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Most important, follow up when promised ahead of time is
even better. Keep customers posted. If something will be late, call the
customer before he or she calls you. Alert customers to delays, apolo-
gize, and tell specifically what you will do and what the next step will
be. Show concern and a sense of urgency. Better yet, don t be late.
Keep your commitments! Ask the customer early on what he or she
expects, to clarify and help you meet expectations.
Following a sales call, get an e-mail out quickly to all decision mak-
ers. Tailor it to the needs and questions of the customers. Use voice
mail to concisely update or recap next steps and maintain contact.
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Copyright 2003 by Linda Richardson. Click Here for Terms of Use.
Use letters as appropriate as covers for proposals, etc.
When a decision is being made, stay close to the customer
through phone calls and e-mails and, when appropriate, face to face
throughout the decision period. If a deal is pending and you are
away, make sure your office can reach you ASAP or is prepared to
handle the call on your behalf. Call and e-mail your customers, main-
tain close contact, and find reasons to stay close during the decision
process.
To help you manage all relationships, put active and non-active
customers on an appropriate relationship follow-up schedule to
avoid the  out of sight out of mind syndrome. Follow up with cus-
tomers after meetings, after important events, before and after
implementation, and on special occasions (such as to wish them a
happy holiday).
Follow up internally to post your colleagues, thank them, and
also make sure no one has dropped the ball. Double-check with the
customer to gauge satisfaction. Leverage your team (specialists, sen-
iors, assistants).
Ban the words  Let me know &  and  Call me, from your follow-
up language. It is up to you to call your customers and to set specif-
ic next steps at the end of each contact.
To follow up to create a winning edge:
Have a system: Keep and use an active daily to-do. Check your to-
do to start and end each day.
Have a sense of urgency: Be appropriately relentless in getting
things done. Communicate this commitment to your customers.
Keep follow-up in your court: Don t expect your customers to do
your job.
 One of the best follow-up calls is the thank-you call. A
 thank you for the meeting call can lead to a  thank you
for the business call.
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Trust your instincts
Validate the
opportunity
Many salespeople trust their instincts about whether or not they
have a real, qualified opportunity. As helpful as  gut feelings are,
the best information must come from the key source the customer.
As logical as this sounds, it is surprising how many times salespeople
guide their deals by making assumptions and using information
they ve gotten primarily from themselves.
There are critical, tough questions that must be answered by cus-
tomers:  What is the customer s most compelling need?  What is
driving the opportunity?  What is the time frame?  Is there a com-
pelling event?  What budget has been allocated to the initiative?
 What is the decision criterion?  Who are the competitors?  How
do I rank?  What value do I bring?  What is my relationship?
 What is my level of access to the decision makers?  How does the
customer perceive my value and differentiation compared to my
competitors?
Salespeople make three classic mistakes in qualifying and assess-
ing opportunities:
They assume that they know the answers to vital questions.
They forget that deals change daily based on internal customer
changes and the competitive landscape and they don t change
their message and strategy.
They validate, they do it one time with one person.
Some salespeople delude themselves into thinking there is an
opportunity when there is none. Others may assume they don t have
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Copyright 2003 by Linda Richardson. Click Here for Terms of Use.
a chance when, in fact, they could win. Without validation, it is all
guesswork.
Validation is a perfect blending of six critical skills: presence,
relating, questioning, listening, positioning, and most important
checking. When you are validating, your goal is to understand how
customers think and, more important, to drill to a deeper level and
find out why they feel as they do.
So, for example, you may ask,  Who are the competitors? but
then you may back away from asking the tougher questions about
how the customer and each of his or her colleagues feel about your
competitors and then how that compares with what the customers
think of you.
The answers to validating questions provide an understanding of
needs and also the criteria and politics involved in the process of
making the decision. Validating gives you the information you need
to help you differentiate your message to create a winning solution.
The next time you are in dialogue, really take note of how may
times you validate to drill down and confirm information.
To help you validate and gain additional information:
Assume nothing: Double-check all information to make sure it is
valid and real.
Remember that things change: Revalidate and adjust your strategy
and message.
Don t stop at one: You need more than one perspective to ensure
your information is correct.
 Validation is a perfect blending of six critical skills:
presence, relating, questioning, listening, positioning,
and most important checking.
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Make it happen
As business becomes more complex and competitive, you must
become more skilled and strategic. The level of change across the
board is unprecedented. There is a feeling in many sectors that in
the past decade there was more buying than selling. The focus often
was on the product and the transaction, rather than the customer,
the value add, and the relationship.
It is up to you to determine if you have kept up with the level of
change around you, if you have altered how you sell. Are you active-
ly changing or merely tweaking?
The dialogue possible with sales talk will help you focus on your
customers in a new way. It will help you put the customer first and,
as one top performer said,  help the customer put you on speed
dial! The objective is to use the dialogue to truly understand your
customers needs, to position compelling, tailored messages that cus- [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]