I believe I wrote this about four years ago and at that time I never used a real CRM system. Believe me, I fought it tooth and nail, four years later, I can’t operate without it. If I had once wish for a CRM program it would be that I could have it display a large warning message when it was accessed by management.
How long have you been in the business, five years, ten, fifteen, 20 or more years?
The clichés never stop do they? A couple that come to mind include “what comes around goes around,” and “the harder you work the luckier you get.” For those of us who have been in the business a long time, well we’ve seen it all, new tactics get old and old tactics get new again.
Do you remember who you sold your first copier too? Hmm, can’t say I remember. How about the first deal you lost? Do you remember the customer? Sorry to say, I can’t remember that customer either.
How did you first schedule your appointments? I remember getting a doctor’s appointment book to write down the locations, appointment times, and phone numbers. As the days turned into months and the months turned to years I would find myself getting another appointment book for every year. After four years I realized that I could go back and review the accounts that I sold and contact them again for the potential upgrade. Gee, wasn’t that smart of me to keep those books?
These days most of us keep our appointments, contacts and lists of things to do on our PC’s and the appointment books have all but disappeared.
It’s a fact that we lose more deals than we sell. You can’t sell everyone right? Well, that may be an understatement. How many us of actually track the deals that we lose? Meaning, you didn’t get the sale, you know who you lost to and you know the term of lease or purchase that the buyer committed to. A little of bit of extra tracking can go a long way if you commit to scheduling callbacks for the accounts that you lost. Heck, if you know they signed a 36-month lease why let them go and never contact them again? You already have the name of Mr. or Mrs. right, the make and model number of the system, plus the volume.
Put your lost deals back in your contact list and schedule a follow up call for 18 months, then 24 months, then 30 months on a 36-month lease. You can spread the time a little further for the 60 month leases. Try getting back in touch with them at 30 months and then every six months thereafter. Customers lost, can be a customer gained down the road. Another thought would be to keep them on a mailing list where you’ll send them something every six months. If you’ve been in the business a long time, you’ll agree that the months and years really do fly by.
If anyone has any additional comments, I’d love to hear them.
Good selling!
