Sales Training:

Sales Training America is a world class sales training and custom development training company specializing in sales training and sales skill development of our client's sales force. At Sales Training America we help our clients improve their sales profitability through the development of their sales management and sales efforts through SalesForce.com implementation. Sales Training America offers both public (open enrollment) sales training seminars well as the development of customized sales systems and sales seminars for Fortune 1000 companies across United States and Canada.

Are you one of the many corporations now focusing on core sales activities while implementing SalesForce.com while outsourcing non-core functions in response to intense competition?

If you are, Sales Training America can help there too. If you simply want to outsource some of your sales or sales management training or if you want to redefine yourself completely to survive mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, downsizing, or corporate restructuring we can help you.

For free, no obligation information on how we can help you with your sales training needs please contact us today.

Sales Training Seminars and Tips:

Follow-Up as a Key to Sales Training Success

There are several times in your sales process when customer follow-up is critical.

1. When your customer is in the decision stage of the buying process.

Perhaps your customer did not buy at the time you showed them your product. This could be for many reasons - maybe they needed to talk it over with a spouse, or maybe they needed to save up some money. Maybe they went on vacation and forgot about you. There are many reasons why your customer may not buy from you the first time you show them your product. You owe it to that customer to remind them that you are still there ready to help them.

2. After your customer has purchased a product from you, it is imperative that you follow-up with that customer to see how the product is working out for them.

Perhaps you would eventually want to show them some additional features that they may have overlooked or forgotten about. You need to assess their satisfaction with your product for two reasons. If they are unhappy with the product, you want to make sure you find a way to make it right. Either they should receive a full refund, or another product, or something so that the last experience the customer has with you is a positive one.

If the customer is happy with your product, you need to ask for a referral to other people they know who might like your product. You also want to ask for a testimonial from your happy customers. Testimonials are valuable to add to your marketing materials.

3. Finally, if a customer has purchased from you before, and they were happy with the sales experience, they are likely to purchase from you again if you have additional products or services that match their needs.

It is up to you to continue to follow-up with information and relevant suggestions for products that will help your customer.

You Need a Customer Follow Up System

Have you developed a plan for customer follow-up yet? If not, this section will help you get organized. Is the desk in your sales office overrun with business cards to search through every time you need a phone number? Perhaps you are using a day timer or on-line calendar. Perhaps you are using a contact manager. These are good tools but you need a better follow-up strategy.

If your customer follow-up system consists of boxes of business cards or names scribbled on writing pads I have a plan for you.

How to create your customer follow up system

You will want to select several tools to reach out and touch your customers periodically. You will need to balance the timing of your follow-up and maintain professionalism. You do not want your prospect to be turned off or irritated because you contact them too often. You do not want to appear desperate to sell something else. You also do not want to leave your customer's remembering you up to chance.

Remember, the purpose of your customer follow-up is to help your customer solve a problem. If you don't follow up periodically, your customer will forget you and move onto your competitor the next time they need a product or service like yours.

Several sales tools you must have in your customer follow-up system

- The telephone

In today's online and high-tech world, people forget about the phone. This is still a great way to reach out and touch your customers. It is especially effective after the sale to ask how it is going and to see if they are happy with your product. The phone is a very personal way to interact with your customers.

- Email with auto responder

An email drip system with an auto responder will let you automate email contact with your customer to continue to feed them information and to keep your name in front of them. This is a low cost way to keep in touch with your list of contacts.  With an email drip system, you set up your series of messages and then forget about them.

- Newsletter

A newsletter is a value-added way to provide information to your customer. Your customer can subscribe to the sales newsletter giving you permission to continue to contact them with relevant valuable information.

- Post Card or letter

Guess what? These days, people still love to get something in the mail with their name on it. They especially like to get a personal card or letter. Do you remember the last time you received an unexpected personal card or letter in the mail from someone you know? It really is exciting to tear open the envelope to see what is inside. You can really set yourself apart in the online world by sending a personal greeting card or letter.

Believe me, your competitors are not doing this.  This is an excellent way to differentiate your business from the thousands of others out there. Sending a personal card or letter is a very effective way to do customer follow-up, but it can be time consuming.

What are the chances that you will really go to the store, buy the cards, write them out, address them, stamp them, and drop them in the mail? Not likely, right? I mean after all, we are all busy with our families and our business. Sending a card can be used for thank-you, to follow-up with contacts, or just to wish your customer a happy birthday.

Joe Girard, who is listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as the World's Greatest Car Sales Person used greeting cards to stay in contact with his customers. His customers got a greeting card every month. This helped foster repeat business for him. When they were ready to buy another car, they always remembered Joe.

Another successful salesperson whose secret was greeting cards, was Tom Hopkins. Tom was the World's Greatest Real Estate Sales Person. At the time he retired from real estate sales, he had sold a house everyday for 365 days. You can see from these two examples how powerful the personal touch of a greeting card can be.

These two successful gentlemen both attribute their success to the power of a greeting card and the effectiveness of a consistent customer follow-up system. But, in their day, they sent hand-written cards that they hand wrote, addressed and stamped to send. They dropped stacks of cards in the mail every day. Lucky for you, today this process can be automated.

- Setting up a tickler file

In order to follow-up with your prospective customers, you need a system that organizes them in a way so that you will know what method and message of follow-up they need. You should set up a hanging file system that is divided into sections for prospects, consultations, and customer. Organize your system so that it mirrors where you are in the sales funnel.

Prospects

Phone Call
Email
Newsletter
Card/Letter
Consultation

Product walk through
Follow up call
Thank you card
Newsletter
Phone Call
Customers

Thank you card
Phone Call
Consultation
Referral
Email List
Newsletter
Adding your contacts to the sales system

In addition to adding your contacts to your contact manager, you will also want to do the following to work them through your system. Take a normal file folder, and staple your prospective customer's business card to it. If you don't have a card, just create a label. You can use the folder to write notes, or to store other paperwork from the contact like sales receipts, records, or anything else related to that customer.

The contact's folder gets moved through the filing system in the same order as the sales funnel. If you have already completed a product walk through, you would move them into the follow-up section. They remain in that section, until you actually follow-up.

Once they complete one event, you move them to the next event. When they become a customer, they go straight into the thank you card file. Keep this filing system in your office and make sure you have time scheduled each day to go through it. This will help keep you focused on what needs to be done for each customer each day.

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