One of my favorite things to do is talk with a prospective customer. It gives me a chance to meet a new person, find out about a new business and maybe make a sale. Often that first phone call is just the beginning of a long follow-up process.

Successful sales activities rely on a follow-up process consisting of a series of steps you take after every call to ensure the prospective customer feels valued and confident that you can deliver what they are looking for. So what’s in your follow-up process? Do you have information you routinely send along with a follow-up note?

Do you send email drip campaigns to stay in front of the prospective customers? And when do you make the follow-up call, send a formal proposal, and most importantly close the sale?

Follow-Up with an Auto-Response campaign.

One of the most effective tools in your follow-up kit is an auto-response campaign. This is a series of messages sent to a prospective customer after an initial conversation. These messages are delivered on a predetermined schedule and each contains information designed to nudge the prospective customer toward the purchase.

How often should you send an email?

Frequency of emails will depend on your industry. If you are selling a replacement furnace or air conditioner, you probably want to send a message every day for three days. Why? Because when a furnace isn’t working, people aren’t going to shop around for weeks. They will make the decision quickly, For a home remodeling contractor, you might want to send a message every two weeks filled with examples of your work, interior design tips, and links to customer testimonials.

What type of information should be included in your auto-response campaign?

You want the information you send to be “evergreen.” That means it needs to be relevant and interesting all year long. Since you will send the same campaign to each prospect, the information needs to be general enough to apply to all customers or you may need to develop a series of auto response campaigns each containing information for a particular segment of your community.

Don’t Forget the Phone Call

Picking up the phone to call a prospect can be daunting. “What if they don’t like me?” While this is especially challenging if you are under 35 and didn’t grow up with a telephone (a real phone, not that computer thing we carry around today), it is tough at any age.

My advice, get your mindset right, have a plan, and dive in. Remember that you have a solution to their problem, so they will want to hear what you have to say. Have a script, or at least bullet points to guide the calls. If you have been sending helpful information via your auto response campaign, you can start the conversation by asking if the information was helpful. Your goal is to keep the prospect talking and building more of a relationship. Commit to making a few calls every day. I promise the more you do, the more comfortable you will be.