The Fortune is in the Follow Up

When it comes to sales or business, I have heard the question, "What is your superpower?"

At times I feel I am not sure how to answer that. I think that many sales and business professionals succeed because they simply do the fundamentals well. And they are consistent in doing them.

Do Vendors Follow Up with You?

I recently had about four or so tree companies come to my property to evaluate what it would take to cut down 12-18 trees, most of them large with some topping out at over 100 feet. These Maple, Oak and Pine trees were too big or close to my house or power line for me to handle myself, so I called in the experts to compare how they would do it and how much it would cost.

Maybe they will follow up more as time goes on, but as of now, the correspondence following the initial walk around has been minimal. If I call them, yes, they have been nice enough to return my call. And one company did text me to let me know they sent the quote. But that is the extent of it for now.

Being Annoying versus Quality Communication

When it comes to outreach, some in sales may say, "I just talked to them last week, I do not want to be annoying." Follow up frequency has to be contextualized. If you are calling someone every week, who clearly has no interest in buying any time soon, then yes you are annoying. But if you have an active opportunity with a prospect or customer, and you have been discussing various options and timelines, then a week may be too long.

How do you figure out what communication cadence is right? There is no formula, unfortunately. I think it comes down to common sense, what you have agreed on with the client and some level of emotional intelligence. Sidenote, I definitely recommend Jeb Blount 's book, Sales EQ, if you are interested in learning more about emotional intelligence.

It is Your Job to Follow Up... Especially in the Construction Industry

As I work with industry veterans that have been selling for about as long as I have been alive, I am realizing that passivity can be detrimental. There is a time and a place to move on from those that will not work with you. But again, context is everything.

In the construction world, owners, estimators, PMs, IT people and more are bogged down with daily tasks and responsibilities. I have talked to customers who had to shorten meetings because of a workplace accident. Owners of smaller companies may do the estimating and bidding in addition to driving around to their job sites. When describing these people's work lives, BUSY is an understatement.

The passive approach would say... they are busy, I do not want to interrupt. But quality follow up seeks to add value.

For instance, the other day, I received confirmation that a prospect wanted to move forward. I sent him a quote, but he was having issues with signing the digital copy. I called him and his accounting contact, and we discussed the issue, so I resent a new quote, and he responded that he was on the road and would sign it the next day. The timing was important because he was using a 30-day rental of our software, and the expiration day was approaching. By midday the next day I had not heard anything, so I called again. He answered and said, "I have to sign this thing, don't I?" We talked briefly, ended the call and within a few minutes the signed quote was returned.

He was busy, he wanted the software, but his list of responsibilities as the owner had him doing so many things that signing the quote may have not been the first thing he accomplished that day. My job was to help him take care of this. My job was to follow up.

Neglect Kills Deals

I saw this article years ago titled, Shocking: 70 Percent of Customers are Lost From Neglect - by Jeb Blount. The statistic is somewhat shocking as the title describes, but not overly surprising. I recommend reading it if you have a few minutes, but the premise is that business is lost all the time simply due to not following up. It may be hard to admit that a customer left because an organization simply ignored them, but maybe that is the truth. Maybe price is not the issue, maybe they still love the product, but they lack the relationship needed to be loyal to a company. In short, they feel neglected.

Whether you own a business or are in sales, work in construction or another industry, the lesson holds true: neglecting customers and prospects is harmful to your success. Again, this seems like common sense, and it is. Yet it happens all the time. The fortune is in the follow up.

Note: I'm not sure where the phrase "The Fortune is in the Follow Up" originated, but I got it from a friend/realtor, Chris Powles .