Never Forget to Make a Sales Call Again

Sales people rarely contact me when they should

When I was a buyer, I was often contacted by sales people at the wrong time. I would often tell people that I was reviewing my supply base for what they were offering at a certain time of the year. I would tell them to contact me then.

Guess how many people actually followed up when they should?

It was less than 10%. I had given people a positive response to their approach and told them when to contact me. So why did they fail to follow up on a possible lead? Some may have moved companies (but should have still contacted me). Some may have thought I was trying to put them off (but they should have still called to check). Others must have simply forgotten.

I never forget to make a sales call – here’s why

I don’t have a fancy CRM system. But I do have a sales diary. A sales diary is often much simpler to use than a more involved system. I use an app called Todoist. There are plenty of other alternative task lists.

Every time I have a new sales prospect I make a task with their name. I set the date for when I next need to make contact. I may add some other reminder notes on what we have said already. But the emphasis is on being quick and fast.

Here’s the secret to my system

I never mark a sales task as complete. If I make a contact, I simply change the date of the task to the date when I need to make the next contact.

With this system, no-one ever falls off my list unless I decide that I don’t want to contact them anymore.

I am quite relieved few sales people applied this system when I was a buyer

I would have had a lot more calls to deal with!

How do you know what you should be doing to convert more prospects?

“How To Succeed At Print Sales” tells you all you need to know about practical sales planning. Check it out: https://profitableprintrelationships.com/online-training-resources/how-to-succeed-at-print-sales/

Also download my free e-book “Ten Common Print Selling Errors and What To Do About Them” right now at https://profitableprintrelationships.com/e-book/ You’ll also receive my regular “Views from the print buyer” bulletin, full of ideas on how to sell print effectively. It’s free and you can unsubscribe at any time.

The preceding content was provided by a contributor unaffiliated with Printing Impressions. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of Printing Impressions. Artificial Intelligence may have been used in part to create or edit this content.