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Present, Then Follow-Up

The Ask | | Tom Suddes

I had a chance last week to be with the COLORADO COLLEGE SALES TEAM. They’re on fire and doing a great job.

One of the issues/challenges that came up was around the FOLLOW-UP LETTER … and then the FOLLOW-UP PHONE CALL or VISIT.

What follows is a relatively SIMPLE way to look at this 3 STEP PROCESS.
I hope it helps.

P.S. It won’t help at all if you’re not actually making the VISIT/ PRESENTATION in the first place! JUST ASK!

COMMENSURATE COMMITMENTS
THE BIG 3

IN THE COMMITMENT PROCESS
EACH OF THESE HAS EQUAL WEIGHT (IMPORTANCE)!!!

PRESENT
THE OPPORTUNITY
FOLLOW-UP
(Letter)
FOLLOW-UP
(Phone/Visit)
Pretty self-explanatory. Get the ‘DOLLARS IN THE BUCKET’ (an AREA OF INTEREST and an AMOUNT). Use the PRESENTATION FLOW around:

  • OPEN.
  • DIALOGUE.
  • OPPORTUNITY.
This is the place to SUMMARIZE … CONFIRM THE OPPORTUNITY PRESENTED … and CONFIRM PHONE/VISIT FOLLOW-UP DATE.

This is a wonderful place to cover:

  1. ‘Things you MISSED’ on the visit.
  2. ‘Things you DISCOVERED’ on the visit.
  3. ‘Respond to QUESTIONS’ (feedback) from visit.

The key here is to be both AUTHENTIC and PERSONAL (custom).

Going through all the work and challenges of getting the visit and making the visit … and NOT doing this PHONE/VISIT FOLLOW-UP is not only WRONG, it is DISRESPECTFUL and a DISSERVICE to the person you’ve visited!

The (obvious) GOALS:

  1. ‘DOLLARS’ in the BANK’.
  2. A COMMENSURATE COMMITMENT.
  3. MAXIMIZE the RELATIONSHIP.

The beauty of this model is that by FOLLOWING-UP … IN WRITING … with a DATE for the phone/visit FOLLOW-UP makes it really hard NOT to do the follow-up!!

P.S. Take it from someone who has made over 6,000 presentations: The LONGER you WAIT before you send the FOLLOW-UP LETTER … the weaker the response (yours and theirs)!!! ‘Git ‘er done!’