A prospect called me recently and said she was overwhelmed by her need to follow up. She had attended 3 networking events that day and met 5 new contacts. In a week, she averaged 10 new contacts. She was frustrated and scared that she would drop the ball on an important prospect.
The Math is Scary
Often, a salesperson needs to follow up 12 times to close a sale. When you meet 10 contacts per week, touch them 6 times for 30 minutes per touch, you just spent 30 hours following up. With that, it is easy to understand why many salespeople suffer from Follow Up Fatigue (FUF).
Follow-up actions build up every week because it is hard to touch all prospects all the time and that is what many of us try to do. Can you imagine if you have to touch prospects 8 times on average to make a sale?
How Do I Know if I Have FUF?
Follow Up Fatigue occurs when salespeople:
- Chase the wrong leads.
- Write the same emails over and over again.
- Call prospects to set up appointments but get limited responses.
- Feel networking is a chore.
- Interact with clients on a transactional basis only.
- Use multiple “To Do” lists that are never completed.
Often, the fatigue spills over into one’s personal life.
Overcoming FUF
Martin First owns Martin’s Landscaping Company (MLC). Martin has 3 salespeople focused on commercial accounts. Each salesperson is responsible for 4 networking groups. One year ago, they selected a CRM and have made great strides in its implementation.
What made Martin purchase a CRM? He was tired of operating without structure and felt that the sales team was too much like “loose scrambled eggs.” The team was all over the place and used yellow sticky notes, notepads, and spreadsheets to track their sales tasks, prospects, and clients.
How Does a CRM Help?
FUF often occurs because salespeople chase the wrong prospects and produce a long list of manual, repetitive emails and tasks. So what did the MLC sales team do? With the help of their consultant, the team:
- Ranked their prospects from A to D and began focusing on their A&B prospects.
- Built a 6-email drip campaign that goes to A&B prospects educating them about landscaping tips and services by season.
- Created a monthly drip campaign for clients telling them about groundskeeping by season.
- Drafted 4 email templates that were the most repetitive emails that salespeople used. Now, they call up a template and it auto-populates the specifics for each email recipient.
What the team learned was they now had more time to spend with their clients and best prospects.
Closing the Sale
When you have more time and can visit with clients outside of service delivery, you will increase the business from those clients. You won’t have to push for the business because you provided value outside of an assignment.
When you have more time to focus on A&B prospects, your closing rate will increase because you have had time to invest in your high-potential prospects. Rate your prospects and allocate them time based on your rating, and watch as sales increase.
Perhaps, you feel the effects of Follow Up Fatigue? Select the right CRM and CRM specialist to help you implement the CRM with your team. Stuff the FUF and contact me to learn how you can overcome Follow Up Fatigue.
