Every summer I write a blog post about why you shouldn’t get lazy with your prospecting initiatives through the summer. I could just re-post last years, but I truly feel it warrants revisiting annually. This post isn’t about summer cold calling though, it’s about following up effectively with prospects that are already in your funnel. If you’re daydreaming about the cottage and allowing your follow up activities to pile up and go overdue, you’re going to throw off your success in the fall, so don’t do it.
Every time you “take a break” from the phone for a month, you lose a full quarter of opportunity. Taking a break just throws a wrench into your whole year’s productivity. Each dial you made leading up to the summer should have you one step closer to an opportunity, or one step closer to disqualification. Every dial you make that doesn’t end with you disqualifying a lead should have a follow up activity associated to it and scheduled on your calendar. Assuming you have been prospecting properly – which means you’re scheduling appropriate follow up activities – you should still have plenty to do this summer even before you make even one cold dial. Clear out your follow ups daily!
Do you have a documented process that you or your team follows that outlines how and when you follow up on each different call outcome? You should! (We can help with that, just email hello@managedsalespros.com if you want to learn more about creating and documenting sales prospecting process!)
Most of the time, the difference between a new opportunity and a lost deal is timing. If you’re ignoring your follow up process, you’re going to miss new sales opportunities. While you may believe you remember which of your leads are hot and which can wait, I guarantee you that if you’re making 100 dials a day, you’re not going to remember everything. That’s what makes process and documentation so essential.
Every lead you touch should have an action item associated to it. Those action items are timed based on sales triggers like contract renewals, and should be worked around things like your prospect’s vacation times. If you’re following up effectively, you should know when your hot prospects are out of the office, because you interact with them regularly enough to have that information – and you document it. You don’t waste calls when your follow up process is being followed as outlined, you know what the next step is, and you know when to complete it – there’s no guesswork involved. Proper documentation and process means you have a summer full of discussions, not a summer of frustration as you miss your window to reach your prospect.
Ignoring your follow up means you’re ignoring a carefully developed process built around sales timelines, and that means winning fewer deals. Remember – you’re not the only person pursuing your prospects – you need to be top of mind at all times – even during the summer.
Want to read previous posts I’ve written on prospecting in the summer? I’ve linked to them below:
Talkin’ Cloud: 3 Approaches to Summer Prospecting
Smarter MSP: Hot Tips for Cold Calling in the Summer
ColdCalls.ca: Summer is No Time To Relax!
And here’s a picture of my kids surfing Jobos Beach, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. Because surfing.
