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It’s no surprise that businesses are always trying to find new customers. It’s very rare where you see a company that makes no marketing efforts at all. Even McDonalds, one of the biggest corporations in the world, is always looking for new customers. Fun fact: McDonald’s actually stopped counting how many burgers they sold after they reached the 100 BILLION mark, and that was back in 1994.
Now think about how far you can walk without seeing a McDonalds ad, not very far is it? That just goes to show that no matter how successful you are, there will always be a need for more customers and better ways to separate yourself in the market place.
The Importance of Leads
McDonalds knows that their customers will come back based on brand consistency.
No matter where you are in the world, you know what you’re going to get when you pull up to the golden arches.
That’s why all of their marketing efforts go towards battling the competition and they don’t spend a lot of time trying to find new customers but rather keeping their loyal customers happy.
Finding new leads is such an important part of business, especially if you are a new business. A lot of people forget that while leads are worth money, turning the leads into loyal customers are priceless. Now you need to know what steps to take in order to follow up with your leads and turn them into a profit.
The first call
When you first do a cold call, it is important to be clear and straight to the point. If you try and sell too hard you have already tainted how they view you (or your company) and the sale is most likely dead.
Let’s be real, a lot of businesses just don’t like sales people. Whether they have been tricked before into a bad deal or just don’t like what you’re selling, its important to give them space and follow up at an appropriate time. Speed is of the essence when following up with leads, and chances are you’re either fast enough, or way, way too slow.
Timing is everything
Depending on how your first call went, you will have an idea of what kind of time frame you have to make the next move.
A great way of remembering to follow up on your leads is using the CRM tool from Odoo. It allows you to schedule an exact time to follow up with your lead. You have the option to call, email, book a meeting and so on.
Whatever it is, this is the tool you should beusing. It’s a great way for sales teams to manage their leads, take a look at the analytics of sales, but most importantly manage the follow-ups. Let’s face it, people forget sometimes. This doesn’t allow you to forget.
A few stats to take into consideration are these 3 provided by the Harvard Business Review on company response time.
According to the Harvard Business Review:
- 26% of companies respond within five minutes of an inquiry
- 27% of companies respond between five minutes and 24 hours of an inquiry
- A whopping 47% respond after 24 hours or don’t respond at all to an inquiry
With that being said, it’s pretty clear first impressions are everything. Always remember to talk slow and be able to provide an elevator pitch for your product or service.
For those that don’t know, An elevator pitch is a quick synopsis of your background and experience. The reason it’s called an elevator speech is that you should be able to present it during a brief elevator ride. Once you’ve got your pitch done. Listen closely to how they respond, as it will determine where the sale is going.
Here is a list of some real life personal examples on what next step you’re going to take after the pitch:
“Sorry, we aren’t interested in this product. We already have a system that’s working for us and we aren’t looking to change right now”
While I can respect this, I think educating them on your product is the most important part of this process.
If they were willing to listen, a good chance now would be to compare the pros and cons to your product and find out if it’s meeting their business needs. If not, this gives you a chance to do your research and prove that your product has a better
“ We’re actually in the middle of some changes going on within the company and now isn’t a good time. Can you get back to me in a couple months?”
This is actually a great answer because this means that they are still open to the idea of your product and are interested in learning more. Give them the requested amount of time and schedule a follow-up call
“Yes I am interested but I would like to hear more about it, can you send me some more information?”
This is a great way to start the relationship. It’s important not to get too confident because that can lead to killing the sale. This is your chance to close the deal and maintain the relationship.
Maintaining the Relationship
This is probably one of the most overlooked parts of sales that people always forget about.
Just because you closed the deal and the company got paid, does not mean its over. I have seen companies kill a deal just because they aren’t getting the treatment needed. It’s important to check up on your customers, and let them know about new products or promotions coming out. Some ways you can do this are:
- Newsletters (Deals, specials, news)
- Great customer service
- Staying in touch
- Customer appreciation events
- Loyalty programs
Adding a personal touch is also something that is often overlooked in today’s society. In the days of social media people think that a simple “Like” or E-Mail is sufficient for letting people know of their importance, it’s not.
Sending out holiday cards or even remembering their birthday are very little things that go a long way. People will never forget an experience like that and it’s important to remember that on your journey of sales.
Syncoria can help you manage this with ease. Message or call us today for a FREE demo on the Odoo system. We’ll start you off with the CRM application so you can start managing your digital Rolodex and staying in contact with your leads and customers.