If ChatGPT was a salesperson then every third input it would get would be ‘No’. This is the reason why most salespeople suffer and most startups struggle.
However In sales “No” just means “Not now”
Did You know
80% of customers say “no’ four times before saying yes? And only 2% of sales happen during the first call
The numbers look off, but it’s quite obvious. Selling, especially B2B or large ticket is all about building trust and relationships with the prospect!
Genuinely care about the prospect and help him win and the sale comes as a natural byproduct!
This takes time! You simply can not expect to get a yes on the first call!
But here is the catch…
92% of salespeople give up after facing rejection on the fourth follow-up
Prospects have doubts and reservations, and you won’t get a yes from them unless those doubts are answered! They won’t buy unless they trust that they are convinced that they can trust you, that you understand their problems, and that you can solve them.
Simply put – trust beats tactics, but trust takes time!
Customers have worked with you so they easily trust you.
But how to build trust with prospects?
The quickest and simplest way to build trust is – Make a promise and keep the promise. And in sales timely follow-ups is the best way to do this!
When a prospect is stuck and he gets support on time, i.e. when you proactively take care of the prospect even before he buys, he knows he can trust you and rely on your service.
This means faster closure, easy retention and upsell, and word-of-mouth publicity.
This is the quickest way to create positive awareness among your target audience and establish your brand!
But in a startup, when you are managing so many things and you don’t have a proper sales management process, it’s practically impossible to follow up with every prospect on time!
And when you miss follow-ups,
- Prospects lose trust in you and your company
- You might have the best solution and offer but once they lose the trust they will go to a competitor, even if they have to settle for an inferior solution at a higher price.
- They talk about their experience with friends and on social media
- You don’t just lose that one prospect and all his future potential business, you lose all the people that he can refer and it hurts your business reputation!
- Instead of becoming a fan who will spread positivity about your brand, they end up tarnishing it!
Most salespeople already understand that timely follow-ups are important, but why do they miss them?
Reasons why ineffective follow-ups are hurting your sales and how you can fix it!
1. Lack of a centralized system
Sales teams in startups wear multiple hats. It’s a common misconception that lead generation is the most difficult thing for a startup. But the truth is, it’s only the first step, things like prospecting, relationship building, negotiation, closing deals, and even customer support, all have to happen one after the other.
Now, with unorganized leads, and no proper system how will you manage to remember to whom to follow-up with and when?
And, timely follow-ups? That’ll be pretty much impossible.
When you don’t take timely follow-ups, it leads to lead leakage.
If a prospect says “I will decide within a week” and you follow up a month later. forget about closing deals; they have already closed with your competitors and now they won’t even remember you.
Ineffective follow-ups are how companies lose big, hot deals without even realizing it!
To make matters worse, the basic information about the prospect and his requirements is scattered in 10 different places and you’d have to look for hidden treasure without a map just to know the basic details needed to move the deal forward!
Let’s say you have to answer a call But you have no idea about the customer’s previous interactions or follow-up history.
Because of this, you are in no position to help him!
You: "Raman, can you tell me which industry you are from"?
Raman: "I already told Hadrik from your team"
You: "Oh! And you have 12 members in your team, right?
Raman: "No we are a 27-member team right now!"This is just mis-coordinated hell!
Don’t assume and don’t make the customers repeat!
Or the customer feels frustrated… “what non-sense, they don’t even log the last conversation”
Because of this chaos, your follow-ups suffer.
This way you miss out on great opportunities, leave customers feeling dissatisfied, harm your reputation, experience higher customer churn, waste resources, and miss out on valuable insights for improvement.-
This is where CRM for startups can come in handy. With the right follow-up CRM like TeleCRM, you can
- Store all the details with the entire customer interaction history in one place
- Set Follow up reminders and get timely notifications
- Add and keep a log of all call notes in one centralized place,
- Cut down response time. Easily build trust and close deals faster.
NO CHIKCHIK! YOU JUST CLOSE MORE DEALS
2. Delayed response and resolution
If you call a lead 2 days after he filled out the form, your competitors will have already stolen the deal!
And startups can’t afford to lose deals from hot leads! In fact, if it’s a big deal it can mean the difference between life and death!
If you are not taking timely follow-ups, it means you are not proactively resolving their problems! As a result, it creates a communication gap, mistrust starts to build, and your prospects start spreading the (bad) word on social media, ultimately damaging the brand’s reputation.
Here’s an interesting finding from a study conducted by the University of New Orleans:
Negative reviews and criticism can really impact how people view a brand. The study looked at both big corporations and smaller businesses, like startups. Surprisingly, it discovered that underdogs, like startups, actually suffer more from the consequences of bad press compared to larger companies.
Now, imagine a different scenario where you take timely follow-ups, and promptly address their concerns, you can create satisfied customers who will become your brand advocates.
They are spreading positive word of mouth, referring their friends and people they know, and boosting the company’s reputation in the process.
Here’s the beauty of it all: even with limited room for error, startups have a unique advantage. A single good decision, like implementing a system for effective follow-up and resolution, can create a positive impact for the entire company.
3. Impersonalized follow-ups in sales
When it comes to follow-ups, personalization is key! After all, why would they care if it’s not about them?
Tell me which conversation will you continue?
Hello Sir this is Meera from Axis bank, may I know your name?
Or
Hello Aaisha mam, this is Meera, your relationship manager from Axis bank, centre point branch. You visited the branch last week regarding life insurense! Do you have a few minutes to talk about that?
But let’s face it, planning a unique opening or typing out a unique personalized message for each prospect is simply not feasible. It would take forever! And with so many leads to take care of, you just would not have the time!
So, how can we still achieve that personal touch without spending endless hours?
The answer is a good CRM, like TeleCRM
4. Poor follow-up practices:
(a) No lead prioritization
Did you know
70% of leads and sales are lost due to poor follow-up practices?
Here’s the deal: without proper lead prioritization, you will give equal time to all leads, and spend most of your time on leads that won’t buy from you while the really promising deals slip right through your fingers because you were too late to follow up with them.
All this happens because of inefficient pipeline management. You burn your marketing budget, waste leads, and abuse the hard work and effort that your sales team puts in.
Plus, when leads don’t convert and targets are missed, tension starts to rise between the marketing sales and customer success teams.
(b) No after-sale follow-up
Not taking after-sales follow-ups can completely mess up your sales pipeline and screw your business growth plans! Startups rely heavily on keeping their existing customers and getting referrals from them. But without proper after-sales follow-ups, You will miss out on
- Growth opportunities: You’re missing out on chances to upsell and cross-sell. That means leaving money on the table.
- Customer satisfaction and loyalty: Without proper follow-ups, customers end up feeling unsupported and undervalued. And guess what? They might just ditch you for a competitor who will actually care.
- Market position: Your competitive standing takes a hit when you don’t bother with follow-ups. If your prospects can’t trust you it’s harder to attract new customers and stand out from the crowd.
- Customer insights and product improvement: Feedback is gold, but without follow-ups, you won’t have the right feedback. How can you improve your product or service without hearing from the people who use it?
- Investor confidence: Investors want to see that you’re all about your customers. If they see you skipping follow-ups, they start to question your long-term sustainability and profitability. It’s a red flag who wants to bet on you and your company in the long term.
- Customer referrals and brand advocacy: When you deliver a top-notch experience to your prospects and customers, they talk! They spread the word, But if you don’t take follow-ups on time, they don’t have anything good to talk about! Without follow-ups, you will definitely miss out on those customer referrals and positive word-of-mouth!
Startups miss out on these important aspects by neglecting follow-ups. It’s important to prioritize follow-ups to ensure customer success, drive growth, and build a strong foundation for the business.
How CRM can streamline your follow-up process?
1. Centralized system
With a CRM like TeleCRM, all your prospect’s contact details, preferences, and interactions are neatly organized and stored in one place.
You can quickly access each prospect’s profile, gaining insights into their interests, needs, and history with your company. It’s like having a cheat sheet that helps you tailor your follow-ups to perfection.
No more hunting down scattered information or feeling like you’re lost in a maze of data across 30 different sheets and platforms.
2. Automation
In a startup, there are a number of frequent routine tasks that need to be carried out on a regular basis, like connecting with prospects using a welcome message, nurturing, follow-ups, etc.
If your sales reps carry out these tasks manually, it could take up a lot of their time, result in errors, and eventually affect their net output…
But when you use a Customizable CRM like TeleCRM, you will not only be able to automate these routine tasks, you’ll be able to design the automation according to your sales process.
Here is some amazing automation in TeleCRM you can use to streamline your follow-ups at different points across the sales cycle:
- Instant Touchpoint: You can trigger a personalized “welcome” message to every lead instantly after it enters your CRM.
- Auto-assign leads: Automatically assign leads and create follow-up tasks for sales reps as soon as a lead enters the CRM.
- Set up automatic call reminders for new leads: So no more manual chasing after team members to remind them for following up with leads.
- Send automatic WhatsApp to leads on status change: Automatically engage leads using buttoned WhatsApp messages and WhatsApp chatbot the moment they are marked interested.
What You can achieve by using automation
- High recall value: When they are hot and you call them, they will instantly recognize you because they have been interacting with the automation that uses your name
- Minimized chance of errors: Since all this happens on automation, both the number of manual steps and manual errors are reduced…
- Cut down the response time: Your sales reps may not be available when a prospect wants to chat, but the chatbot will be available! Even if it’s 3:00 AM!
3. Prioritizing follow-ups
Good CRMs like TeleCRM have lead scoring capabilities that let you rate leads according to their level of interest and potential (hot, warm, cold, or not interested).
You can order your follow-ups based on this interest level and concentrate on leads with higher scores, i.e. the leads that are more likely to convert. This reduces your team’s effort while drastically increasing the overall sales closed!
What you can achieve by prioritizing leads:
- Highlighting and prioritizing hot leads
- Ditching irrelevant leads
- Nurturing medium-commitment leads till they become hot
Also, when you use a sales team tracking app for startup like TeleCRM, you can not only prioritize follow-ups but also check if your sales team is acting on those follow-ups or not. This will tell you if your team is doing its part or if they corrective action should be taken against them.
It also keeps them in check as they know that they can be tracked and held accountable for their actions or inactions.
4. Setting Reminders for Follow-ups after the sale is closed
If you don’t follow up with the customer after closing the deal
- The customer fails to adopt or use your product.
- He won’t ever purchase again from you, so you miss out on all the future revenue from the customer and
- He is not gonna refer the people he knows so you will lose the growth potential of this customer!
The solution is simple: Set a reminder in TeleCRM and follow-up regularly follow up with the customer, even after the deal is closed. TeleCRM will remember and remind you when it’s time to call.
By following up, you can strengthen the relationship and make sure they feel supported throughout the process.
This way they are likely to remain loyal and share their positive experiences, thereby promoting your business!
92% of customers trust referrals from people they know
Also, in TeleCRM you can see the customer’s feedback and buying history in one timeline with which you can easily identify relevant upsell or cross-sell opportunities.
During the follow-up call, you can ask about what’s working well for them, their overall satisfaction level, and specific areas of improvement!
If the customer says he is happy! Take the opportunity to upsell or cross-sell.
For example, if the customer is happy with their loan and credit card acknowledge and see if you can offer them insurance.
This way, you can provide even more value, cater to their growing needs, and make more money.
What you can achieve by after-sale follow-ups:
- Build trust
- Retain customers
- Sell more
How to follow up in sales like a pro!
1. Best day to follow up
According to studies, When it comes to reaching out to your prospects, Tuesday and Thursday are the prime days to make your move. For scheduling your follow-ups, aim for the sweet spot between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM, local time. That’s when people are just settling into their workday and are more open to having a chat.
Another great time to catch their attention is between 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM. By this time, they’re wrapping up their work and may be looking for something different to engage with (plus, you’ll likely find them still at their desks). So, keep these ideal days and timeframes in mind when planning your follow-ups for the best chances of success.
2. The Right Follow-Up Frequency
A general guideline is to follow the 3x3x3 rule: follow up three times each, with three days between each follow-up, and use three different channels.
This way, you can show your interest and persistence, without being annoying or spammy.
3. Know when to stop
If a prospect consistently shows disinterest or explicitly declines, it may be time to pivot your focus elsewhere. Use the valuable insights gained from the process to refine your targeting and messaging for better results with other prospects! You don’t have to close every prospect that you come across!
4. Add value
Your follow-up messages should provide value to your prospect and move the conversation forward.
Avoid sending generic or repetitive messages like “just checking in” or “any updates?”
Instead, share useful information, insights, or resources that can help your prospect solve their problems, make informed decisions, or build trust in your product or service.
This could include case studies, testimonials, blog posts, webinars, or exclusive discount offers tailored to their needs.
5. Get to know the prospect and connect on an individual level rather than just as a biz representative
The primary asset for any sales executive is your relationship and trust quotient with the prospects and clients.
Zig Ziglar the acclaimed American motivational speaker once said
“If people like, you, they will listen to you, but if they trust you, they will buy from you “
Following up on time, adding value, and resolving their queries, is the basic process of building trust with prospects.
This is the reason why, when account executives switch, the clients switch with them. They trust the sales executive’s recommendations and believe that their best interests are being considered. This level of trust becomes a driving force behind the decision-making process, leading to repeat business and even referrals.
Conclusion
Effective follow-up is a game-changer in the startup world. By utilizing a CRM tool like TeleCRM and implementing best practices, you can convert more “NOs” into “YESes” and build strong relationships with your prospects and customers. You can deliver them value over the long term and they can become your money-making machine!
Remember, it’s not just about closing deals—it’s about nurturing connections and delivering value. So, be persistent, personalize your approach, and watch your startup thrive.