Always Follow Through
Anyone who has ever followed my articles, blog postings, videos and podcasts knows that I’m passionate about the importance of prospecting. Time and again you’ve heard me say, “If you’re not making the calls, nothing else matters.”
Well let me amend that a bit, because as it turns out, there is one other thing that does matter: If you’re going to make the calls and set up the appointments, please remember to show up!!!
You’re probably saying, “What kind of boob would make an appointment and not show up?” Obviously the kind of boob that doesn’t want to do business; as my wife can attest to.
My wife, Linda, was attempting to find a tree service that could cut down and remove one tree from our property and cut back and trim a number of others. She asked a friend for a referral and received two names.
The first service came highly recommended because while they charged more, they were “The EXPERTS!” So, Linda called them, left a message, they called back, set up an appointment and guess what; that’s right, they didn’t show up. I guess Linda’s friend forgot to tell her there was one thing they weren’t expert on.
The 2nd service was very nice. He showed up on time, looked around and told Linda he’d get back to her with an estimate in “the next couple of days.”
Two weeks later; no estimate; but he did call to say his father had been sick and he needed to take some time to straighten things out and would it be OK if he dropped off the estimate in the next couple of days. Linda was very sympathetic and said “No problem, in fact email it if you want.”
Needless to say the estimate never arrived, either in person or via email. I guess following up is another thing that matters.
My favorite is the 3rd character she called. This was a recommendation from a friend of mine. He called to say he doesn’t like to make appointments but he’ll be around “Next week,” and he’ll call when he is in our area.
We didn’t hear from him for 2 to 3 weeks, when all of a sudden he called to ask “Do you still want me to come?” Linda said, “I thought you were going to contact me a couple of weeks ago?” He said, “I was busy (wrong answer).” To which Linda replied, “That’s OK, I found someone else to do the job.”
Here’s the lesson; just because you made the calls and booked the appointments it doesn’t end there. Prospecting is also about showing up for the appointment (on time), following up and letting each prospect and client know their business is important to you.
If you want to learn more about prospecting and how to use it to supercharge your activity, get more appointments and increase your sales, join me on September 22nd at 6PM Eastern Time for a two (2) hour simulcast on “Prospecting Skills that Work.”
For $59 you’ll learn how to:
- Overcome the fear of rejection
- Develop a call counting system that will show you how much activity you need to generate on a daily basis in order to hit your goals.
- Control the conversation
- Anticipate and turn around any objection that comes your way.
