Follow up

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Follow-up in sales refers to the activity of addressing a potential customer again in order to continue a sales process that has already started. As a rule, for high-quality products or products that require explanation, several contacts with the customer are necessary before the customer agrees to conclude a contract.

The customer can easily interrupt the sales process at any time by reacting evasively to the seller's follow-up, for example by stating that he has no time now, the seller should contact him later. In the case of prospective buyers who are not willing to buy, a follow-up action is always a disruption, which makes corresponding telephone calls etc. run under increased stress for both sides.

The success rates for follow-up campaigns are often low, many of the sales processes fail at this point from the seller's point of view. Therefore follow-up campaigns are often unpopular with sellers. However, they are necessary because they can often be used to lead potential but inherently inactive customers to a deal.

Buying behavior

The process of making a purchase decision can be broken down into six stages (see also: buying behavior ):

  1. Needs recognition
  2. Search for offers and alternatives
  3. Find external and internal information
  4. Evaluation of offers and alternatives
  5. Purchase decision
  6. Evaluation and feedback.

After the customer has recognized the need and obtained offers, he searches for further external and internal information and evaluates the offers and alternatives on this basis.

During this period, the potential customer will not always continue contact with the provider on his own initiative, but rather expect the provider to come back to him. This is especially true if the customer can choose from several competing offers and their own offer is not initially the first choice from the customer's point of view.

Follow-up campaigns are particularly promising in this phase, because they offer the opportunity to better tailor your own offer to the needs of the customer and, if necessary, to provide further information.

Forms of follow-up

  • Personal visit
  • by telephone through your own salesperson or the use of a call center
  • by letter
  • by email

Success factors

  • Targeted training of salespeople
  • a well-run sales database
  • Success measurement and analysis

Success can be measured by, for example

  • the number of follow-up contacts (phone calls, personal visits, e-mails, letters) per time unit
  • the proportion of orders from follow-up actions in relation to the total number of orders

Capital goods marketing

Follow-up campaigns are particularly important and promising in the area of capital goods marketing. In general, the conclusion of the contract is preceded by an individual offer so that data about the need and the customer are available and can be called up in the sales database.

An important economic indicator of sales management in the capital goods sales is the hit rate, d. H. the quotient of accepted orders and the offered offers. Targeted follow-up campaigns can decisively improve the hit rate by processing the already known needs (or the offers made out) by the sales department. Follow-up actions make it possible

  • to clarify open questions, e.g. B. the performance of the offered product
  • better adapt the offer to the needs, for example through additional services such as B. Installation at the customer
  • to improve the planning of incoming orders by e.g. B. the date and the probability of the award of the contract is requested
  • to prepare subsequent follow-up actions by assigning follow-up data
  • analyze lost needs (reason for the loss, which competitor was successful, consequences for market development in general, etc.).

See also

literature

Web links