WAIT, HOLD IT, HOLD IT, WAIT….. GOT IT!

Before anyone calls PETA on me I am not going to talk about hunting or animals today! I am going to talk about patience.

How many sales calls have you walked out of and said to yourself or to your sales manager, “That is going to turn into a sale”? Then the waiting game starts. First we KNOW it is going to turn into a sale, then a week or so down the road we THINK it is going to turn into a sale, a week later we HOPE it will turn into a sale, a week after that it SHOULD have turned into a sale, and finally why the heck DIDN’T it turn into a sale. At this point we sometimes make the biggest mistake in the world, we call the customer “just to check”.

What we are really doing is calling to… I hate to say it… beg. We felt so confident when we left the customer that we can’t understand why they haven’t called to place the order so we call and no matter what we say or how we say it, it will sound like begging!

Next time you get the urge to make a call like this WAIT! HOLD IT! HOLD IT! WAIT….

Too many times we get so over anxious that we blow the sale because we got impatient. You need to ask yourself a few questions before you pick up the phone to call your customer and “CHECK”. First and the most important of all, how did you leave things with your customer? Did you ask them to call you? Did you tell them you would get back with them? Did you leave it open with no real commitment? If you told the customer that you would check back with them, start calling! If you asked them to call you, WAIT, HOLD IT, think what the call is going to sound like. If you left it open, WAIT, HOLD IT, what do you think the customer is expecting?

We want to make the buying experience simple, stress free and with the least amount of disturbance to the customer as we can. SO THINK, will making the phone call help meet these requirements or undermine them?

So you are thinking, how long should I WAIT, HOLD IT, HOLD IT? It actually depends on you. When are you supposed to go back to see this customer? Some of us see customers every month, others a few times a year and yet others once every few years. If you see your customers on a regular basis WAIT, HOLD IT until you’re next scheduled call. If you see customers a few times a year, how often do you communicate with them in between calls? You may want to WAIT, HOLD IT until your next scheduled call. If you only see your customers once every few years, the same question holds, except now you’re face to face has more impact because they are so rare so maybe you will want to make the call while the personal sales call is still fresh in the customers mind.

Why am I making such a big deal out of such a fine point in a sales call? Because I have seen reps WAIT, HOLD IT, HOLD IT, WAIT… GOT IT! What I mean is I have seen reps get calls from customer’s weeks, sometimes months after a presentation to place orders. Orders that may have been killed with a mistimed phone call.

So everyone say it with me, WAIT, HOLD IT, HOLD IT, WAIT….GOT IT!

Lorin

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