Is the fortune really in the follow up?

Did you know that 48% of salespeople never make a single follow up? (Invesp) Which seems all kinds of crazy if you consider just how hard most salespeople are working to find qualified leads in the first place. And seems even more odd if you've listened to the Selling to Corporate ? podcast in recent years - because you know that I'm all about that follow up life!

But why is following up with corporate prospects so difficult? And are we really losing out on much if we just don't bother?

The problem is, that not every stakeholder is a unicorn...

Here's the thing, stakeholders who (when first approached) are already;

• Looking for support with your area of expertise
• Allocating/ have allocated a budget for that particular area

Are a) ready to buy and b) incredibly rare.

(And if you're someone who is amazing at finding stakeholders at that perfect time, every time? Well you're rarer than the proverbial rocking horse...)

Unfortunately, most people don't enjoy the sales process - and so when they don't hear back immediately from a stakeholder? They decide that following up would be awkward - and so they go looking for a different stakeholder who might hold unicorn status.

Ultimately this cycle of spending hours sourcing good quality leads only to 'bin them off' if they're not immediately fruitful, is time consuming and not usually supportive of predictable revenue.

So what are the main reasons that we avoid following up with prospects?

1. Not knowing what to say.
2. Not knowing when to follow up without seeming desperate.
3. Hating being ghosted - and wanting to avoid further rejection.
4. Not feeling like there's time to follow up with anyone on top of other business activities.

How and when should we be following up with corporate clients?

The main reason people give for not following up with prospects, is that they're not sure how to do it... and they don't know when to do it in case they look desperate for a sale.

Years ago, I knew a salesperson who was about to make their first sale. They were excited - and they were finding it really difficult on 'decision day' to stop themselves from contacting the client.

Now, to give this some context, this particular client had been super responsive the whole way through the sales process. They were the main decision maker, held the budget and had worked with the company previously so had a positive relationship with the company (and by extension, this salesperson) so it was as much of a 'shoo-in' as you can possibly find.

Anyway, this new salesperson was so keen to get the client to commit to the decision on the date that they'd given us, that they decided to follow up at 8am. Not a problem! The client wasn't at their desk... so the salesperson left a voicemail and promised to call back later.

And call back, the salesperson did. 16 times in fact. Leaving a voicemail every single time.

As you can imagine, the client got back to their desk to all of these messages and rightly questioned whether or not this salesperson was harassing them, rather than innocently chasing a sale.

Lack of experience combined with the desire to make the sale, really scuppered that salesperson. And whilst they landed that sale? They stopped working for the company shortly after... because that wasn't the impression that the company wanted clients to have.

So if that's the wrong approach.. what should we be doing instead?

Well - let's first bear in mind that the sales process has a few parts. At Selling to Corporate ? we've defined this process as;

If we use this process as a backdrop, we can see that there are multiple phases of the sales process where follow ups might be useful. The Lead Generation, Business Development, Offers and Proposals and Delivery and Resell phases.

Unfortunately, having follow ups in each of those phases means that we don't always follow up in the same way or on the same timeline. Different stages of the sales process will require you to define the follow up timeframe... for example, if you've left a proposal with a prospect, they should know when that proposal is going to expire (and you should have a clear follow up plan in place to make sure you're checking in before the proposal hits the deadline and becomes invalid.)

The one thing that does need to stay the same for follow ups however, is the courtesy that they're sent with. It's a very different experience for a stakeholder to feel your frustrations about them not getting back to you vs a stakeholder that you've consistently chased politely and who genuinely wants to get back to you but hasn't had the time/ any update internally on a situation/ got the need just yet.

For example;

Courteous Follow Up Example;

Hi NAME

I hope you're well.

I wanted to follow up on [WHATEVER YOU'RE CHASING] and see if there was anything I could do to support moving the process forward?

Let me know if you have any questions and I'll be happy to help

[SIGN OFF]

vs

Frustrated Follow Up Example;

Hi NAME

I've tried calling but you haven't come back to me. I'm keen to hear whether or not PROCESS is moving forward.

Is there anything I can do to help?

[SIGN OFF]

On the surface of it, the two don't look super different... but one of them politely reminds a stakeholder that you're chasing for something and offers support in a useful way... whereas the other blames the stakeholder for having other priorities and the offer of 'help' feels very one-sided; like it'll only be given to make sure the sale goes through.

Following up appropriately is a skill - and it's one of the reasons that we give such clear templates inside The C Suite ? Self Study for all scenarios (including proposal follow ups, lead generation follow ups and generalised keep in touches to help avoid being ghosted!)

If we're talking about getting ghosted... why do stakeholders avoid us?

As we now know, there are multiple parts of the B2B sales process where we'll need to follow up. Which usually means that there are also multiple parts of the B2B sales process where stakeholders may feel more comfortable in avoiding communication from us!

Areas like the Lead Generation stage for example; if a stakeholder doesn't have a prior relationship with you (and they're not a unicorn!) then they may not feel any need to communicate with you.

Of course, it seems short-sighted to us as salespeople because eventually they will need support in our area of specialism... but we're often easily fobbed off with basic communications like;

'We'll keep you on file'

'We'll get in touch with you when we need something'

Or, my personal favourite (that indicates they'll never be approaching you!)

'Have you got a one-pager you can send across and we'll contact you later when we need something?'

(For reference, you should not be sending one-pagers ever. You are not a takeaway. You do not have a generalised menu. As service providers, we always strive to support companies with their specific problems - not a generalised sheet of possibilities!)

Most stakeholders ghost because they either a) don't have an immediate need or b) don't have time to respond to all the cold pitches that they get.

Which means that following up well in the Lead Generation piece is integral.

Having well crafted, polite follow ups will indicate to a stakeholder that you're unlikely to 'drop' the process. If you're demonstrating useful traits (like persistence, politeness and proactiveness) early on in your working relationship, it signals that you'd have those traits throughout any sales process that they might undertake with you. And that's a positive thing!

Following up when stakeholders don't have an immediate need requires a different follow up style. Those who've listened to the Selling to Corporate ? podcast or who are inside The C Suite ? Self Study, will hear me refer to it as 'keeping in touch'.

Keep in touch messages are the ones we send once a stakeholder has been through our Lead Generation cycle... and if they didn't have an immediate need/ ghosted us entirely... we send out keep in touch messages to help stay top of mind and remind them of the value we could add to the process!

'But Jess, I don't have time to do all these follow ups on top of everything else I'm doing...'

Then can I ask you a quick question?

How much business are you leaving on the table every year because you didn't make time to do your follow ups?

Take a look at a couple of examples;

These people followed our proven B2B sales process and the follow up strategies in two separate areas of the sales process; Lead Generation and Delivery + Resell; both maximised their ROI by doing so and ending up in confirmed sales.

Just think... if they hadn't followed up?

Those sales wouldn't have happened.

And it's the same for you - if you're not following up in all areas of your sales processes? Your competitors will be (well 52% of them anyway!) meaning that you'll simply spend hours generating leads that only pay off once... or never at all!

Which is up to you naturally. But there are simple and quick ways of generating B2B revenue (and following up regularly is one of those ways) and tasks that you're probably wasting a lot of time on that don't lead to revenue (like creating endless content that corporate clients don't need in order to buy from you!)

In a sales landscape where we know that 80% of sales require 5 follow ups (Invesp) you cannot afford to be skipping out and avoiding doing them... so make sure that you dedicate clear diary time and headspace to understanding how to create useful follow ups that generate steady revenue (and see your B2B sales soar!)

And if you're not sure how to create follow ups that generate consistent business development calls and revenue? Join The C Suite ? Self Study now. The professionally accredited B2B sales course that will teach you how to;

• Get clarity on your ideal corporate client, set your own metrics and KPI's so that you can build a predictable sales pipeline.
• Generate high quality leads using proven strategies and templates that meet your personality style and available work time.
• Manage the business development process to create great working relationships with corporate stakeholders that keep you out of the 'friend zone' and into the 'consistently paid' arena.
• Create and price solutions for corporate clients that meet their needs - and use proven proposal templates and trainings to articulate your offer so that you make consistent sales!
• Deliver like a pro - and leverage existing relationships to generate immediate revenue and upsell without feeling awkward or sleazy.

Plus all of our epic bonus trainings to help you navigate retainers, licensing products/ services and scaling your business too!

If you want to learn how to successfully and sustainably sell your services to corporate organisations, check out the?Selling to Corporate ? podcast here ?where you can find B2B sales tips, techniques and trends every fortnight. Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and all major podcast players.

Jessica Lorimer is the UK's leading sales coach for entrepreneurs selling their services to corporate organisations. Jessica regularly provides insights on sales strategy and techniques on her award nominated podcast;?Selling to Corporate ?and has been featured in Forbes, City AM and We Are The City.