When your reps meet new business prospects, what do they do next? It feels like Sales 101, but have you implemented a follow-up process? Have they walked you through it lately?
Todd Youngblood, founder of YPS Group, a sales process engineering consultancy, offers his 10-step action plan on the immediate next steps to take after you meet a new business prospect (with the emphasis on immediate):
1. Send a follow-up email, and in doing so, invite them to join an appropriate e-marketing mailing list.
2. Follow them on LinkedIn, but only
send a personalized greeting. Do not utilize the generic greeting offered by LinkedIn.
3. Observe what LinkedIn Groups
they are in. You’ll not only get to know them better, you might find some new prospect hunting grounds.
4. Follow them on Twitter.
5. Add them to a specific Twitter stream, so you can monitor what they are doing and saying. I’d recommend creating a “prospect” stream, so you can see all their activity in one place.
6. Add to Facebook.
7. Add to Google+.
8. Add them to your CRM as someone worth pursuing, and appropriately categorize them in the proper stage
of your sales process.
9. Once in the CRM, get creative with some type of content to send them that can help and serve them. This
can be a book, an e-book, your e-book, an article they will learn from, etc. Something that demonstrates what kind of partner you will be.
10. And I’d do some clever follow-up (in addition to email). Such as shooting a short video on your smart phone and send it to them as an MMS message (text message with multi-media). Perhaps the message is to clarify agreed upon action items…
Todd Youngblood is presenting a free webinar on the basics of building and maintaining an e-Rep - a digital extension of yourself - at 1 p.m. Eastern on April 18. Register at SMMconnect.com.
