How to Increase Sales without Increasing Your Ad Budget

Want to sell more without spending more? Start with better follow-up.

By Michael Pedoner
SalesBuzz.com

In the current economy, most company’s sales numbers are down. Salespeople blame this on lower quality leads and poor results from cold calling. Fair enough.

But with marketing budgets unlikely to increase anytime soon, sales teams today have to be more relentless in their follow-up process. In short, they need a follow-up plan and the skills to carry it out – something they may have slid by without during fat times.

Leads follow-up: How NOT to do it

Here’s an example of what I’d call weak follow up. These are actual time stamps from a new SalesBuzz.com client – printed here with permission.

New Inbound Internet Lead: 7/2/2009 12:37 PM

First Contact Attempt: 7/2/2009 2:30 PM
Type: Call
Result: Left Voice Mail

Second Contact Attempt: 7/2/2009 5:08 PM
Type: Emailr
Result: None

Third Contact Attempt: 7/8/2009 3:21 PM
Type: Email (Same content as previous email sent a week earlier)
Result: None

Fourth Contact Attempt: NONE

In case it isn’t obvious, salespeople who make mediocre, half-hearted attempts to land new business are likely to be severely disappointed.

The best way to get the most out of sales reps is to give them a proven game plan that’s easy to follow and yields immediate positive results. And this is true when teaching them follow-up or any other skills. You wouldn’t have a rep start a sales call without a process to follow. Well, they need the same structure and guidance for follow-ups too.

Leads follow-up: A better approach

Starting with the example above, here’s what an effective follow-up process might look like:

New Inbound Internet Lead: 7/2/2009 12:37 PM

First Contact Attempt: 7/2/2009 2:30 PM
Type: Call
Result:
• Got voicemail. Left voice message and hit 0 for operator.
• Spoke with Gatekeeper. Got some background info on (Lead Name), what they do there and why they may need our service.
• Asked Gatekeeper to page (Lead Name). No answer. Asked Gatekeeper if she would be kind enough to give (Lead Name) a hand written note regarding (message that creates interest and not resistance).
• Also fired off an email with an enticing reason to email/call me back.

Second Contact Attempt: 7/2/2009 3:38 PM
Type: Callr
Result:
• Got voicemail again. Did not leave message. Hit 0 for operator.
• Let Gatekeeper know I know she is super busy and was really grateful for her time and asked her to try and hand (Lead Name) a note.
• She wasn’t successful as she had not seen (lead name) yet but promised she would keep an eye out.

Third Contact Attempt: 7/2/2009 5:28 PM
Type: Callr
Result:
• (Lead Name) answered phone.
• She had received email and note from Gatekeeper.
• Was able to qualify and convert to an opportunity and is now in the pipeline.

Having a process in place – one that’s easy to follow and known to work – makes a huge difference. The reality of today’s market is that salespeople are going to have to work smarter just to make what they used to earn back on easy street.

But the good news is, for those sales teams that learn and develop better sales habits now, when the economy improves, their sales will skyrocket!