Win more deals; follow up

Hey, Scott from The Sales Mastermind here. Today’s edition only takes 2 minutes.

The hard close is dead; long live the follow-up.

When You Win

While my wife and I were hunting for our first property, my father-in-law, a former real estate agent, explained:

The purchaser of the property isn't our customer. The vendor is. The purchaser is annoying and distracts from signing more vendors.

An agent "wins the sale" when the vendor agrees to list with them. Only when they have properties to sell can a real estate business make money.

Then, the agent gets paid when the property changes hands (after much back-and-forth, paperwork, and waiting periods).

If a purchase doesn't go through for any reason, the agent may never get paid.

This lesson is critical for founders; when you win the sale and when you get paid are often entirely different. 

Lose Fewer Deals

Before even speaking to a seller, modern buyers often decide who they will buy from.

Last week, we covered 3% of your market are active buyers, and 82% of active buyers are pre-influenced in their choice of supplier.

Leaving only 1 in 185 buyers who are open to persuasion. The rest are not going to work with you or have already picked you and;

"It's yours to lose."

This is one of the most dangerous things a buyer can say. That is why I often tell founders it's better to focus on losing fewer deals rather than winning more deals.

And there are 100s of ways to lose a deal.

One of the simplest ways to lose deals is time.

Time

John H. Patterson, the founder of the National Cash Register Company (NCR), said it best:

"Time Kills All Deals"

Elite sellers aim to be fast, never to be a bottleneck in the sales process, and to book follow-up meetings or deadlines as soon as possible.

That way, they reduce the risk that time will kill this deal.

Fast means:

• Book meetings as soon as possible. Can the buyer speak this afternoon? How about tomorrow?
• Reply to emails the same day
• Send post-meeting emails within 1 hour
• Send any documentation request within 24 hours. Or at least acknowledge the request and include a realistic deadline

To achieve the above, elite sellers embrace templates.

Demo Follow-Up Template

In the follow-up email, focus on buyers who will scan;

• Crucial info at the top
• Use bullet points and headings
• All next steps must be assigned and have a specific deadline
• The email is a reminder of what was said

When creating your template; more is more.

Add as many bullet points as you can under "As Discussed" to cover everything you can on use cases, features, and your competitive differences.

Then, when sending the template, remove the points that don't apply.

Enjoy modifying the template to suit your business - please send me your template when you're done for some feedback.

Hey FIRSTNAME

Thanks for your time today.

Please find attached:

• Anything you promised to send them

As discussed:

• List key learnings from the meeting
• List main pain points
• List main use cases, case studies, anything you can add
• Your differentiation, cheat code, or secret sauce

Next steps are:

• Add next steps
• Include dates
• Include who is supposed to take action

Looking forward to welcoming you to BUSINESS NAME.

Signature

PS If you're ready, I have reopened my books for: Sales Tear Downs

Is your business closing some deals, but not enough? I work with many sales leaders to do a top to bottom tear down of what is working, what isn't and what to do about it. Sound interesting? Book a Call

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