If your closing ratio is somewhere between 15-30%, that means seven out of every ten potential customers are browsing and not purchasing. Three to four of these prospects are going to continue to shop & make a buying decision quickly. Perhaps at your competitor’s store.
If you can get that same customer back in on the same project, the closing ratio percentage increases to 70%.
So why don’t more salespeople do a good job building a hot prospect list? Because it’s hard work. But it can be easy if you have a plan.
How do you work toward that follow-up opportunity, stealing those customers back from your competition?
- Incentivize customers to want to leave their personal information. Provide an exciting monthly contest that the customer will want to enter. Don’t be cheap- enticing offers pay for themselves. In addition to the drawing, make sure each potential customer leaves with a useful, short guide written by you or your marketing team with helpful information. Ideas include- how to shop with confidence, what to watch out for when purchasing, top 5 questions to ask sales staff, etc. Make sure the guide outlines why the customer can trust your store, and you may end up with an on the spot purchase after all.
- Create an atmosphere of trust. If the potential customer trusts your sales associate, providing their contact information will seem like a natural next step. Developing a quality relationship quickly into the process is key, always make sure the sales associate is trained to introduce themselves. Most people’s reaction will be to provide their name back, & now you have one part of the contact information secure in the first seconds of the interaction. Another key tip- always withhold one piece of information. If the customer asks “does this come in grey” or “do you deliver on Sunday?” the sales associate can use that opportunity to secure the email or phone number. “I’m not sure about, but I will be happy to double check with our delivery team & give you a call when I hear back. What’s your phone number?” The customer is then expecting to hear from you, & follow-up is a breeze.
- Practice quality follow-up with a daily plan. With secure contact information & a question to answer, follow-up should be a no-brainer. Unfortunately this is where a lot of sales staff let those small inquiries fall through the cracks. How do you stay on track of all the requests & reminders necessary to nurture a potential customer into a sure bet? A computerized reminder system does the work for you. A good program should also automatically print thank you letters for your unsold customers that should be sent out the next day. How many times have you received a nice letter from a company with a personal touch where you had not purchased yet? This is one of the small differences within TraxSALES that sets you apart from the rest of your competitors. Our people counters & tracking systems makes it easy to stay on track & on top.
Get started with TraxSALES today.
