Helping Customers Move Forward

Guest post by: Richardson
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Testing the follow-up on great content-marketing campaigns: Most companies fall flat - By Richardson

Scenario #1: Good News/Bad News

Your prospect is clearly interested and has requested a short proposal in advance of a face-to-face meeting. You sent the short proposal. In your follow-up phone call (prior to meeting the prospect) you got good and bad news: the prospect loved the proposal and wants to go forward, but not until the third quarter of 2010. There was one more trace of good news: the prospect wants to do something now to plant the seeds for the third-quarter initiative. You floated the idea of an interim step which the prospect responded well to. He suggested that you talk in two weeks after he discusses the idea with his team. You set a specific time for the next call.

Clearly you will wait two weeks and make the follow-up call. You will also send a thank you summary and e-mail today. What else can you do to move things along?

Scenario #2: Slow to Act

The prospect is ready to move forward. She tells you she is going to forward a summary of your proposal to her executive team with a cover e-mail explaining this is the direction she is recommending and she would like their input so they feel they have control. She says she will get back with you in about a week with their response. But you know this prospect is very busy and often does not follow up or execute on time.

What can you do to be "helpful" to these prospects - and yourself? You can make buying easy for them.

Prospect #1

Ask if it would help if you drafted up a summary of the interim step to use in discussing with his team before your next call with him. Probe the team. Ask if there are any team members you might meet or speak with.

Prospect #2

Say something like, "I know how busy you are. Would it help if I took a shot at developing a draft of the cover e-mail and summary of the proposal for you as a start?"

The idea is to use every opportunity to take the workload related to moving a deal forward from your prospects or the customers to you where you can be in control not only of the positioning but the timing. Certainly you don't want to overstep your boundaries or appear presumptuous but an offer to help is very often met with appreciation if the prospect is really interested in the next step.

If prospect #1 declined your offer (which most won't!), at the very least you have your material ready to e-mail vs. having to prepare and then send the information post-phone call, and then try to get the prospect back on the phone.

Seize every chance to move an opportunity forward more quickly by asking questions, getting the information you need, and make the next step to closing happen.

Linda Richardson is a New York Times Best Selling Author and founder of leading Sales Training ompany, Richardson (http://www.richardson.com)

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Testing the follow-up on great content-marketing campaigns: Most companies fall flat - By Richardson

About the Author: Richardson

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Linda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web
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