On Monday we starting discussing the challenge of walking the fine line of professionalism and being a pest after delivering a proposal. Our first of three strategies was to be cool – do NOT act desperate. However, we still need to get in front of the prospect. Regardless of the process, these decisions are still made by humans, and our jobs as sales professionals is to influence the decisions of these humans. How can we do so … without violating strategy #1? Here is one idea, and our second strategy…
Strategy #2 to following up on the delivery of your proposal: Find a legitimate reason to bump into your customer.
This doesn’t mean that you stop by or call to touch base or “answer any questions they may have” – that’s desperation. You need to have a legitimate reason for bumping into them. If you know of an event that your point of contact will be attending, then go. Buy a ticket and go. If this is a current customer and there is an issue – any issue – then you need to be there with your service team. If you have a change in policy, then you need to let them know. In fact, I love the idea of preparing your customer ahead of time: “It’s possible that our maintenance agreement will add some services soon. I’ll propose our current plan, but will update you if there are any changes.”
When you do bump into them, don’t bring up the project. Seriously, don’t bring up the project. Most of the time, they’ll bring it up. However, if they don’t then they don’t want to discuss it. If you bring it up, you’ve ruined all of your credibility and the only thing you’ve gained is the ability to tell your boss that you’ve “touched base”. I’m not kidding - figure out a legitimate reason to bump into your point of contact and then say nothing about the proposal.
What do you think? Is this crazy? Why would you go through the effort of bumping into them and say nothing? Leave a comment below
