Here’s How Spending Time on Your Phone Can Help Close Sales

It’s a new year, and everyone is in the resolution list-making frame of mind. No better time to reflect on your business development processes, and remind ourselves of some best practices when it comes to sales follow-ups.

When we think of motivational speakers, the first visual that comes to mind is usually a slick-suited salesman running around a well-lit stage, arms flailing, encouraging the crowd to experience that transformative moment when their once-mediocre lives will be flung into the world of riches, power and success – courtesy of the revolutionary advice he’s imparting on them for a nominal fee, of course.

Now that you have that visual in your mind, please completely clear it. Jack Daly is anything but. As a widely acclaimed sales speaker and entrepreneur, Jack has developed a reputation as an expert in sales and sales management inspiring audiences to take action in customer loyalty and personal motivation. At his seminars, Jack leaves attendees with a number of key takeaways, however the one that particularly stuck with me was the art of follow-up.

Jack shares his perspective on what you can do to be memorable in your follow-up and why immediate follow-up is so important – prospects are more likely to choose the firm that responded the fastest.

Here are 3 tips from Jack:

1. Email the minute you leave the meeting – Once you’ve left a meeting with a new prospect, vendor, partner – essentially any new contact – send an immediate follow-up email. If you've met multiple contacts at once, send an individual and personally tailored email to each. The more individualized the better, don't simply plug names into a form message.

2. Send a personalized card in the mail – Don’t stop at an email. Take a moment to write (by hand) and mail a personal card. The note should reinforce the sentiment you want to share and include brand signals – e.g. personalized cards, envelopes, a specific type of pen, stamp, etc.

3. Keep in touch even if there isn’t an immediate business opportunity – In sales and marketing (particularly in B2B) a high-touch, personalized approach is most effective. For prospects and past customers, it’s essential to maintain a relationship even if you aren’t actively discussing potential work. This can be as simple as sending a birthday or anniversary card. The key is to make it personal, something that prospects or past customer wouldn’t expect you to remember.

We live in an increasingly competitive marketplace; the more we can differentiate ourselves the better. In addition to having a well-defined competitive advantage, we should conduct ourselves in a manner that sets us apart.