Are you Following Up enough

  I have had an interesting week and have spent a bit of time with a number of franchisees.

I massively enjoy talking to you all and always come away with some new thinking, or something happens that acts as a reminder for me.

I was chatting to a small group saying how pissed off I get when you put in a quote and then you never hear again.

Well that had happened to me a few times over the last couple of weeks – a couple of nice quotes had been put forward after following my structured process and then radio silence.

For some reason some prospects seem to have access to the “witness protection scheme”…… uncontactable.

And the fact was I had followed up more than a few times on each…… and got nothing back.

However, following my trip I was determined to get an answer and find out why they hadn’t purchased from us.

I was determined to ensure that I either got a return for my time investment by getting a “yes” or I found out the reason they had not moved forward.

Happily I can confirm that both quotes will be moving forward but others things had got in the way………. They wanted the work but it wasn’t a priority…!

BINGO – 2 jobs that I had virtually writhen off where back on track.

BUT THERE IS MORE…………

During one of the conversations we also joked how customer request a quote urgently, sit on it for weeks and then ring up and want it done yesterday….. I am sure we have all experienced this?

Well in this case it was a National Account job that had been quoted and weeks later no news. In chatting I uncovered that the work required by the customer was essential as there was a public health issue and customer brand reputation risk.

So, I raised my personal concerns with the customer to stress the importance of getting the work done – and the next day it was approved!!!

The learning here is that it our responsibility to highlight the risk of not getting the work done and not assume that they understand. In my email I asked for action to be taken in their best interests otherwise I would need to speak to the CEO of National Account!!!

It is YOUR (OUR) RESPONSIBILITY to make it clear to the customer the potential consequence of NOT doing the work you recommend. It is not about making the Sales it is providing the right service and doing the right thing for the customer.

You just might need to shout louder is some cases.

 

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