Client Engagement + Sales: 48% aren't doing this…

Adele Spurgin

Engagement, convincing, motivation and influencing are part in parcel to the sales process yet often the emphasis is concentrated on sealing the deal instead of opening the relationship.

It’s written in the stats, you have heard it all before, the power of the follow up is probably one of the most under-utilised sales strategies ever. In fact according to the National Sales Executive Association a staggering 48% of sales people never follow up with a potential client. If that scary stat doesn’t stop you in your tracks, best you ask your sales people if they are the chosen ones!

So the question begs, if it is so powerful to follow up why do so few people engage in doing it?

Is it because of fear, is it because of lack of concern, is it work overload or is it complacency? Perhaps it is all of the above + a dose of “I don’t want to seem pushy” added to the mix.

One of the sales realities of life is that sadly not every potential customer is at the final point of purchase 100% of the time. Meaning not all sales are a case of: (a) customer in, (b) customer pays, (c) customers leaves happy with purchase - that would be sensational.

Engagement, convincing, motivation and influencing are part in parcel to the sales process yet often the emphasis is concentrated on sealing the deal instead of opening the relationship.

Humour me for a second and lets speak about sales as if in an ideal world.

Ideally the sales person has his or her eye on the potential customer, they have listened to them and they their best interests at heart. They want to be of service to them and understand what the customer wants. Quirky fact, did you know the word “sell” comes from the Norse word “Selja” which means - to serve, offer up and deliver?

How the sales person knows what the customer wants is by listening and then asking. Listening to what is being said to what problems are being shared. An exceptional sales person has phenomenal listening skills, which is backed up by a solid follow up strategy.

Here is thus my reason why sales people (or any person in any organisation for that matter, as we all are in sales, not just the sales people) don’t follow up…besides the fear of being knocked back, is this.  They don’t listen.

They don’t know how to listen effectively, and they don’t want to listen. They want to talk and sell because by talking some more “perhaps I can convince them”.  “If I can convince them, I am a good sales person”.

…..I like to say, “If I listen I am at an exceptional angle to create a transactional relationship”.

And because they don’t listen well enough and with enough depth they don’t have a conversation starter which can fuel the followup seamlessly. They don’t listen well enough which would assist them to ask a better quality question and they don’t listen well enough because they don’t know it is an integral part of sales process.

When you don’t listen, it is like having a sandwich with no filing. It is the cup of coffee without milk - it is the cake without any flour or eggs.

Listening is the key to golden sales, it is the gateway to greater sales relationships - because people will pay for their problems to be solved…if only the ones initiating the sale kept this front of mind.