Having poor follow-up is like getting stuck on a hamster wheel (always running but never getting anywhere). Following up is where you can differentiate yourself from the competition. I've always thought the longer the proposal stayed open the better chance I had of earning the business. Get off the hamster wheel by doing the following:

1. Establish a personality by using creative follow up tools, i.e. funny cards, thank you cards, email notes, etc. Don't stop until the opportunity to do business is exhausted. Following up and keeping in touch is the easy part. Doing the estimate and proposal is 90% of the work. It has always baffles me when a sales rep looses contact with a customer is the job is not awarded quickly. Don't loose the job by jaming the file in a cabinet and waiting for them to call you. The longer the job remains open the greater the chance you will be the only saleperson he remembers because you showed interest and stayed...

First I want to thank everyone for the excellent feedback I have gotten on this series of blogs. I know it's been about a week since I did the last one but here is part 4.

How often do you deliver a proposal only to find out it wasn't what the customer wanted? If the answer is often, then you are wasting a lot of time and loosing orders in the process. Most sales are lost before the proposal is delivered becuase you didn't find out what the customer's problems and expectations where so you could match a solution to solve them.

Learn to ask questions to help you help your customer:

1. Closing of the sale starts at the first meeting. When I owned my own company selling exterior improvements and was wearing lots of different hat's I often fell into the trap of just telling customer i'd stop by in the next day or two. My though process was I could go out and diagnose the problem since I was the expert and devise a solution on my own. I would then spend the time on the delivery of the proposal to use my people skills, references, good looks, and charm to close the sale. This often works but often I would have to go back to the drawing board and basically start over again. Don't waste your time looking a project without the customer there. You must understand your customer's problems and expectations. In this day in age they most likely have browsed the internet for solutions and have some ideas in there head on what they are looking to achieve. This also gives you a good time to qualify them on when they plan to do the project, if the money is budget or if they will be obtaining a loan. If the customer is not available to meet then you need to ask the same questions on the phone that you would in person. Ask the questions, then bid the project....

Time and territory management is a common downfall for many sales reps. Organization and attention to details are not generally traits of a salesperson. The simplest explanation I have heard to fix this is to maximize income generating activity during the selling hours of 8-5. Spending as much time as possible in front of your existing qualified prospects will go a long way towards consistent sales. Your ultimate goal. No company wants sales of 100k one month to 10k the next, and then back up to 100k. If your goal is to sell 1.2 million a year then you want 100k a month. Not 600k in 2 months with 10 months of no sales.

Develop good time management practices....