The Power Of Detail In Sales: How Intentional Follow-ups Improve Sales Rates

It’s an interesting time for sales. Today’s tech has enabled businesses to reach out to more potential buyers than ever before. But does this mean more leads = more sales? Not necessarily.

The challenge facing the modern-day sales rep isn’t volume, it’s engagement.

Today’s customer is savvy, knowledgeable and usually an expert about your product. So firing off a bunch of generic emails or texts every month isn’t going to cut it — customers want a personal experience.

That’s why follow up is vital.

If you want to stay ahead of the game and improve your sales rates, we’ve got a few tried and tested strategies to inspire you.

How to balance volume with personalization

As a busy business owner, automation is your friend—but only if used mindfully.

We don’t have to tell you, converting leads into sales is tough. And it’s not just about playing the numbers game. The journey from turning a lead into a customer requires engagement on lots of different levels, which is probably why a staggering 79% of marketing leads never convert.

If you want to nail your follow up strategy, here are a few top tips to keep you on track.

• Be organized. Create an effective routine you can stick to. For instance, whenever an agent makes contact with a lead, immediately group and tag them. This way you can instantly organize them according to their buying stage and how often you need to reach out. Whatever you do, don’t rely solely on your memory.

• Make follow-up a daily habit. Block out a few hours a day just for this task to stop you getting distracted by other things. Research shows that reps spend nearly 65% their time on non-revenue-generating activities. Don’t let leads slip through the cracks because you were too busy doing admin.

• Don’t spam people. Bombarding someone with automated emails isn’t going to win their trust. And research backs this up. In fact, personalized emails generate up to 6X more revenue than non-personalized emails. Take a minute to say something meaningful about how their family (or heck, even they’re dog) is doing to let them know you see them as a person, not just a lead.

Your network is your best source of leads

92% of buyers trust referrals from people they know.

While it’s easy to forget or dismiss your friends or family as potential customers, you’d be wise to embrace your network. And if you’re passionate about your business and your product, these are the first people you should talk to — not the last. After all, if you can’t approach them, how are you going to convince cold leads?

Take the Graham Seeby Group for instance, who focused their sales strategy specifically on past clients and personal contacts. As a result, their profits shot up and they made $90 million in just 4 years.

Pick up your phone

Sure, when it comes to communication tools, we’re spoiled for choice — from email to Facebook and everything in-between.

But the biggest mistake a sales rep can make is forgetting to pick up the phone. It might seem old school, but the phone can play a vital part in boosting your sales rates.

How many times do you collect telephone numbers via online marketing campaigns? And how many times do you call those numbers within 24hr of receiving them? The way to stand out in today’s market is to do the things your competitors won’t.

The grandfather of real estate lead conversion, Mitch Ribak, former broker and owner of Tropical Realty Beachside says 42% of internet leads never receive a phone call, and the other 58% wait more than 24 hours to hear from a sales rep. Count the missed opportunities.

In case it’s been a while, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Always call within 24 hours
• Follow up with a quick email summarising your conversation
• Send any information discussed and questions
• Follow-up a week later
• From there, you can then plan the follow-up schedule based on the lead’s buying timeline

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Remember, if you want to improve your sales rates in these days of spammy emails and robo-callers, don’t treat follow up as a glorified exercise in ‘keeping in touch.’ Make it real and authentic and your leads will never forget it.