by Jerry Z.
(California, USA)
If I could find or develop an easy to implement and consistently be able to accomplish follow-up system, my sales would grow at least 30% ...or more.
Something that would allow me to follow-up prospect "buys or dies", as the saying goes.
Answer
Hi Jerry,
a bit hard for me to comment as I don't know how many prospects you see and how often you need to follow up.
The system I used tended to evolve over the years.
At one time I had a series of 17 files. A file each for Jan, Feb etc, then 5 files labeled week 1 through to week 5.
When I came back to my desk after a sales day I'd review the notes I'd taken during the calls, mark out a list of to-dos and work out when I had to follow up and place a note in the relevant file.
For example, if I gave a customer a sample to test and he told me it would take 3 weeks to run the test and it was the first week of the month. I'd write a note saying "follow up with X re test on Y on date Z" and place it in week 4 file. If I had seen that customer in week 3, then I'd just put the note in next months file. At the start of the month I'd divide my follow ups and tasks into the weeks of the month.
At the end of week 1 (late Friday) I'd pull out the week 2 file and make sure all the follow ups were in my diary or weekly plan sheet for week 2.
Over the years I used electronic systems to do the same sort of thing. (I'll bet there's an iPhone App that could do it) I often wondered though if the fancy electronic systems were as good.
I guess it's just a matter of developing a system and then getting into a habit of following it.
Sales is all about habits. Develop enough good ones and you can't help but succeed.
Hope this helps, Greg
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