For the Love of God, Stop Just Checking In!

It happened to me again.

I get to my office; I pour myself a nice cup of coffee, sit down at my desk, turn on my computer and get ready to start a nice productive day, and guess what I see? No less than six emails and four voicemails starting with, "Just checking in."

It is 2021 and as a group of professional salespeople, let us all agree to stop using this phrase. While we are at it, why don't we also remove the sentence, "Just touching base."

You Must Have a Reason to Call

Anytime you pick up the phone and call a customer or a prospect, you must always have a compelling reason to call them.

No, "just checking in" is not a compelling reason.

You need to be able to provide something of value to your customer or prospect. Doing this helps you solidify yourself as an expert or?trusted advisor instead of an annoying salesperson.

Bring Something of Value to the Conversation

I am always on the hunt for new technology in the sales space, and I usually find myself on demos to see new products.

A handful of months back, I sat in on a demo of a sales automation product. I let the sales rep know that I was in the early stages of looking and would not be making a decision till late in 2018. This morning, I received a call from them that went like this.

Sales Rep - "Hi Russell, I was just checking in to see if you made any progress on looking at sales automation tools."

Me - "No, as I said, I am still a handful of months away from this."

Sales Rep - "OK, well, you know what we have to offer, and I am here to help you when you are ready."

Click - Call over

Are these the kinds of conversations you are having with your customers/prospects?

Instead of "just checking in," what could they have done differently that would have added value to the call?

• Tell me about how a competitor of ours who is using the tool.
• Let me know about new features that are on the roadmap that might be of interest.
• Re-establish the value they bring to the table and remind them of the “pain points” they got from me on our first meeting.

All of these pieces of information would be valuable to me and might lead me to look more at their product.

Welcome to Call Purgatory

This is a standard-issue that many sales professionals find themselves in.

They have a handful of calls or demos with the customer, and they think things are going great. But, unfortunately, they never set a defined next step, which puts them in call purgatory.

Without a next step, you find yourself waiting for the customer to make the next move. This leads to the "just checking in" calls and ends up getting your prospect upset with you and maybe even pushing them away. Next thing you know, they stop taking your calls, and the deal is dead.

So What Do I Do About This?

When building a business relationship, you are selling something, either a product or a service. Moreover, it would be best if you were on the lookout for ways to add value to the final product.

For example, if you are trying to sell someone a sales automation tool, a link to an article about why companies would use a solution such as this would be useful to your prospect. These types of collateral are easy to find and send, and your prospect will appreciate it; most of the time, the work you put into this will make their life a bit easier.

There are many reasons why you should reach out to a customer or a prospect. However, not all of them will provide value, and in fact, some will make them less likely to want to have conversations with you in the future. So the next time you make a call to a customer or a prospect, and you let the dreaded words slip out, “I am checking in” or “touching base,” push yourself to have another purpose that brings value to the call.

Love the post? Hate the post? Have other ideas? Please leave a comment below or share.

Questions

• How many times a day do you use the phrase, "Just checking in"?
• What items of value have do you provide to your customer when you call them?
• Do you have deals that are in call purgatory?