by Toni Foyer

Created on: October 09, 2009

How can you make a follow-up call with great results? Its easy. Its all about asking your potential customer the right questions with the intention of piquing their interest and them understanding the benefit of your product or service. Just as food gets cold just sitting around, customers lose interest very easily if sales people fail to make their daily follow-up calls.

The first cold call is always awkward and tends to lead to just sending out information. But, its the follow-up call that starts the repoire between the sales person and the prospect. With the follow-up call, you should always bridge the last conversatiion to the current phone conversation. For instance, one effective statement you can make is I'm calling to discuss the information I sent to you and see if it makes sense for us to work together? This question allows for many answers besides a simple yes or no and gives the customer the chance to explain what their needs are at that time.

Continue with the conversation with compelling statements about the product/service whether there has been changes, increase in sales or interest for this product/service and how its been benefiting other companies. Also, another way to keep the customer interested is to discuss something that maybe newsworthy that applies to them or their business.

When conducting follow-up calls, open-ended questions need to be asked by the salesperson to determine if the service/product is right for this customer. Here are some suggested questions to ask while performing a follow-up call:

1.What do you look for in a vendor?

2.What are some of your biggest headaches?

3. How do you feel this service or product can benefit you?

4. If used before, what were the results?

5.What other information or details can I provide you?

To make sure communication was clear; the salesperson should always summarize the customer's response of these questions to show comprehension. These questions not only offer responses which create a better understanding of your customer but also whether or not they are someone that would be the right customer for you.

Follow-up calls often get lost in the shuffle with the daily grind of sales but these calls are critical. The purpose is to keep the interest going with the potential customer and not to have them fall through the cracks when they could potentially be a sale. Too often sales people are reluctant to continually follow-up because it makes them uncomfortable. If the potential customer wasn't warm or receptive on the first call, sales professionals push them aside and concentrate on their new leads. However, this is a huge mistake. If an organized follow-up plan is developed and maintained, there will be an increase in successful sales and less frustration.

Learn more about this author, Toni Foyer.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.