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5 effective ways to make a perfect follow-up sales call

January 23, 2022
So, you’ve touched base with a prospective client — and even better, they’ve shown interest in having a follow-up call after your email. But how can you be properly prepared for this? As anyone who’s worked in sales knows, this isn’t an opportunity that comes along every day.  The importance of follow-up in sales really can’t be overstated — that’s why we’ve put together 5 key tips on how you can make the most of this opportunity.

1. Have a clear focus for the call

When you know that you’ve got a customer’s ear, it’s very tempting to throw everything at them — after all, you can’t guarantee you’ll have it again!  But this is a rookie error. You don’t want to frighten a prospective customer off by overloading them with information. Instead, hone in on the key points you want to discuss with this person — or people, if you’re meeting with a team — and then make sure you stick to your agenda. There’s a time for upselling, but you need to land the actual sale first.

2. Create value

This is closely connected to having a clear focus for your call, though many salespeople take this first step without considering what they’re actually offering their customers. They just get excited about being able to pitch, and don’t necessarily consider whether it’s of benefit to the potential customer.  But one of the best ways to follow up with prospects is to ensure that it’s going to be worth their time to listen to you. Complete a study of the gaps they have in their current toolset, marketing strategy, branding, or whatever else is relevant to the product you’re selling. Then have a clear outline of how your product can fill that gap.

3. Write a script

Having a script at hand can be extremely helpful for staying on track during a sales call. It doesn’t have to be memorized word-for-word — in fact, we’d probably advise against that because it doesn’t leave a lot of room for improvising on the fly. But if you have a few bullet points or key phrases you need to whip out, it’s best to prepare them ahead of time. Best of all, you can reuse — and finesse — them over time, too.    A basic outline for a follow-up calls script might look something like this:  
  • Explain who you are, and why you’re calling. This is a great opportunity to tie in your initial point of contact — it helps remind them that they agreed to the meeting and are invested, without explicitly saying so yourself. 
 
  • Outline some of the details about your product. Be careful to keep it focused on them, and the benefits it will have both to their business and the person as an individual. Don’t talk about how great you are — this is a huge turn-off. 
 
  • Give some real-world examples of how your solution can address a gap in their toolset or strategy that you’ve noticed. Be careful not to criticize the status quo — the person you’re speaking to might not have created it! Staying solutions-focused is the best possible approach.
  • Allow time for Q&A. It’s best to hold it to the end if possible, but this will be easier with some clients than others.
 
  • Ask for a future guarantee. This doesn’t necessarily mean asking for the sale there and then — though it might! But really, this is about maintaining client interest and keeping you at top of mind. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and not all sales decisions can be made on the spot. 

4. Practice ahead of time

Whether it’s in a mirror or with a colleague, practice makes perfect. By roleplaying a few different scenarios — perhaps using some of the notes from the follow-up call example script above — you’ll find yourself far better equipped to handle any curveballs a customer may throw at you during a call. 

5. Follow up again

Yep, that’s right — you should follow up your follow-up. Make sure you send a follow-up email after the sales call. This doesn’t have to be complex or in-depth — it can simply be a courtesy note to thank them for their time and contain a brief summary of the conversation you had earlier.  If appropriate, you may choose to include some additional information, too. For example, a sales brochure as a PDF, a product demonstration video, or an L&D video may be useful, particularly if the prospective client has asked for additional information. The best way to efficiently cover this in detail is with our Elevate video service — now available as a desktop app. As an AI-powered app, it provides templated scripts, an in-app teleprompter, and access to relevant leaderboard and tracking capabilities. Our personalized Elevate video follow-up service has allowed clients to achieve a 4x increase in response rate and a 6x increase in conversion rate when compared to cold calling.

Find out more with Shootsta

Here at Shootsta, we’re specialists in helping companies and individual salespeople alike break past the gatekeepers and land sales. As specialists in video production and post-production, we’re keenly aware of how tech can swing the balance and make the difference between an unopened email and bringing in new business. So why not get in touch with us today?

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Discover more about making the perfect Sales Follow up call …

How do you follow up in sales without being annoying?

After you’ve actually made a sale, you’re best off sending a thank-you email or something similar to demonstrate your appreciation. When done skillfully, this can keep the conversation with the client going, leaving them open to future sales. Ultimately, what’s most important is that every interaction you have with the client provides them with value. This is also why it’s good to stay in contact periodically without specifically trying to sell a product. Personalized videos are an effective way to create effective sales outreach or provide stakeholders comms, but they can also be great for reaching out on birthdays, public holidays, or other special occasions.

Can I use video to help follow up sales calls?

Absolutely! Effective use of video can help you get your pitch noticed, land you a follow-up call, and potentially close the sale itself. However, it’s important to note that it’s not solely video that will do all the heavy lifting for you; the usual rules of sales apply. You need to have a valuable proposition, and it needs to be able to hook the client. To find out about how you can do that more effectively, talk to the team at Shootsta today.
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