Rock-Star Report Vol 6

Author

Steve McKenna
May 24, 2024

7 Minute Read Time 

Get More Sales Without More Customers!

How to Follow-up Like a Pro!

Growing revenue can be achieved by 3 different methods:

  1. Sell more units

  2. Increase prices

  3. Add on complementary products or services

As a fabricator, typically the first place to start is more units.  Most shops try to increase their SF output or increase the number of jobs they sell per week. They typically do this by increasing their ad spend to generate new leads. This strategy often works but is not the only way to accomplish your growth goals.

In this article, I will focus on how to grow sales without more leads by simply converting more of your quotes into sales.

Clate Mask, author of my favorite book of 2024 called “Conquer the Chaos” says: “The fortune is in the follow-up.”

I have seen this firsthand, with my own eyes and in my own business. Before having a defined sales process, we assumed our salespeople were following up because they said they were.

When we implemented our CRM software and required our sales team to log activity (even send emails and text messages directly from the CRM), we suddenly realized how little follow-up was happening! 

Never assume Follow-up is happening. Define your Follow-up Process. 

👉80% of sales require an average of 5 follow ups

👉48% of sales reps NEVER follow up

👉44% of sales reps only follow up ONCE

👉And after 4 follow-ups, 94% of sales reps have given up

That is A LOT of potential sales that are not being closed AND just think of all the potential revenue being left on the table! 😖

When you talk to your salespeople you might hear this:

“I don't want to be too pushy.”

“They said they would call me when they are ready.”

“I think I did a good job in the showroom, so I shouldn't have to follow up.”

“I can’t follow-up with someone more than 6 times!  I’ll sound like a used car salesman!  My customers will never put up with that amount of harassment!”

TRY THIS OUT

In addition to your salesperson following up with the client, automate some touch points.

By doing this, you can expect your close rates and sales to improve and see your customer experience improve drastically! 🤩

What happens when you Automate some or all of the follow-up process:

  1. Opportunity to provide additional value

  2. Able to give more information you may have forgotten to discuss in a single face-to-face meeting

  3. Shows you care with more valuable touchpoints

  4. Stand out from your competition

  5. Stand out as the experts by providing all this free information!

  6. Improve the customer experience

👉️ To be clear, when I use the term follow-up, I don’t mean every contact should be an email, phone call or text message asking if the customer is ready to buy yet! 
Every Touch-Point is an Opportunity to Provide Value to the Customer.
Here are some Example Emails that you can easily Automate to send to your customer:

  1. Warranty information about a product that they’ve been quoted on

  2. Common FAQ’s

  3. What to expect in our process - from time of purchase to time of installation, here’s an overview of how we complete the work

  4. Design inspirations for 2024

  5. Product information about the material they are interested in.

  6. Meet the team: take an opportunity to introduce your management team, your templater, your fabrication team, your installers, your shop dog, and anyone else who’s involved and around the process

  7. Care guides for granite, quartz, porcelain, and other items you sell

  8. Recent projects you’ve completed that you want to highlight

  9. Community engagement projects your company is involved in such as sponsorships, events you’ve attended, or volunteer efforts your team has made

As you can see, the opportunities to provide value are endless! 😄 

Automating these messages can help nurture the relationship and keep the client engaged. You can send emails daily, every other day, or 2-3 times a week, whatever you decide is the right frequency. Test and observe the results; there is no perfect answer to how you deliver them.

I suggest on every 2-3 emails, you can include a link to a calendar that says:

If you’re ready to book your project, make an appointment here, and let’s get your kitchen transformation started!

Note - I also recommend taking the time to write these emails in your own voice, add your own quirks and include any local references that you can think might be relevant.  The more that you can make the communication feel authentic (it should truly be authentic, not just templated) and personalized, the better the engagement will be.  

I could go into all the little tactics that make emails easier to read and increase your open rates, but we will save that for future articles! We will also talk about a salesperson follow-up process in the future! 👊

EVENTS IN THE STONE INDUSTRY

Colorado Stone Summit - Dynamic Intentionality

Hosted by Architectural Surfaces

June 6, 2024

Denver, CO

To See Agenda and Register Click Here!

SFA Workshop

Hosted by Cutting Edge Countertops (Brian Burns)

June 6 & 7, 2024

Perrysburg, OH

To see the Agenda or to Register Click Here!

All Slab Fabbers

Hosted by The Granite Guys

June 24-26, 2024

Classes and Tours on the 25 and 26

Location - Pasco, Washington

For more info Click Here!

Digital Stone Working Expo

Hosted by Park Industries

Education, Networking, Tours, and Demos

June 27, 2024

Washington, D.C.

To Register or for more info Click Here!

SATURDAY LOL!! 😂 

Don’t let this happen to you…..LOL

Why is this so good?? LOL

Thanks for reading!

See you next Saturday,

Steve McKenna

Like what you read? We love to hear your feedback!

Are you interested in growing your retail sales with no up-front or fixed commitment? Do you only want to pay for the leads you actually get from your marketing and not just pay a general retainer hoping that it’s performing?

If this sounds appealing, drop me a line!