Eight Steps to Keeping Prospects Engaged In Your Sales Process

Ever have a prospect who reminded you of a submarine? You know the one - actively engaged on Wednesday; ready to move forward on Friday; disappears on Tuesday, never to be heard from again . . .

 You can prevent this phenomenon from occurring eight times out of ten by following these simple tips.

1. Have a clear sales process in place that you can articulate to your prospects. Step one should always include discovery, where you are qualifiying your prospects and determining their time frame for making a decision. Then, simply focus on 'closing' each prospect on taking the next step.
2. Explain the process during the first telephone call. The final step in the process should always be the day the service begins or the contract is signed.
3. Let your prospects know the average length of time it takes most people to make a decision, from the time of first inquiry to close.
4. Tell your prospects that they are 100% in control. They can tell you that they are not interested and you will accept this answer, although you will likely ask 'why' so that you can make changes in the process in the future.
5. Explain that the only thing that you ask your prospects to do is to let you know how they are feeling at each step in the process. Reinforce that 'no' is a perfectly acceptable answer.
6. Ask each prospect if s/he will commit to exploring this opportunity with you. Once they commit, explain that you are at the end of step one in your process. Ask the prospect to rate his/her interest on a 1-10 scale, with one being "not interested" and 10 being "ready to start".
7. Ask this question at the end of each interaction with your prospect.
8. ALWAYS set a time and date for your next conversation or step in the process

Article Source: Fairfield Business Solutions

inDay Speaker Series with Reid Hoffman

Posted by Greg Longstaff
Business Development Consultant
Franchise Network Specialist
greg@salesmarket.co.nz
+64 9.307.7860

Enthusiasm & sticking to a system is your guarantee of success.

Greg Longstaff

What are the 2 main reasons people buy a franchise business? Firstly because there is a known brand name, and secondly a business system that allows people to follow guidelines of what should be a successful business model.

When I look at some of the franchise system I have worked with, there are some very clear guidelines that when followed by owners will ensure good sales. As business owners we can sometimes forget the basics of what we did at the start of our business that ensured our initial success.

Enthusiasm, the desire to succeed, even fear of failure are great motivators for you in the initial months of taking over your business!
So getting back to basics, what did you need to do to succeed when you bought your franchise?

Enthusiasm is a great start. Think back to the early days of when you took over your business? That feeling of excitement and adrenalin, nobody would dare say no to you because your excitement for your new venture was infectious. They (your prospects) wanted to jump on the happy train with you. Whether you knew it or not that’s what was happening.


So how did you get your leads initially? That’s right you printed off a marketing area and you called on every business in that area to tell them you’re open for business. You see what I have noticed over the years is that in some cases some franchisees get to a level of turnover and then the operation manual is no longer needed. Sometimes we need to go back and look at got us to where we are today. 

At a certain level of sales a business owner can become tied up in ensuring the production requirements are meeting their deadlines so they no longer find time to do market their business! It's almost like they think they have done enough and the business will just keep coming in to them!

What I am saying is that everyone gets off the ground initially by walking the streets telling people who you are and what you can do for them. To get from $0.00 to $20K this is what you need to do, so to me it would make sense to keep following the same process to ensure your sales keep ascending.

If your sales staff spends all their time quoting because your business is at a level where you are getting enough repeat business, then you as business owners you need to map out a plan for him/her to either keep calling on new businesses or perhaps put on a another sales person (either internal or external). If you current don't have a sales person then maybe now is the time to bite the bullet and hire one. By doing so you WILL take your business to another level. By not doing this you run the risk of your sales either staying stuck on a level, or your sales will more likely go backwards because you’re allowing your opposition to capitalize on the new business in your area that you haven’t yet secured.


Greg Longstaff
Business Development Consultant
Franchise Network Specialist
greg@salesmarket.co.nz
+64 9.307.7860

Is Your Client Follow Up Professional or Painful?

We received a cold telephone call at home a couple of weeks ago from a company offering private tuition for children. Like most parents there is nothing better to stir our emotions than getting the best for our children. Their cold call was successful and we met with a sales representative a few days later.
As the meeting ended, we were promised a follow up call in a couple of days. That was fine – it gave us time to talk and were to expect a call.


Half an hour after the meeting the phone rang. This company wanted to arrange another meeting with us. We said ‘no, the lady who has just seen us is calling in a couple of days time, we’ll talk to her thank you’. We then received several more phone calls wanting to know if we had made a decision or wanted another meeting. All of them were polite and none persuasive, but all were hassling.

This is an extreme case and I’m not suggesting that all sales people hassle their prospects, but it raises the question of where the line is between respectful follow up and objectionable hassling.  In this case they didn’t seem to get it that every call lessened their chances of getting any business from us.


Let’s be honest here, when was the last time you made a follow up call to a client and they said – ‘thanks for calling. I’ve been waiting for days for you to call so that I could give you the order’. Buyers don’t do that. If they want to and are ready to do business they call you. Don’t they?
But we all know, follow up is necessary…

So How Do You Follow Up? 

Follow up is necessary. You have to progress the sale. People are busy, reprioritise and forget things. They need help in making a decision, and your call may provide that help through your ability to aid the logical decision or influence emotion.
But self serving questions don’t help or encourage anybody to buy.
Don’t pour your credibility down the drain by looking like a desperate sales person and asking the obvious questions like ‘Have you decided yet?’, or the dreaded ‘Can I do anything more to help?’
So how do you follow up, build trust and maintain credibility at the same time?



1. At every engagement with the client, set the next step then stick to it.This way you are managing the clients’ expectations, and will not appear to be hassling.  If you have agreed to talk again in a weeks time, then talk again in a weeks time. If you are sending some information by the end of the week, then send it by the end of the week. Include a note to say what will happen next, then stick to the next step.
2. When you make the follow up call be prepared to discuss their business, not yours.(Your business is what you want to know – did they receive the information, when are they going to place the order, what you can do to help?….)
Their business is about how you will:
A. Improve their process efficiency

B. Help them become more profitable

C. Find ways to get ahead of their competition

D. Anticipate and solve future problems and reduce their costs.

If you do this well, the answers to your questions of when a decision will be made and what you should do next will come out in conversation.


On long lead time opportunities, consider these ways to maintain contact and build trust with the client:

• Introduce clients to your network
• Help at a project or event
• Send some additional information, a report, or a website link that will be of use or value to the client

Be there when a client is not expecting it – eg, send a card or make a ‘good luck’ phone call.

Article Source: BusinessBlogs - by Paul Newsom NZ Sales Manager article

3 Tips - Increasing Your Average Invoice- by Julian Chong

I was recently in a store training a new internal sales person and I heard the owner explicitly say that he
ALWAYS has the goal of adding an extra $100 to every order. I LOVED hearing this.

If you’re doing 50 orders a month (many of you will be doing more), that’s an additional $5,000 a
month in sales, and a whopping $60,000 a year. If you’re netting 20% this is an extra
$12,000 in your pocket come Christmas time. It’s not complicated maths!

So how do you go about it? The best way is to ask…
1) Up-sell – After you’ve gone through the qualifying process, give them a more
expensive option by explaining to them the value of going with the higher
investment. It might cost a little more now, but in the long term would be more
beneficial to them
2) Cross-sell – Think about what goes with what in your store. If they’ve bought a
display stand, what about a pull up banner as well. Did you even ask them? If
they’ve just started a new business did you also try them for some vehicle signage? 
3) Counter Display – What do you have next to your POS machine? When it comes time
for the customer to place the order, do you have completed signage pics? Graphics
on your A-frame ‘special’?
Go on, be true to yourself and give it a go. You have absolutely nothing to lose.

Article Source: Julian Chong


Greg Longstaff
Business Development Consultant
Franchise Network Specialist
greg@salesmarket.co.nz
+64 9.307.7860