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5 Tips to Improve Your Follow-Up Sales Skills While Building Customer Loyalty

Guest post by: Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Article Overview: Are your following sales skills building customer loyalty or inadvertently turning off customers and reducing sales? These 5 tips may help you increase sales, improve customer relationships and demonstrate why you are the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits.

5 Tips to Improve Your Follow-Up Sales Skills While Building Customer Loyalty

Most businesses engage in follow-ups with their exiting customers. Of course, sometimes the follow-up phone call has been months in the making. Today I received one in the form of a voice mail that was probably like those you may have received.

Hi, I am just seeing if you need any promotional items? uh Our records show that you have bought from us (insert company’s name), uh, in the past. (Pause) My name is (insert name) and you can call me , uh, at (inset phone number).

Not only did I frown, I began to wonder why I bought from this company to begin with. Then I remembered, the firm was part of a networking group where I was a member. My next thought was who was this person? My relationship is with the owner who is also the sales person.

From my perspective, this sales person missed a lot of opportunities to put a smile on my face and instead he created a serious frown. He also potentially created some buyer’s remorse because I had a negative concern about my previous buying decisions.

Now what would have happened if this sales professional took the following actions before picking up the phone to give an existing customer that past due follow-up call?

Step 1 – Research what the existing customer actually purchased. Sales Coaching Tip: Understanding that the existing clients may not know the sales person on the other end of the phone, the sales professional needs to make a friend quickly and confidently.

Step 2 – Research the market place as to potential needs. In the case of this sales professional, he should look for trade shows to special events. Sales Coaching Tip: Take advantage of every opportunity to demonstrate your value as a sales professional.

Step 3 – Invest the time to write a sales script that can be easily share among the existing clients. Sales Coaching Tip: Sales scripts keep the message engaging and succinct.

Step 4 – Practice the script. Sales Coaching Tip: To many pauses and uhs or ums create far more frowns and negative emotions.

Step 5 – Open all interactions with the human touch. Demonstrate actual concern. Sales CoachingTip: No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. (John Maxwell)

By taking these 5 steps, will help to avoid those costly missteps. Remember, by increasing the smiles on your existing customers’ faces you will increase sales and build customer loyalty.

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Article Tags: decisions, follow ups, inset, nbsp, networking group, perspective, phone call, phone number, promotional items, relationship, remorse, sales person, sales script, sales scripts, smile on my face, trade shows, ups, voice mail



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