There is a certain well known Japanese recruitment focused company, who keeps calling me at regular intervals. Maybe there is nothing particularly outstanding about a firm doing follow-up, but I am impressed. The reason this firm stands out amongst others for me is that the people calling me change from time to time. Usually, with sales teams, someone is the designated salesperson for that firm and when that person leaves, the relationship falls in a hole. No one else in the company does any follow-up or if they do, they don’t sustain it. This firm has been calling over the last five years and the callers keep changing, but the calls keep coming – they haven’t given up on me. When I think about that effort, I wonder how they do that? What system are they using which makes sure that someone from that company is well organised enough to call me?
The second thing I reflect on is how well organised are we as a sales company? How well organised am I? There is no doubt we suffer from the falling through the cracks problem when people leave. It is rarely the case that we can guarantee to keep going with the buyer when the people change. Sometimes it is chemistry and sometimes it is effort.
You can work on the effort component. Keep in mind though, that, by definition, we are often dealing with the 80% of our team, who contribute a 20% share of the results and likely cause 80% of our problems. If one of those people takes over the new client, then strap on your seat belt for a rocky ride.
Now chemistry is even more difficult. The previous salesperson built up a close personal relationship with the buyer, which has now been broken and needs to be re-established. It is a fact that we don’t necessarily get on well with all our buyers. It can be personality, style, communication differences and varying expectations. Sometimes, the new salesperson just cannot keep that buyer with the firm and we accept that. We have to differentiate between laziness, stupidity and genuine lack of fit though.
The other factor we need to consider is stickability. The capacity to stick with the prospect and turn them into a client. We read about these studies around eight touches needed before we can close the deal. I don’t know about these statistics for Japan, but I know it is very easy to let the buyer get away from lack of organisation, poor time sensitivity and ineffective effort. I also know that for many salespeople, one or two touches is the maximum and if it requires eight, then no wonder no deals get done.
In my case, Covid has slightly lifted in Japan. Instead of being trapped in a tiny box in a screen during an online event, I can actually get out there and risk catching Covid and network in person. So now I meet people after a long break and then I follow-up. I tell my team we need to all be talking to at least 50 people at any given time. Some will do nothing, some will do something – eventually and some will do something now. We just don’t know who is who until we push things along.
I always copy the previous email into the next one, when I don’t get a response to the first email. I am trying to shame them into answering me. Once upon a time, people would be polite and answer your email, but no more. Like me, they are simply drowning in emails and we get buried in the bottom of their inbox. Always send the follow-up email at 8.30am or 1.00pm. We want to elevate our email above the rest of the competing emails. We can get to the top of their inbox early in the morning, when they start work and after lunch, when they return to their desk. There is little point emailing after 4.00pm, because it will get buried and then lost in the crush. Sending a follow-up email at 5.00pm on a Friday evening would have to be confirmed as insane behaviour.
What happens if email number two gets no response? Well, I send the next reminder copying the previous two emails into this one. I don’t labour the point. I make the email as concise and easy to absorb as possible, by just asking one question: “Any progress?”. Those who are never going to answer will ignore this one too, but there will be those holdouts who will realise they have a need, but have been swamped by other stuff and haven’t got back to me yet. There will be those who are overcome with guilt for not respecting my emails and will write back, even if it is to say “no thanks”. That is fine too, at least we got a response and we know where we stand with this buyer.
I stop at three and occasionally, I will go to number four, before I give up. I cease contacting them because I don’t want to impact my personal brand by being seen as unreasonable, spamming them and being too pushy. If I ever get pushback on my follow-up activities, I just ask them, “How many times do you want your sales team to follow-up with your prospects”. They have nowhere to go, because they all know they wish their salespeople were more active around their own follow-up efforts.
So let’s find systems which will help us with follow-up and then use them!
