Thoughtful Thursdays – One way to increase your close rate
Advances in technology have increased the speed at which information is available and created the opportunity for customers to get what they want faster than ever.
Today’s sales thought is about being first to the post, shortening your sales cycle and increasing your close rate.
You have offered your prospects multiple ways to get in touch with you directly. Text, telephone and email top the list. When you provide prospects a way to contact you, it is your responsibility to make it work. It surprises me when professional sales people do not respond in a timely fashion. The excuses surprise me more. That is a topic for another day.
Having the patience to wait for you to respond is a luxury most prospects no longer offer to their potential suppliers. If you do not respond in a timely fashion, you have opened the door for your competitor.
- Set up an auto response for email to let people know when you will get back to them
- Make sure your voice message tells them when they can expect to hear back from you
- Text messaging is pretty much real time communication, check it several times a day
In general, if a call comes in before noon, returning it before the end of the day is a reasonable expectation. Responding to an afternoon inquiry the morning of the next business day will be acceptable.
The key is to acknowledge receipt of the request. You do not always need to have the answer.
The sooner you get back the sooner the sale may close. Outperform your competition by being first to respond and increase your close rate.
It sucks to hear: “I ordered from your competitor because I could not reach you.”
Schedule time slots in the morning and afternoon to check and respond to messages and make sure you do it.
Your customer is expecting you to be accessible.
Good selling,
Richard
Have a question about sales? Contact Sakanashi and Associates Inc. and I will respond.
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