire to buy, they don't have the ability to buy, or they don't, there's no trust.
So instead of spending all that time on those prospects, so let's eliminate those first. If you know what you're doing, you have disqualified them, don't waste time, pursue the next prospect. But if you know that the objection, is actually legitimate, it's not a lie, it's legitimate, and you want to follow up.
Well, what you don't want to do, and here's how most sales guys fucked up, they follow up with, hey, you know, we talked a month ago, I'm just following them with you, like I hope that, you know, are you ready to do business now? Fuck that, right? You're coming across too needy, and you're coming across, or, are we ready to do business?
You want to do business now? You wanted to buy now? Too desperate, you're too hungry, that's not good, right?
You are there to solve their problems. Your posture, your positioning is always a trusted advisor. You're here to solve a problem, if they want their problem solved, good.
If not, let me know, I don't want to waste my time, I don't want to waste your time, right? So you don't follow up with, you want to, you want to buy, you want to buy? No, what you want to follow up with, write this down, is you want to follow up with content, that is the best way to do it.
Let's say, I'm on the phone, I just talked to a prospect, he's not ready to buy, a B2B deal, let's say a $100,000 deal. Not ready to buy, Q3 they're ready to buy. Now the first initial call, I've written down all the notes, their pain points, their companies, everything that they're going through, what they need?
And why they buy? And why they would not buy, right? What problems are they actually wanting to solve?
I have their profile. So when I follow up, here's what I do, it works. You follow up with content, and you follow up with value.
Let's say this particular prospect, who I could enclose, didn't close yet, they have problem with getting leads, let's say, that's the problem, they have a problem with leads, a constant flow of leads. Then I would keep dripping, keep following up content, personalized content, by the way, with them and say, hey, here's something that you could read, here's a podcast that you could listen to, here's a video that you could watch, here's a white paper, something. Every single time you are in touch with them, you give them some kind of value, and you are very, very subtly asking, how are things?
Not even trying to close, hey, do you have that problem? How's that situation? Have you solved your lead problem yet?
What kind of things are you doing to get more lead flow? Oh, here's something that is working for my client right now, would you like to take a look? Here's the best practice, here's an article that would benefit you.
You keep being in front of them, top of mind awareness, but not in a pushy kind of way, but in a helpful, useful, practical kind of way, you're in front of them. I know the next question you going to ask me, well, how often should I follow up? It depends, right?
It depends, for some you might want to do it once a week, for some of you might want to do it once a month, depends on the transaction size, depends on what you're selling, right? If you understand what you're selling, you will come to your own conclusion, that common sense you should know, you will know that more than I do. But certain frequency, you put that in your CRM.
So, you know, it triggers, you're going to follow up with this person, consistently, and sometimes depends on the deal size, you might take multiple followups, and that's perfectly fine. But what you don't want to do is, keep hammering, and keep chasing people, hey, you're ready to buy? No, value, value, value, value.
And one thing very strange, what happened to you? They would contact you and say, hey, now I'm ready. I wasn't ready six months ago, but now I'm ready to do business.
Or, something even more strange might happen is, they say you know what, I'm just not the right prospect, but your content has been so good, you've been so helpful, I have a friend of mine, who actually would need your services. Why don't you talk with him, or talk with her, right? That's how you get referrals, without even them buying from you, because you are helpful.
You're helping them solve their problems. And that sometimes may not be a solution. And if it's not your solution, recommend something that is useful for them, that could solve the problems, even though you may not get paid to do it.
It is the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do, because it builds relationship, and it builds trust. So bottom line, when you follow up with a prospect who are not interested, you got to make it all about them. Don't make it about you, don't make it about your product or service, make it about them, you have to always appeal to their self interest.
And this has a lot to do with just the fundamental of closing. You have to know some of these procedures. If you want to see some examples, if you want to get more in depth training on this, no theory, actually what works in the real world, what all my students are doing, to close sales right now, even during this pandemic, click on the link below, and find out more, watch our preview webcasts.
If you're serious, and you want to deep dive into this, and you want some systems, you want some templates, we could go from there. Go ahead and watch that video now.
