Your initial prospect phone call was the result of either their contacting you, or your contacting them through a referral or cold call. If the initial call was successful and the prospect showed interest, the next step in the sales process is the follow-up call where you get back to them with more information and perhaps more questions. The follow-up call is extremely important, because it gets the sales cycle rolling. It\u2019s where you can show more of your value, and where your relationship with the prospect begins. Here\u2019s how to make the most out of those follow-up calls.<\/p>\n
At the end the initial call, set up a date and time for the follow-up call and a date if you\u2019ll be sending them something. Vague commitments from them\u2014\u201cCall me next week\u201d\u2014or from you\u2014\u201cI\u2019ll email you a proposal and call you in a couple of days\u201d\u2014risk missed calls and a longer sales cycle.<\/p>\n
After every initial call to a new prospect, send a handwritten thank you card: \u201cMary, thank you for taking the time to speak with me today. I look forward to talking to you further on the 15th<\/sup>. Kind regards\u2026.\u201d If a card won\u2019t get there in time, email them, though an email doesn\u2019t make the same impact as a written note.<\/p>\n The day before your follow-up call, email the prospect a reminder. Make the subject line: \u201cPhone appointment for November 15th<\/sup>, plus interesting article.\u201d Not giving the time in the subject line gets the email opened. In the email, confirm the date and time and briefly note the agenda: \u201cWe\u2019ll go over where we are, I\u2019ll answer any questions, and we\u2019ll decide on next steps, if any.\u201d The \u201cif any\u201d reduces the prospect\u2019s concerns that they\u2019ll have to make a commitment, a big reason prospects skip out on follow-up calls.<\/p>\n Then add a P.S. about the \u201cinteresting article\u201d: \u201cMary, I\u2019ve also attached an article I thought you\u2019d enjoy.\u201d This can be a piece you found online about the market, the industry, the prospect\u2019s challenges, or, even better, a non-business topic that came up in your initial call.<\/p>\n First, make the call on time\u2014don\u2019t be late by even a minute. Be ready with your opening statement. Give your name and company name. Then remind the prospect why you\u2019re having this call. Go back to what came up in the initial call\u2014the problem they want to solve, or the improvement they\u2019re looking to gain. For example: \u201cWhen we last spoke, you wanted to fix\u2026\u201d or \u201cWhen we last talked, you wanted to improve\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n Then move on to this call\u2019s agenda. If you sent them a proposal, now is the time to review it, and ask if they have any questions about it. Or, if you haven\u2019t done a proposal yet, make your recommendations on how can answer their needs. Then tell them you\u2019d like to work with them to come up with the next steps, \u201cif applicable,\u201d and ask how that sounds. The \u201cif applicable\u201d is another way to reduce prospect\u2019s resistance about making a decision.<\/p>\n About a 30% of the time, prospects won\u2019t pick up the phone when you call. When that happens, leave a message so they know that you called when you said you would. Tell them you\u2019ll call back in 10 minutes, then do it. If they\u2019re still not there, leave another message: \u201cPlease call me when you\u2019re free. Otherwise, I\u2019ll call you around\u2026 (pick a time a few hours out).\u201d Then give the prospect a chance to call. But if you haven\u2019t heard from them in half a day, call again. If they don\u2019t pick up, leave another message: \u201cI\u2019m sorry we haven\u2019t been able to connect, and I know you want to move forward with what we\u2019ve been discussing. Please call me at\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t hear from them after that, make four more calls three business days apart. You want to be persistent, but not a pest. And, of course, always be polite and professional. Some prospects may decide not to hire you, or to not do the job at all, and have difficulty telling you that. All you can do is accept it and move on to the next prospect!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Your initial prospect phone call was the result of either their contacting you, or your contacting them through a referral or cold call. If the initial call was successful and the prospect showed interest, the next step in the sales process is the follow-up call where you get back to them with more information and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sales"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/slewis\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2023\/10\/intro-bg5.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/slewis\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2023\/10\/intro-bg5.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"","author_link":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/slewis\/author\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/slewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/slewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/slewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/slewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/slewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/slewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/slewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/slewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/slewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/slewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What to do when making the follow-up call<\/h4>\n
What to do if the prospect isn\u2019t there<\/h4>\n