Mastering the art of flawless follow-up calls

At It’s Your Call B2B telemarketing service we always stress the importance to our customers how following up is key.  Often times we’re charged with appointment setting while generating leads.  After we’ve qualified the appointment and sent it over to our customer there have been times when the appointment falls through.  When asked what the next step is to revitalize the prospect there is very little follow up process in place.  In this article there are clear steps that outline the process.

If you’re selling a more expensive or complex product or service, then it’s safe to assume that deals don’t typically close on the first call or message.

That’s why the art of follow-up calls is one of the most important skills a sales rep can learn, whether you’re at a small business or large enterprise.

From figuring out how many times to contact a prospect to what time of day they’ll be most receptive, the sooner a rep can learn these tips and tricks, the more successful they’ll be. In this guide, I’ll focus specifically on follow-up calls (as opposed to emails and other channels like LinkedIn messages) since they’re still one of the biggest deal drivers in most industries, and share some of the things I’ve learned that have made my own follow-up calls with prospects more successful.

The importance of the follow-up call

Follow-up calls are hugely important to a sales process. If a deal doesn’t close on first contact, you’re fully relying on that follow-up to get another shot to convince a potential customer that your business is the right choice for them.

If you don’t follow up in time—or worse, if you don’t follow up at all—you’re letting free money slip through your fingers.

Some salespeople might be reluctant to follow up on a call because they don’t want to be perceived as pushy, but follow-ups aren’t about hard selling anyone. After all, the initial contact may have been cut short because the prospect was busy, or maybe you just left a voicemail that you’re following up on this time around.

How to know if a follow-up call is the right call

Here’s the thing. Sometimes, a follow-up sales call isn’t the best way to check in with a prospect. I use email templates, LinkedIn messages, and other channels too when I follow up depending on the situation—you have to know when it’s the right channel for you.

There are lots of integrations and automations that can help outbound sales teams too, and I’ve found these to be really helpful because they reduce a lot of the repetitive manual work that can be a big time-suck for reps.

For example, Outreach is a good sales engagement tool that lets you design an outreach sequence that includes phone calls and email templates. Your sales manager can set how frequently follow-ups should happen (e.g. “Day 1 is a phone call, Day 4 is a follow-up email, Day 7 is a second follow-up call, etc.)

 

 

www.dialpad.com/blog/mastering-the-art-of-the-flawless-follow-up/