Follow-up: Persist, Persevere, and Be Patient

"Persistence, Perseverance and Patience=Payoff."

Follow-up, follow-up and more follow-up.

If ever there were one key to what separates top "consultants" from middle of the road "salespeople," it would come down to one word: follow-up.

Contrary to those supporters of the "Do Not Call" list, prospects do not just wake up one day and decide to call you for your services. The expression, "If I need your services, I will let you know," is a farce, pure and simple.

For instance, as valuable as TBN Sales Solutions is, it is a rare occasion that someone calls us up in a moment of passion and says, "I must have sales training at this exact moment!"

Yes, there are times when referrals come your way and potential clients will contact you on their own, but more often than not, you need to put yourself in the position for them to call you.

So much of what we do in sales is uncovering opportunities by uncovering needs to provide our potential solutions.

But what's critical to understand is this discovery phase and ability to create pain does not stop on the initial discussion, nor does it stop after the first appointment."Need" is a relative word. There are only three things humans truly need: food, shelter and water. Everything else is a "want." Does a company really need better phone service?

Does a Controller really need to purchase new office equipment? Do CEOs need to impact the bottom line of their organizations?

Even when they determine they do need your services, they still may not call.

When a contract with their current vendor expires, buyers need a certain service. Indeed, they may even be unhappy with their current vendor and want to hire another vendor. But will they call you?

How companies determine which organizations they need is often based on one factor - follow-up.

Years ago, earlier in my sales career selling phone service for LCI International, follow-up earned me the business of one of my very first clients. The opportunity arose when my prospect, Matt, told me in June to call him "around the holidays," knowing his agreement with his current provider would expire at that time.

I called, and as a result, he bought my services. "I'm just curious, Matt," I commented as he signed the paperwork. "Your agreement with the current vendor was due to expire, but if I hadn't contacted you, would you have contacted me? After all, you said you were interested and there was a need."

"Absolutely not," Matt answered. "Had you not called me, I would have just renewed our current agreement."

"Even though ours was clearly a better deal?" I asked. "Yes, Todd," Matt said. "What earned you this deal was you knew the difference between persistence and insistence."

So how else can we distinguish ourselves to be persistent and not insistent when it comes to follow-up?

1. E-mail everyone you meet a thank you letter within three days.

But don't just send a letter thanking the person for meeting with you. Send everyone a letter you speak with, whether it is a networking event, a phone conversation or a first in-person visit.

In the letter, summarize the conversation, reiterating the prospects' "needs" that they outlined to you, and reaffirm commitments in such areas as when you will call next or the date of the next agreed upon meeting. This will affirm you listened, rather than heard.

2. When you say you are going to call next, call them- whether it is one week, one month or two months.

You would be amazed at how many salespeople never follow up. And you'd be amazed at how often prospects know exactly who follows through on their commitments and who doesn't.

Also, when you call on a given day or week or month, if you get voice mail, always indicate why you are calling:

"Hello, John, it's Todd Natenberg with TBN Sales Solutions. I reason I'm calling is I promised you I'd call you today and I want you to know I always follow through on my commitments."

3. Give referrals whenever you can to your prospects

Be a true sustaining resource. Don't just follow-up to ask if they want to buy your services. Offer your prospects ways to help their business outside of your services.

A great technique is to give your prospects referrals-- either for a potential client or even just information that you discover, such as an article about their business.

If you give a referral don't just call them up and give a name. Send a "3-way e-mail," where you are sending the contact information to your prospect and the referral name. Include all parties contact information and compliment everyone in the process as to why you all will make a great fit.

Never forget: "Hard work is often disguised as good luck."