Grant Cardone’s 7 Simple Tips To Improve Sales Follow-Up
Xant Team
Read this article to find out more about sales influencer Grant Cardone’s seven simple tips to help you improve your sales follow up technique.
RELATED: Infographic: Sales Follow-Up Guide – How To Talk To Customers So They Listen
In this article:
- Who Is Grant Cardone?
- Why Should You Follow Up?
- How Do I Get My Reps to Follow Up?
- What Does Grant Recommend?
Seven Tips to Help Improve Your Sales Follow Up Technique
Who Is Grant Cardone?
What does it take to become a master of sales and transform your sales team into top performers?
Grant Cardone shared his thoughts on achieving sales greatness at XANT’s Sales Acceleration Summit, the world’s largest online sales summit.
Many people mistakenly believe that in order to be a great salesperson, you must be a fast talker or have a natural ability to read people.
That’s not true.
According to Grant Cardone, following up with your prospects is the difference-maker that will ensure you are the best in your space. And he should know.
Cardone is a “New York Times” bestselling author and leading authority on sales and entrepreneurship.
Why Should You Follow Up?
XANT conducted a lead response survey and determined that, on average, sales reps call a prospect only one or two times before giving up. Yet 80% of sales take five to 12 contacts.
This disconnect shows just how many opportunities are going to waste.
Even mortgage lenders find significant results when they conduct follow up emails and calls.
Whether you follow up through calls, email, or even through social media, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you followed up on your potential clients.
How Do I Get My Reps to Follow Up?
This question keeps managers up at night and leads to hair loss. Too many sales leaders struggle to get their reps to call their leads more often.
Some reasons why sales reps forget to follow-up is they get too busy and they forget. Another common reason (and mistake) why sales reps don’t follow-up is due to a misguided assumption.
They might think that customers will contact them by themselves. However, this shouldn’t be what sales reps rely on if they want to achieve their sales goals.
While many blame laziness, the culprit behind inconsistent follow-up is that many sales reps simply don’t know what to do or what to say.
What Does Grant Recommend?
Grant is a big believer in the power of follow-ups, so he shared seven simple tips to improve sales rep follow up:
1. Take Action
Planning is great, but eventually, you need to pick up the phone. According to a study, 48% of all salespeople don’t make the call.
This means that if you just start dialing, you’re already in the upper tier of sales professionals.
Having a proactive mindset is an essential skill for any sales professional. It’s not only vital during the follow-up phase, but it’s also crucial in every other part of the sales process.
Don’t wait until months pass before you follow-up on your client. Otherwise, you’re letting a great opportunity pass you by.
2. Frequency Leads to Greatness
As mentioned earlier, the vast majority of sales are done after the fourth call. After all, sales is all about repeated jabs instead of landing a knockout punch.
Therefore, reps should make five to 12 calls, not one or two.
The reason why frequency works so well is that it helps you get to know your leads. Aside from that, your clients had the opportunity to get to know you as well.
The frequency will help you figure out a client’s pain point. Therefore, you help yourself create a sales pitch that genuinely encapsulates the needs of your lead.
3. Get Regular
Grant emphasizes a regular regimen, sometimes referred to as a sales cadence.
Sales Cadence Definition: A sales cadence is a set of sequential activities you take depending on the lead.
Managers should outline in their CRM what sales activities their reps should be following over a designated period.
RELATED: 3 Best Practices For An Effective ABM Follow-Up Strategy
4. Don’t Wait Too Long
Far too many sales professionals wait too long to follow up and between follow-ups. XANT research has found that when sales reps respond within five minutes of an inquiry versus 30 minutes, they get a 21x uplift in qualifications.
Your fast response can help you connect with a lead who’s already interested in what you’re offering. People who inquire are further along the sales funnel, so they’re ready to buy compared to those who haven’t made an inquiry.
5. Be Creative
You need to find creative ways of reaching out to customers. It doesn’t always have to be a phone call or an email.
You can text, post on social media sites, send invitations to charity events, or offer referrals.
You should ask your client while you’re in a conversation with them their preferred form of contact. Once you know what they prefer, schedule the follow-up meeting with them then and there.
6. Have a Purpose
Salespeople often become an annoyance when they don’t have a clear purpose. Although the frequency is important, each attempt must come with a reason.
Make sure your follow-up questions make sense. Furthermore, make sure you aren’t asking questions you’ve already covered before.
If you’ve scheduled the follow-up beforehand, it becomes easier to tackle this problem. Since your prospect is already expecting you, you don’t have to try too hard to show that your follow-up has a purpose.
7. Leave a Message
Always leave a message when calling a prospect. Better yet, leave a message and an email.
Decision-makers are very busy, and leaving a message can set yourself apart from the many others fighting for their attention.
Aside from that, leaving messages can be a decent reminder about what you’ve covered before. An average person tends to be forgetful, so a brief rundown of what you just talked about is sure to be helpful.
You can watch Grant’s full presentation, or any of our other sales summit speakers, on-demand by registering today.
A sales follow-up is a crucial step that any great salesperson knows to take. It’s a simple way of showing that you care about the person on the other end of your sales pitch.
From developing a sales cadence to leaving messages, there are many simple, yet effective steps you can take to level up your follow-up strategy. Try them out with your next prospect soon to see what positive changes happen to your sales results.
Which of the tips above have you tried, and what were the results? Let us know by leaving a comment down below!
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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on March 18, 2016, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.