The Final part in our MSP Mach series is by far the most important part and one that can make or break a sale.

And that is the Follow-up.

You can have the best services in the world, the best pricing, and the best marketing - but if you f**k up the follow-up, It can ruin your chances at closing any of these new opportunities.

So in this post, I want to run through what I feel is a good follow-up process, including things you can do when the customer ghosts you, and perhaps you can comment below with any of your suggestions or how you do this differently.

STEP 1

First of all, you of course need to send them the thing, usually, a quote. Either emailing them, or presenting it to them in person is a firm favourite, but not always possible for every situation. Whilst you send it to them or are presenting it to them, be sure that you ask for a follow-up meeting, in person, to run through the quote and to answer any questions.

This brings us to Step 1 in the follow-up process - Call them to confirm they’ve received it. Even if you know they’ve received it because your email tracking software says they’ve opened it.

Don’t push them any more than this - all you’re doing is calling to make sure it got through spam filters. And it also gives them a chance to ask any questions if they have seen it.

Obviously, this needs to be a phone call - there’s no point in sending yet another email to ask if they received your email. And this can be done a day or two after sending the quote.

STEP 2

Follow up - Send them an email anywhere from 2-4 days later to ask if they have any questions!

See why we didn’t ask if they had questions before? If they ask questions, then you respond - or if they asked questions already in Step 1 of the follow-up, then you can use this as an opportunity to ask if you have answered all of their questions. 

STEP 3

I’d suggest an email first to ask when is a good time to now invite the client into YOUR offices, so you can run through the proposal, answer any final questions, also you can give them a tour of the office, and meet your staff.

Think of the small details here - maybe even find out how they take their tea or coffee, what their favourite biscuits or cake is. This is your chance to wow them on their first visit to your office! Don’t mess it up.

STEP 4

if you still haven’t made progress, then do the same thing again but use the phone this time.

An easy mistake I see made all the time is that people just default to using email. It’s an easy thing to use, easy to send, and it’s also an easy get-out when your manager asks if you’ve done something because sending an email can be a lot less stressful than picking up the phone.

By this stage, hopefully, you will have heard from the client and won or at least discussed the proposal in person, in your offices.

But what about when you get ghosted?

You know - you send them a quote, they seem really happy with everything you’ve said, and then it’s like they’re in the Bermuda triangle. They completely vanish from everything!

No replies to your emails, they avoid and don’t return your calls - and you just start wondering what the hell you’ve done so wrong to have upset them so much that they won’t even reply to you.

So here are a few tips to help:

Tip 1: People get busy. Don’t think that you’ve done something. They may legitimately just be tied up with their own business. That doesn’t mean you stop chasing - it just means you should probably ease off the nagging, and perhaps try to check in with them once a week, once every other week, then once a month. But I wouldn’t stop until you either get an answer or, you get bored and better prospects come up that take your time instead.

Tip 2: One thing we did a few times, which worked, was to use a service called Cake Card. Actually, I think it’s Sponge.co.uk, and you can use this website to actually send a slide of cake inside of a card in the post! it’s crazy!

Find out what their favourite cake is, maybe you already know from your earlier discussions and maybe one that might throw them off their guard a little in your sales process. And send them a piece of their favourite cake along with a note saying something like ‘I thought you might like to enjoy this whilst reading our proposal!’.

Or you could go for the passive-aggressive approach of ‘I thought you might like to enjoy this whilst responding to my countless emails and phone calls!’.

There are also some other really creative ways I’ve heard of but haven’t seen put into practice that often.

Sending half of a £50 banknote, with a note to say that you’ll bring along the other half at the next meeting.

And even tricks like buying a really cool remote-controlled car, sending that to them, and saying that you’ll bring the remote to the next meeting.

Those are quite creative ways, although they still feel to me a bit sales, a bit pushy.

Tip 3 - Video. Introduce a video into some of the follow-up processes. It’s a really easy way to stand out from the crowd.

When sending the quote, send a video that walks them through and explains why you’ve quoted what you have, highlighting any risks such as pricing or stock issues which may be a problem if they delay the decision by much.

In the follow-up process, use video services such as Bonjoro, BombBomb or Loom to quickly record and send these video messages to your clients. You’ll even be able to see if they’re opening and watching the videos, and if they’re watching your videos but not responding, then at least you know they’re watching and listening to you… so keep sending them.

Don’t give up when it comes to the follow-up. And if you really are struggling with this, and the whole sales process, then check out Marketopia who actually have dedicated appointment setters as part of their managed follow-up process that they offer.