By: Jason Dizon

“I don’t have the budget for all this.”

How many times have we all heard this sentiment that our customers usually have. For us salespeople, we have probably heard this a lot during our entire career in sales. We believe enough in our product/service that we price them in such a way that justifies this belief. More often than not, we price them higher than what our customers think they’re worth. Because of this, we often hear our customers say that they can’t afford our product/service.

What a salesperson does afterwards defines his attitude and aptitude towards sales. Do you give in and offer your customer a discount? Do you stand firm and defend how your high pricing justifies how good of a product/service you might have? Do you try and find a compromise that would work for both parties? Whatever approach one might have, we can all admit that it’s not that easy dealing with this type of objection.

With this in mind, we can become better at dealing with our customers’ budget constraints by following these tips from The Advanced Selling Podcast.
 
1. Check your head.
The first thing you need to do when a customer says that he/she cannot afford your product/service is to think hard on the situation at hand. You shouldn’t let yourself get easily sucked into your customer’s words that you begin to doubt your product/service.

I remember how I used to have a client who thought our service was a bit too expensive for them. At that point in time, I was still fairly new to sales and I started having doubts about whether or not our service was worth what we were charging. After talking with our CEO and a bunch of our colleagues, I became more certain about our service and I didn’t have doubts anymore when it came to pricing. Because of this, I was able to get my client to believe in our service.

Always remember that your customer will not believe in your company when you yourself start having doubts about it.
 
2. Try to understand the logic behind set budgets.
There’s a saying that goes, “If you want to understand someone, try walking in his/her shoes.” This is especially true for us salesmen. We try to pitch to our customers and make them trust in our companies. However, the only way for us to get our customers to trust us is if we try to understand where they’re coming from.

Sometimes, budgets aren’t that well thought of. Usually, a company budget is first set with some careful consideration until it comes to a point where people simply add constant percentages annually. Budgets in these cases simply become numbers.

As a salesperson, we must not get ourselves down and think that it’s all over once a customer says that they can’t afford our product/service. I remember how one of our clients had a service provider who specialized in a similar set of offerings as ours. That client had a set budget at first. However, we were able to convince him that our service can bring different results and got him to do business with us.

Budgets may be well thought out but they aren’t necessarily set in stone.
 
3. Make sure that you are calling on people who are not constrained by budget.
A single company may have different budgets for different departments and different positions internally. This is because a company would tend to focus on some key areas wherein they can grow their business. The key here is to find those people who are willing to spend more.

A rule of thumb here is that it would be better to talk to someone of higher position within a company. Whether it’s a middle or top manager, or even the CEO, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s someone who has some decision-making power and the flexibility to spend a bit more. This is why our company does business with CEO’s and top managers. These people atop the corporate structure would be more than willing to spend as compared to their other colleagues especially if what you’re offering to them is something that actually works.  

4. Work through the budget together.
When your client says that he/she can’t afford what you’re offering to them, you should go through the budget together to see if both of you are looking at it in the same way. While it is true that you have a certain price for your product/service and your client has a budget, you shouldn’t simply stick to your way and say that it’s either this or no deal.

You should make your client think of how it would be like doing business with you versus the cost of doing business without you. Once you do this, you should be able to engineer a deal in a way that would work for both parties.
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This happened to me in the past. We had a certain pricing scheme and my client said that they thought our solution was a bit expensive. After talking through their budget and what we could do to help improve their company, we came up with a compromise that ended in a win-win situation for the both of us.
 
In the end, pricing and budgets are all just numbers. As salesmen, we need to talk with our customers and understand where they’re coming from so that we can find a way in which both parties will benefit from one another. 

By: Jason Dizon

​“Be a student. Always.” These are the words of Hiten Shah from The Startup Chat. Now you might be thinking to yourself, “Why should I keep being a student? I’ve been done with all that years ago!” In fact, I myself am about to graduate college and finish with my entire education. I have no immediate plans of pursuing further studies so this statement from Hiten really made me confused.
 
The reason why most of us would feel reluctant about being a student is that it reminds us of our time in school. It makes us reminisce all those hardships, sleepless nights, and countless hours of listening to boring lectures in class. I mean, who would want to relive something they just got themselves out of? Right? We have become so averse to learning because we always think of it in the context of academic institutions. We think that to learn, means that we should be in school. Therefore, a lot of us think that learning stops once we graduate from school.
 
However, this isn’t what Hiten meant by his statement. He meant that we should be students in the sense that we never stop learning. Even as we graduate and get illustrious careers, we should constantly try to learn new knowledge and skills.
 
Strive to become a life-long learner. Try to infuse learning into your everyday life.
In learning, we don’t have to confine ourselves to the academic setting. Doing so would only lessen our enthusiasm in learning new things. Learning does not need to be strictly confined to academics. When Hiten says that we should be students, he meant that we should try to learn something new, something that interests us or something that we didn’t know before.
 
When I was just starting out as a sales person, I found it difficult to close deals. I lacked the confidence and mastery of the product knowledge for our company. Clients at first found it difficult to trust me with their business since I couldn’t answer basic questions. I had to learn and improve on my closing skills. I rigorously read our company materials and asked my colleagues for tips. I even practiced my sales pitch with a colleague. After all these, I became a lot better in closing deals since I got to learn techniques in sales.
 
Apart from sales, I’ve been trying to learn more about playing chess. I know how to play it but I wouldn’t consider myself an expert. That is why I try to play when I have the time. I constantly learn new moves and strategies from playing with different opponents.  
 
Trying to incorporate learning into our everyday lives can make things seem easier and more pleasant. After all, we aren’t being forced to learn. We are learning for the sake of learning and improving ourselves.
 
Learning by doing can be the easiest way to understand things better since it can take you to a deeper level.
A desire to learn is good and all but oftentimes, the problem lies in the fact that we don’t know where to start, especially if what we are trying to learn is completely new to us. In this case, Steli Eft & Hiten Shah said that it might be best for us to learn things by doing them. Manuals and tutorial videos can only take you so far. You’d still have to do things yourself.
 
However, a lot of people are uncomfortable with the idea of learning by doing since this implies a lot of trial and error. Mistakes and failures are bound to happen. However, the only true way to learn and succeed is by making these mistakes. As Robert F Kennedy, an American politician puts it, “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”
 
I remember when I applied for my current sales job. I had close no nothing when it came to sales knowledge and background. Yet, the CEO of our company tasked us with cold-calling clients without introducing ourselves as part of the company. Since I had not done any type of cold-calling in my life, I wasn’t familiar with the process. Instead of looking at tutorials and tips online, I just decided to dive in and give a call to one of the clients. Naturally, I didn’t succeed with my first few calls. However, because of those failures, I got to find out what I should be saying to clients and what I should refrain from doing. After some failed calls, I finally got to engage a client in a lengthy conversation. I learned because I kept doing amidst my failures at first.  
 
I’ve also recently tried learning how to surf. I literally knew nothing on surfing and I didn’t know where to start. I’ve seen people surf in videos and movies but I couldn’t quite grasp how to do it. In order to learn, I just simply tried doing it. After countless falls and numerous liters of seawater swallowed, I finally learned the basics of how to surf. Had I not tried surfing I wouldn’t have learned it at all.
 
Take a look at yourself from a year ago, and see how far you’ve come today.
In order to have that unquenchable thirst for learning, you’d need to look at yourself before and compare it with how you are right now. Is there anything you’ve done in the past year that seemed stupid and wrong, or you found to be really difficult, but now it’s easy? If you can’t answer these questions, chances are that you’re not learning enough.
 
If I can leave you with one statement to take away, it’s this, “Never stop to learn and never learn to stop.” Continuously strive to learn new things and never be contented with what you know.  

By: Jason Dizon

​Netflix has taken the world by storm, introducing a streaming video service which has seemingly replaced both DVD’s and Cable subscriptions by countless households across the globe. Netflix has even come up with their own original content which has had viewers glued to their seats every time. Personally, I’ve tried Netflix a few times and I am seriously considering subscribing to their services in replacement of cable TV.
 
However, what seems like an ingenious idea didn’t start out that way. Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings started out as a programmer who started a business out of a debugging software called Purify. The company was successful at first until they started acquiring companies left and right. Incorporating teams from companies who had differing work habits led to an erosion of Purify’s company culture. It was after his time with Purify that he was able to build Netflix to what it is today.
 
His transition from Purify to Netflix was not an easy task as he had to find like-minded people who could easily adapt to the changing times. Reed needed to shape Netflix’s company culture with his team so that he would not experience the same catastrophe he had with Purify. Here are the lessons we can learn from Reed’s experience of developing Netflix’s company culture with his employees:
 
1. Companies need to be able to innovate not just on their products/services, but also on their culture and how they do business.       
Given that we are currently living in a world where technological advancements can come rapidly and unexpectedly, typical business models that have worked in the past may not persist as time goes by. As such, companies will need people who can readily adapt to the changes that will happen, and can help improve the organization’s way of doing business. At Netflix, Hastings needed flexible problem solvers who could adapt to the changing times. The evolution of Netflix from a company that sends DVD’s via email for rent to a streaming video service was a major leap since these are two completely different business models that required different sets of expertise. This need of finding people who are ready to adapt to change is crucial for any business. 
 
In fact, here at Leadfunnel, we constantly try to find new ways of enhancing and improving our lead generation for clients since we are aware that newer technologies and methods will change the business landscape.   
 
2. A strong company culture is needed for organizations looking to scale.
As your business is starting to grow, you will need to hire a lot of people to accommodate your customer’s demands. Since there will be a lot of potential recruits, there is a need to be able to find the “right” people who can fit in with your organization. This is where a strong company culture is needed as this represents how your employees work at their best. This culture must be understood by everyone, and built in collaboration with one another. You can know if your organization has a winning company culture if every employee feels that he/she personally owns that culture.
 
Without a strong company culture, organizations will be lost as employees will do work mindlessly, having no direction. This is what happened with Hasting’s first business. He didn’t pay much attention to company culture even as he was already acquiring businesses. The results of which led to a decrease in the overall intellectual level of employees who only knew how to stick to processes they are aware of. Hasting’s experience with his first business led to his realization on the importance of company culture as he builds his business for the future. 
 
At Leadfunnel, we have a company culture wherein we get to teach and help one another improve. We get to talk with each other and exchange ideas on how we can improve ourselves and our organization.
 
3. Company culture cements very quickly. Companies need to be careful when scaling.
Since there is a need for a strong company culture, employees need to work together to shape their culture and identity. Ideally, you should define your company culture before you look to scale and expand the business. You will need to think hard on which cultural attributes in place you will retain and remove as you scale and get more recruits.
 
In Netflix, the company has come up with a “culture deck” which is basically the embodiment of their culture. The culture deck is a compilation of what the Netflix culture stands for, who they are trying to hire, and what they can expect. This deck has been uploaded to Slideshare for people to see. This way, Netflix can find the right people and retain certain aspects of their culture.
 
In the case of Leadfunnel, we get to retain our company culture by explaining it to potential recruits as they are onboarded. We may not have a 100-slide presentation of our culture like Netflix, but we have online documents that explain what Leadfunnel is all about and what we believe in as a company.
 
4. Culture-fit should be valued over skills and experience
There will probably come a time during your company’s hiring process wherein you get to interview a highly sought-after candidate. He/she would have the necessary skills and experience needed for the job. However, that person does not fit in with your company. The question you would be asking yourself is, “Would you still hire the person if he/she does not fit in with your organizational culture?” The answer should be no! A highly skilled candidate, who does not fit in with your company culture, can clash with other employees. Once this happens, your employees will not be able to function as a team, leading to a loss in productivity and performance.
 
For Netflix, this problem is addressed by the existence of their culture deck. All their potential recruits have to read this document. They are able to avoid hiring people who do not fit in because these people are aware of how Netflix does business. In fact, Netflix’s culture deck is meant to repel some candidates who do not want to work under certain conditions stipulated in the deck.
 
In my case, I was interviewed by the different employees of Leadfunnel through a call. They asked me certain questions regarding experience, attitudes, behaviors, and even hobbies. This way, Leadfunnel gets to hire people who fit in with our company’s culture.
 
5. A strong company culture is always under construction 
The last, and probably most important thing we can learn from Netflix is that a strong culture is that which is always under construction. Hastings even stated that they constantly update their culture deck to accommodate improvements suggested by their employees. As Hastings puts it, “Culture is a living document.” Company culture is dynamic and can change along with the times. Although there is change, certain aspects of their culture stay the same.
 
In Leadfunnel, though there have been countless changes in how we do things, our culture of teaching and helping one another improve will always be there.
 
 
If I can leave with a parting message, it’s this: “Continually strive for a culture that you and your employees can feel proud of!” 

By: Abby Garcia

Reaching customers by phone or online seems very convenient for some sales people. But what they do not realize are the disadvantages which go along with it. If you want to improve in sales, keep in mind that customers are also human beings – they have emotions. To keep them, you must connect with them personally. But how will you do it if you’re in inside sales?

In Leadfunnel.ph, our operations are mostly online. We usually talk to the clients through e-mails and phone calls. We rarely do face-to-face meetings. The problem here lies on the fact that relationships matter in sales, especially when the deals are bigger. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that inside sales is ineffective. It’s just that the loss of human-to-human interaction makes it difficult to build connections with the customers on a personal level, which is important in selling. Now, how do we solve this dilemma?

Steli Efti from The Startup Chat mentioned that one way of adding a personal touch in your e-mail is to include your e-mail signature with something personal or unique about you. My boss actually does it by ending his e-mail with “Cheers” then his first name. It may seem simple, but it definitely changes the tone of the message. It’s like he’s writing to a friend – a good way to connect with a client personally.

When talking to customers online, you must also remember that they do other stuff aside from talking to you. They multitask. A tip on how to get their full attention when you’re sales pitching online is to say, “And this is the most important thing I can show you today,” then wait for a good 15-20 seconds to tell them your main selling point. This will make them stop what they’re doing and anticipate what you’re going to say.

Infusing human touch to inside sales shouldn’t be too hard. After all, we should be capable to begin with as human beings.

By: Jason Dizon

​Have you ever been so mesmerized by a person’s words even if you haven’t met this person in your entire life? Well, chances are you might have met a really good magician, or an incredible sales person.
 
I remember this one guy who tried selling me a cellphone. Since I was in the process of canvassing my options, this sales guy tried personally selling to me. What made him different from your typical sales person was that he first tried to find out my needs, and what he could do to help fulfill those needs, instead of jumping right in and showcasing what their phone had to offer.
 
Some of the really good sales people seem to be magicians since they are able to sell the same product or service to different types of customers who have different buying behavior and tendencies. Like that guy who sold me the cellphone, sales seems to be like magic for salespeople who can seemingly convince anyone to buy into their offer. Luckily for us, like with all magic tricks, there is a secret to sales.
 
Secret #1: Believe it or not, most sales people follow a script
Finding out that sales is kind of scripted may appear as a shock especially for people who are new to sales. In fact, when I was just starting learning about sales, I found myself asking, “How can there be a script if sales people are able to sell without necessarily using the same spiel over and over again?” One time, I asked my father, “How come salesmen from banks are able to convince people to open an account, when there are other banks out there?” There didn’t seem that much difference to me since banks more or less offered the same set of services. Through time, I discovered that the answer to that question was a matter of experience.
 
As I was starting out in Leadfunnel, we had to deal with multiple clients of varying backgrounds and industries. As such, we had certain scripts as a guide, especially for conversations that we knew were going to happen on a frequent basis. For instance, we had a script for client calling, and a different guide for closing deals. This really helped me out a lot since I was still fairly new to sales at the time. I didn’t know in the beginning how to go about, talking with our clients. Having a sales script helped guide me on what to say.
 
Since people have different ways of thinking and doing things, not everyone will have the same aptitude for selling. As such, there arises a need for a benchmark, a sort of guideline for sales people to follow so that everyone is on the same page. This reason is why a sales script is needed so that sales people in organizations can produce desirable results.
 
Secret #2: Even with a script, sales needs a bit of improv
After knowing that a lot of those sales pitches by sales people are scripted, you might be wondering, “How are these sales people able to engage customers with a seemingly overused pitch?” I encountered a real estate agent in a mall, who was selling using the same opening statement, “Ma’am, sir, property for investment.” I noticed how people just walked by him as he uttered those words. However, when he saw a potential customer, he tweaked his statement a bit, and asked for the situation of that customer. He was able to engage the person in a lengthy conversation.
 
The reason for this is that while there are scripts that these sales people use, they tend to improvise and tweak the script a bit so that it doesn’t sound too mechanical like a robot. After all, scripts aren’t the be-all and end-all of sales. These merely serve as a guide so that sales people have a direction in all their conversations with customers.
 
In fact, I had to tweak some of the scripts that we used in the company. I had to make conversations a bit more personal while still aligning myself with how our company operates.  
 
Therefore, an organization must be able to design their sales scripts in such a way that their sales people get guided and at the same time, allow for a certain bit of flexibility and creativity, similar to that real estate agent I observed in the mall.
 
Secret #3: The main purpose of a script is for repeatability
In order for an organization to continually grow, the sales processes need be emulated and practiced by all employees. However, with varying experiences and knowledge of an organization’s sales processes, not everyone is on the same wavelength. Some sales people are better in selling as compared to their colleagues.
 
In our company, given that I am relatively new compared to my colleagues, I am still in the process of fully grasping how we do business with our customers. There are good days and bad days for me when it came to closing deals. 
 
The answer therefore to the problem of differing expertise lies in a way in which balance can be achieved even with different aptitudes and experiences with selling. This is where the organization’s sales scripts come in. These scripts help make the various sales processes of the organization repeatable. That way, regardless of experience and knowledge, everyone has a fighting chance to sell. In my experience, I was able to close deals using the sales scripts Leadfunnel had, which I simply tweaked a bit.  
 
With these, you have learned some of Sales’ biggest secrets! Hopefully, your organization can find value in creating and improving your sales scripts.

By: Abby Garcia

Have you ever felt that sales is like a battle? At first, you’re pitching your product or service to a customer. You’re confident that everything’s going well so far. Suddenly, he’ll ask a question or make a comment that will catch you off-guard, objecting to all the things you’ve said. Some examples are, “Isn’t this too expensive?” or “I don’t have time for this right now.” Don’t you hate it when this happens? Well, here are 4 tips on how to “counter-attack” when you receive these big blows:

1) Don’t react emotionally.
Remember, your next courses of action will depend on how you react to the opposition. If you get irritated, you might not be able to make further persuasive responses. Talking from experience, I had a client who thought our product was just a waste of money. It went along the lines of, “I don’t think your service will help us right now. Sadly, we have to decline.” Ouch, right? But remember, your reaction is the key. Don’t take the objection to heart, as it will mess up your head.

2) Understand the root cause of the objection.
Going with my story earlier, I was flat out rejected. Crushed. Although this seemed like a devastating defeat, I still had the crazy idea I could turn this into a sale. I felt that if I stopped, I would lose the battle. So, I had the guts to ask what specifically went wrong. After hearing his side, our team was able to find a solution, which made him continue the service. The point is, try to know and understand the customer’s cause of objection, work your way out, and then see the results.

3) Consider objections as “learning points”, professionally and personally.
If you want to be great in sales, you may want to change your view of objections. If you think of them negatively, then forget about counter-attacking. Good sales people, in fact, tend to see objections as a way of improving their products and services, and even themselves in the process. In my experience, if I had given up on the first sign of rejection, I might not have changed the customer’s decision. I know it takes a great deal of courage to accept these negative criticisms. But once you face them, you’ll obtain a great deal of confidence in return.

4) Think long-term when solving the problem.
Some sales people tend to make the mistake of countering an objection with a short-term solution. One client of mine complained about a particular feature of our service, saying that its quality was not enough. So, the immediate solution we gave was particular to that feature only, ignoring the other aspects. A few months later, another client criticized this feature as well. If you think about it, would another objection have happened at all if a long-term general solution was applied at the first sign of the problem? In short, long-term solutions could avoid possible future objections.

By: Psalm Pueblos

I visited an old friend of mine a few weeks ago in a coffee shop. Ever since we last met, she has grown strides in the field of digital marketing. I was proud of her, knowing that I thought her years ago, and now she has even surpassed me. 

But I was utterly surprised when she mentioned about the situation in her workplace. When during their weekly all-heads meetings, some people from the sales team complained about the quality of leads they were getting, her team heads replied that maybe it’s the sales team’s inability to communicate is the reason why they think the leads are not good in the first place. “Sales and marketing keep butting heads, even with other companies,” she quipped.

Personally, it’s hard to reconcile the notion that sales and marketing departments are constantly at war with each other, mainly for the sole reason that both have one underlying goal: company growth. If both departments continue to be at odds with each other, then it ends up hurting both. As sales managers, it is important that this is handled as urgently as possible.

It’s about the company, nothing else

The most crucial part of bridging this gap is simply to reframe it. We tend to behave in a tribal mindset, enclosing ourselves to those who are directly related to us. For departments, it means treating other departments as outsiders, hostile to the wishes of your village. This is a destructive mindset. 

At this point in time, when even industry competitors are promoting collaboration instead of competition, there is no excuse that within the same company, such should exist. Understand that all departments have one end game, and it is crucial that all should work together for the same goal. 

You’re good at talking with clients, communicate

"But how do we let marketing understand what we want?” Simple, talk to them. The moment you reframe your mindset into helping each other, you realize that the reason friction exists most of the time is because of miscommunication. Was the buyer persona clearly addressed? Does the word “conversion” mean the same thing to both departments? How many leads can Marketing realistically provide? And how many leads can Sales accommodate?

Of course, in communicating, it should not be between the VPs of both departments. There are a lot of things that get lost when only the heads talk. HubSpot solved this by doing weekly meetings with both teams, even to the point of mixing up desks so that each would know how the other works and vice versa. 

For some, that would be too much, but the point is clear: talk to them, whether you’re the head of your sales team or a member. 

Ultimately, compromise

Reality has to set in though, and when setting targets become part of the discussion, this is where friction does exist. But it shouldn’t be feared. This is where the best opportunity to talk about happens. Work backwards, figure out how both Marketing and Sales can reach targets possible enough to achieve yet reasonably challenging. 

Sometimes, this where Sales are tough, asking ridiculous figures only to not be able to keep up with it. Learn to compromise. This is not about Sales but the company as a whole. If Marketing is the bottleneck, figure it out together how they can seamlessly transition. Conversely, when Sales becomes the bottleneck, Marketing can readjust.


Bridging the gap shouldn’t be difficult. Matter of fact, it shouldn’t be any in the first place. 

By: Psalm Pueblos

Handling sales for quite a while now, it continues to be a challenge for me in winning clients. Not only are there countless disappointments (e.g. no one responding to calls, frank rejections) included in this line of work, but for most salespeople, it takes a long time to earn a sale. The founder of Leadfunnel.ph, a good friend of mine, even told me about one salesperson who was able to win a client only after 3 years. Clearly, this is not for the impatient ones.

But even if the financial incentives in winning clients are good, the inevitable question does come out: how do you keep yourself motivated? I ask myself that question a lot of times. Besides the exceptional few, the rest of us struggle in our daily lives doing our job. And admittedly, I have been discouraged a couple of times, half-heartedly taking calls, knowing that no prospective client in their right mind would say yes right away.

I have been reading a number of motivational approaches, trying as hard as I can to keep myself on track. But the thing is, burnout does happen. And being there is dangerous, because seeking for motivation becomes an excuse, a crutch. I’m not motivated in the morning after a bad call, I lose interest in finishing the rest. I discovered that one of the clients was unqualified, I stereotyped all leads I’m about to interact being unqualified. 

But then, I discovered a different way of approaching this problem: instead of utilizing motivation, I used discipline. It’s a harder pill to swallow, but easier to maintain once taken. Almost everyone knows that habit formation takes 21 days before it implants itself to ones’ brain, but in order to do that, one has to struggle for the first 21 days. And this is where discipline is instilled. 

Naval Adm. William H. McRaven in his commencement speech said that during his boot camp, the first task they all had to do was keeping their bunk beds clean. It needs discipline to do that everyday at 4am, but it gives a sense of satisfaction doing so, and a reward to see once returning from a long day’s work.

Burnie Burns, co-founder of Rooster Teeth, through a scriptwriting app forced himself to write a script every day, even if it was bad. He discovered that it makes no sense as a creative to simply rely on motivation, as it dulled his senses and his ability. After the 100th consecutive script, he couldn’t bring himself to even skip, his thirst for looking for an idea now becoming second-nature to him.
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Similarly, Carlo Villarica of Zerothreetwo, in the 3rd World Startup podcast also mentioned writing a 250-word essay every day as well, as it became a sort of training for him, trying to look for words that were apt in his articles.

In some way, discipline is crucial for sales. Keeping scheduled tasks regardless how one feels about it is crucial. Matter of fact, emotions should be the last thing in a salesperson’s mind. For the salesperson, it keeps him on track. The idea of completion does carry cognitive satisfaction, to be able to do it again the next day. For the client, it lets them know that you are consistent. Makes them understand that you are in it for the long run, even if they might not. 

Then again, everything boils down to who you are. For me, instilling discipline first grounds myself, forcing me to a delayed gratification. But it pays off in the end. Being able to accomplish the small things. And one day, the big things as well.
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By: Abby Garcia

Some sales professionals struggle with following up on people. The main reason is they are terribly scared of being rejected. They think they might annoy the clients with too many follow-ups. They don’t want to sound desperate, yet they’re tired of waiting for responses. Are you one of these people? Admittedly, I am one of these. If you can also relate to me, here are four simple tips from sales experts on how to follow up effectively – and seal that deal:

1) Be concise and precise with your follow-up.
I was guilty of breaking this rule. As a sales person, I felt the need to be very formal with my clients. Whenever I emailed them, I wrote lengthy messages just to subtly imply I needed their feedback. I used to beat around the bush too often, just to avoid offending them.

The difference between my former self and those who successfully close deals is they have the confidence to be casual and straightforward. They can even send just one short message to make a point, which goes something like, “Hey, how are you doing? Are you available for a call?”

2) Don’t be needy and emotional.
Afraid of sounding too desperate, I used to think twice before sending a follow-up message. “Is it too soon?” “Would he/she get annoyed?” “Are they not interested in the deal anymore?” Thoughts like these used to circulate my head, that I just forgot following up at all. I was discouraged. I discouraged myself – and I had regrets.

Little did I know that some of them were really waiting for my follow-up.

3) Avoid making the person you’re following up with feel guilty.
I might have also said something along the lines of, “If you cannot reply, please call me at…” or “Please reply asap…” Even if the matter is really urgent, this is a very big no-no. Reading back my previous messages similar to these ones, I realized that I would have gotten so pissed off if I were in their shoes. I might not have even replied. If you think you’re not making this mistake, read your follow-ups again and place yourself in their shoes. Do you think you’re not making them feel guilty?

4) Follow up more frequently at the start, and then gradually do it less.
Previously, I had a client who didn’t respond to any emails, calls, or texts for a month – true story. During the second week, I was advised to gradually lessen the follow-ups; two to three times a week, followed by once a week, and so on. I nearly gave up. After a month, I was able to contact him. He said he was very busy that time he couldn’t reply. But even after all those numerous follow-ups, he asked me to send him a proposal.
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The point is to continue following up, even if you think there’s no chance of him/her replying back. You may think this is irritating for your clients, but sometimes what you’re thinking isn’t necessarily right. Relieve yourself of all the unnecessary doubts, and just follow up!