One of the easiest, free, almost 100% guaranteed to work methods of increasing your sales volume is usually right in front of us.  Yet most small business owners and managers fail to take advantage of this “too obvious” way to improve business.  As the title of this post indicates, it’s Followup.

I’m not sure what it is about Followup that keeps us from using this effective sales and marketing tactic.  Maybe it just seems too easy.  But what I do know from my experiences with small business owners is that it seldom gets used as well as it should.

Here’s a typical conversation:

Me: “Tell me about the kind of prospects or pending sales you have in your pipeline.”

Biz Owner: “Well, we actually have a lot of pending business. Our marketing efforts seem to keep our pipeline quite full. If we could just get more of them to close, life would be good.”

Me: “That’s great news that your marketing efforts are producing. Tell me about how you followup on the prospects you have.”

Biz Owner: (Sheepishly) “Well actually we have very little time for followup. It’s something we know we should do, but it always seems to get dropped.”

Me: “Okay. What do you think your conversion rate is from prospect to customer? Usually in Followup mode it’s higher than the conversion rate on “cold” prospects.  Based on the amount of prospects in your pipeline, how much business could you get in the next 30-60 days if you simply followed up with the prospects in your pipeline?”

Biz Owner: (Silence while doing the math. Then eyes getting wider, and voice getting higher…) “OMG!! We have got to start doing more followup right away!!”

Okay, maybe that’s a little oversimplified.  But in my experience, when businesses go from doing no followup to being disciplined and consistent with followup, their sales usually increase (drum roll…..) 10 – 30%!!!  And when business owners do the simple math they generally do act quickly to enact more disciplined followup.

If you regularly quote or bid projects in your business, think about the number of projects you’ve bid where you’ve never heard from the customer.  What kind of impression have you left if you never checked with them to see if they had any questions about your bid?  How have you differentiated yourself from others who also don’t followup?  Just think what would happen if you were the only bidder to actually call to ask how else you could help?  Doesn’t that leave the impression that you might be more reliable and professional than the guy they never hear from?

I know, I know, you don’t want to be perceived as “pushy” or a pest who just keeps calling.  But how are you perceived if they never hear from you?  Good professional followup is actually appreciated, not scorned.  Few people or businesses in our society followup, so those that do stand out and actually gain the perception that they are thorough and professional.

So your choice is clear:  Keep doing what you’re doing and get the results you’re getting.  Or followup to differentiate yourself from your competition and get maybe 10-30% more sales.

Followup, and let me know how it works out.