7 Follow-up Strategies to Close a Deal

7 Follow-up Strategies to Close a Deal:

After you quote someone, should you just wait to see if they send you a purchase order? Not typically. Follow-up is vital for closing as many deals as possible. Being too passive could lose the deal. Being too aggressive could turn the buyer off. How do you approach it “just right”? Read on for some helpful suggestions for ways to follow-up and close deals.

1: Confirm They Got the Quote

If you’re sending a quote via e-mail, it’s wise to contact the buyer to see if they did receive the quote. This is an excellent opportunity to judge their reaction and determine probability of closing the deal. This may not be the only time you need to follow up, of course. The buyer may have other quotes to reviews, may have to get approval from their boss, and so on. Making sure they got the quote you sent and asking where things are at is a good first step to helping you judge what to do next.

2: Carefully Choose Your Timing

Monday mornings and Friday afternoons aren’t the best time to follow-up with clients and prospects. People may be groggy on Monday mornings or anxious, on Fridays, to get out of the office for the weekend. As you talk to your clients and build relationships with them, you might develop a knack for knowing the best time to reach them. When you follow-up, if there isn’t a firm answer, ask the client when you should follow-up next. This will help move things along in the process in a way that suits the client, too. (And that could bring you favor with them as they’ll anticipate follow-ups and may be prepared with more firm answers)

3: Have a Reason to Call

Constant follow up can be an annoyance. But if you have other reasons to call, this could get you an update without annoying the buyer. If you can come up with a good enough reason to call (Note: Make it good. Buyers will see through feeble attempts at diversion and it could harm the trust in the relationship), you can slip in a follow-up question before the end of the discussion.

4: Do it through Email

Follow-up on deals via email. This is a less obtrusive interruption, for many, than a phone call or visit. If they don’t answer within a reasonable amount of time, consider a phone call.

5: Ask for a Meeting

Buyers could be open to a meeting to discuss your proposal. Some may be willing to be taken for a game of golf (they do say that the biggest deals are signed on the golf course) or lunch, for example, and that lunch meeting or golf game could cover discussions about potential deals and /or recent quotes.

6: Get to Know Them so You Can Strategize

Knowing your customer can help you devise the best strategy for follow-up. This isn’t always easy to do when you’re first trying to woo a new prospect. Keep track of discussions and responses with clients and prospects so you can measure the best way to approach the sales process. Consider keeping notes in your customer database so you know what approach works best with longstanding or repeat buyers.

7: Use a CRM Tool to Manage Contacts and Deals

A customer relationship management tool with sales pipeline tracking features can help you close more deals. You can use it to measure where, in the sales process, you’re at with every client and prospect on your radar and you can use it to analyze won and lost deals. A CRM like Base will help you manage every deal with phases that can help you strategically close more deals. It can also help you regarding suggestion # 6 as you will be able to generate reports to help you analyze past wins and losses so you can refine your deal closing strategies.