by Shawn Grundy

Created on: October 03, 2008   Last Updated: June 22, 2009

As a sales professional, prospect follow-up is one of the most important skills that you can master and if done correctly can be the difference between a good career and a great career. As important as this sounds, you would automatically assume that every salesperson is great at it then, right? Unfortunately, this couldn't be farther from the truth. Actually, if you look at the absolute best salespeople you will find that their population only constitutes about 10% of all salespeople. In a lot of cases, it is a good prospect follow-up regiment that puts them in the upper echelon.

Email is a very integral part of those successful follow-up routines. What successful people understand, that most do not is that email is a magnificent SUPPLEMENTAL tool in their complex follow-up plans. It is NOT a substitute for a phone call or human contact. If you use email as your only follow-up tool, your closing percentage from your prospect pipeline will be minimal at best.

Before going further, let's define what I mean by "prospect" in this article. Prospect is a broad term that points to any possible candidate who may benefit from the purchase of your product or services. That's the general definition. Prospect in this article would be more pointed toward those where initial contact and some qualification has already taken place. You've determined that the prospect first of all has a need for your product or service, and secondly is able to purchase if they make the decision to do so.

Back to using email as a means to follow up with prospects. Email can be an extremely powerful and positive tool if used correctly. If used incorrectly, it can and will cost you sales. Email was meant to be a quicker way to send communication if your intention was to send the communication via snail mail. It was never meant to be and should never be used as a substitute for a phone call, unless there is information that you absolutely have to get to someone and for whatever reason they can't get to a phone. Of course, if you and the prospect agree to it ahead of time it can be acceptable also. For instance, you have taken away a few questions that your prospect had in which you could not answer without some research first. You obviously want to get these answers to them as fast as possible, but at the same time, these answers could provide a great reason to contact the prospect by phone, creating a situation where you can at least attempt to close. Not many sales are closed by emails. If you tell the prospect that you will get the answers and call them right away, and they stop you and ask that you send them via email then of course, by all means send the email. In order to close the sale, though, you will need to speak with them eventually so it's always a good idea to follow-up and make sure that they received the answers and that they understand what it was that you sent to them.

Email can be extremely powerful. A quick note just to say hey and ask how a prospect is doing or sending them some information about a company achievement is a great way to utilize this tool and can go a long long way. Just don't get caught up in the digital age and make the mistake of email being your primary means of communication.

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