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BD is a huge focus for everyone this year, and a key part of BD that supports the deal’s success is follow-up. As you or your consultants start to work that pipeline, we need to remember that follow-up will deliver the deal.
The Sales Executive Association in America published data many of you will have come across. Some of the figures you’ll remember and maybe others that you’ve forgotten, but do you remember that 48% of salespeople never follow up on a lead?
Which is quite staggering, isn’t it? So, think about it. As a business owner, you have invested a lot of money in building different ways of feeding that pipeline for your recruitment consultants, both with clients and candidates. Yet, they’re being lost quite quickly because so many people don’t follow up, and with only 2% of sales made on the first call or contact, which is small, you can see why follow-up is so critical.
Your Pipeline Needs To Be Followed Up
What we need to remember as salespeople is that we need to really work that pipeline and follow these individuals up time and time again.
Interestingly, 12% of your consultants will follow contacts and leads up three times. The thing to remember, though, is that if we are going to hit targets this year, 80% of those sales and conversions are going to come between five and 12 points of contact. Some data also suggests that if let’s say, the leads are completely cold, we can have 30-plus points of contact.
You’re probably wondering, “How on Earth will we do that?” Well, think about all the different mediums we’ve got and how we can communicate with people today.
So yes, we can pick up the phone. It’s the obvious one. There seems to be some firm reluctance, and I think we need to get over that.
We need to blend in with WhatsApp, Messenger, Voice notes on LinkedIn, and all the ways we can text-message people.
New School and Old School Follow-Up Work Well Together
We can do emails, of course. Now, think about some of the video software you guys use to interview candidates and share those interviews with clients to speed up your recruiting process.
How about using some of those video platforms to send sales videos and follow-up videos to prospects, clients, and candidates? Let’s go back to traditional methods: picking up a pen, picking up a card or a note, and writing a personal note to a client or a candidate.
When you receive something through the letterbox, and it’s not your birthday or Christmas, how good is it to receive something handwritten? It stands out, doesn’t it?
It’s something that I’ve been doing a lot, and we always get positive feedback.
So, there are lots of different ways that you can blend, whether it’s 12 or 30 points of contact. If you varied all these different mediums, you could keep following people up.
You could also add some reports you might have and drip-feed those at different points in your follow-up cycle.
Here is an important thing: If you’re going to invest all that time and trouble in building a pipeline, please also invest a little bit more time in building up a follow-up process.
Thanks,
Sharon
How We Can Help
We help our Superfast Circle clients design the ideal BD and follow-up process for them. If we even provide the template scripts and content they need. If you want to find out more book a quick call with us here.
