Why you should always follow up your sales quotes
Today I was reminded again of how important it is to follow up your sales quotes.
About a month ago I sent a quote for one of our services to a new partner. Normally this person is very correct and polite in his communication and would follow it up right away. For some reason he didn't respond. Besides that, I myself failed to follow it up adequately and assumed it was lost business.Luckily, I tried one more time to get the owner on the phone. His reaction amounted somewhat to: "Are you kidding? I hope you are ready to deliver the service before the end of the month as I stated in my order some weeks ago.".
Apparently I never got his email. While I was hitting myself on the head for not following up as I should have, he was under the assumption I got the order and that services would be delivered soon.
Simple conclusion: simply follow up your quotes within a reasonable timeframe. It'll only cost you a bit of time and your customers are probably just waiting for you to confirm the order!Some more tips/reasons to do good follow-up:
- If you follow up, you'll be more credible and show that you are committed.
- Spamfilters, blacklists and many other hurdles made email an uncertain medium. If you follow-up, at least you'll know your email or the responese didn't make it.
- If for some reason the prospect didn't take/have time to look at your proposal yet, chances are he will now.
- Ideally, the customer has reviewed your quote. The follow-up call is the ideal moment to plan the next step.
