Just as any relationship with a promising future, the key to establishing a healthy business relationship is based on trust. Top performing companies know that prospects and customers buy only from sales reps that they feel they know and they can trust, and the only way to build these kinds of relationships is over time through customer engagement.
This is why staying in touch with prospects is a way not only for them to see you as knowledgeable, but also as someone who has their best interest at heart.
Prospects make a purchase decision when they are ready to buy – not when sales reps are ready to sell. But how do you ensure that they think of you first when their needs arise?
The follow-up process is key to sales success. This is also where many sales reps drop the ball. Without follow-up, there isn’t time to build the relationship and keep top-of-mind with customers.
So what are the reasons why sales reps don’t follow-up with prospects? Top
performing sales reps always make time for the follow-up while lagging companies don’t invest in this process. While top performing Sales and Marketing teams have established a system, lagging companies don’t have a follow-up process in place.
The following are the two components that enable sales reps to strengthen the follow-up process and establish higher levels of trust with customers to increase customer engagement.
- CRM
Creating an effective follow-up system starts by enabling your sales force with a CRM. Here they will have all contact information regarding current and future customers, and will make it easy to remember all the “little things” during a Sales Call that make a big difference to the closing process. CRM is key when it comes to remembering what customers want and what it would take to close the deal – and this is vital for building trust. The more knowledge you have of your customer, the more they feel like their needs are being understood.
- Marketing Automation
Top performers are growing by harnessing automation to enhance customer engagement. With automation, marketing becomes empowered to nurture prospects, and creates content that really works to resonate with customers. When the marketing process is automated, marketing can roll out stronger campaigns and ensure that sales reps engage in more meaningful conversations. Automation makes the follow-up process more meaningful because it establishes a stronger customer-sales rep relationship.
Relationship building should be the number one priority in all customer touchpoints. It’s the essence of converting prospects into customers and a way to lead them into the buying processes of future product offers. The more trust your customers feel the more they feel their needs are being understood, and the more likely they are to make a purchase decision.
How effective is your follow-up strategy? Which process is most effective for you when it comes to building customer trust?
