How to Get More Clients by Following Up Properly and Closing Five Times as Many Deals in the Coaching Industry

Have you ever failed to follow up with a new contact? Over 80 percent of sales are lost because of poor or delayed follow-up. To make things easier for you, consider this straightforward method.

Eighty Percent of Lost Sales Are Caused by Insufficient Follow-Up

According to studies conducted by market researchers, 80% of sales opportunities are never pursued. There is no follow-up on 80% of transactions. Unfortunately, only 20% of all transactions are followed up on.

Is there another way to put that?

Another one, if you will.

If 80% of sales are lost because of poor follow-up, does that indicate that the remaining 20% could be made up of the 80% previously missed? It’s not a pretty fivefold rise, but it’s close.

Let’s check out how that operates. If you talked to 100 individuals and could have closed ten but only ended up closing 2, it’s because you didn’t follow up. If you followed up, you could get five times as much as before.

Yes, let’s look at that again. The usual number of times a customer needs to be followed up with before they say yes is five, according to other studies. That’s why it’s crucial to follow up afterward.

After receiving a single negative response from a client, 44% of salespeople stop.
After receiving two rejections, 22% of people stop up.
After the third rejection, 14% of people stop up.
After receiving four rejections, 1 in 12 people quit.
Here’s the thing, though:

About 80% of potential customers refuse to purchase from you the first few times they are asked.
In other words,

Eight percent of salespeople are responsible for eighty percent of revenue. And now you know what it takes to join them if you haven’t already been.
So, take a breath and consider that. That means you must follow up with each lead at least five times before seeing revenue growth.

However, assuming you follow up, the speed with which you do so can significantly improve your chances of making a sale.

It may come as a surprise, but the longer you wait before following up on a potential transaction, the less likely you are to close the deal. A decent rule of thumb is that the longer you wait after meeting a prospect after he showed interest in doing business with you, the less interested he will be. Every day you wait makes it exponentially more relaxed.

Say you make a new contact at a networking event, a chamber of commerce show, or some other type of event and respond the same day. The odds of a successful transaction are the highest for you. If you take two days to respond (remember EXPONENTIAL), your prospect will be half as intrigued as he would have been had you answered the first day.

Here’s a graph showing how quickly people’s enthusiasm wanes.

Delay in Interest Rate in Days
1————————Maximum
2————————1/4th
3————————1/9th
4————————1/16th

If you wait more than three days, it’s probably too late. Don’t let it slip your mind; get back to them within the first couple of days.

If you can react quickly, there’s a better chance they’ll still want what you’re offering. Get it? The best results come from responding rapidly, particularly if you respond before your rivals.

If you wait two days, the odds of shutting drop to 1 in 4. If you stay two days to respond, you’ll need four times as many meetings to make the same number of purchases as if you responded within the first 24 hours.
If you delay making contacts by three days, you may need to make sixteen times as many as you would in twenty-four hours to achieve the same level of success.
These are elementary ideas with the potential to MULTIPLY revenue.

Most individuals don’t bother to follow up because…

The stereotype of the pushy used-car salesperson causes many people to avoid following up. They back off because they don’t want to come off as an overly pushy used car salesman the more they feel they are pressing the prospect or becoming even slightly aggressive. They, therefore, fail to follow up.

Some people are trying to escape being rejected, and others are. Some people avoid contacting because they worry about rejection, while others put it off until they feel ready to make the call. They are deliberating until they find a solution that cannot be refused. However, the likelihood of rejection increases the longer they wait.

They delay calling for several days or weeks, so they forget to follow up. They didn’t deliberately wait for it to get too late before calling; instead, their pursuit of perfection led them to ignore it.
The best way to phrase a follow-up message.

This is essential and will make the follow-up contact a breeze. It should help you prevent procrastination within the first two days and make that call.

It’s important to remember that “it’s always about them, not you.” Calling someone is not an opportunity to make a transaction but rather an inquiry.

So, when you contact them or see them in person:

Tell them you’re interested in learning more about their company, its services, and its perfect customers so you can better serve them.
Request a coffee date with them to discuss the matter further.
Start with a query rather than a statement or a response.
Find out what about you made them want to meet up with you. They will want to meet with you, and they will likely begin the conversation by discussing something that piques their interest if you use a compelling marketing message focusing on their pain and a remedy.
Inquire whether any of the issues you discussed are still causing them difficulty.
Inquire whether they would be interested in a free session to learn more about how they can [get whatever it is you help people accomplish].
Focus on them rather than on yourself. Seventy-five percent or more of them will schedule meetings with you, you’ll find.

What was your average before this?

How many of them did you complete?

Do you want to make many more deals?

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Are you interested in expanding your teaching practice?

I have just finished writing a comprehensive handbook for coaching in the marketing field. You will also be offered a no-cost spot in a mastermind group with other trainers. Listen to the successes and failures.

Learn how to start your own successful coaching business at no cost by downloading “How to Build a Super Star Coaching Business” from leaders-perspective.com.

Alan Boyer is a coach’s coach, meaning he or she wants more clients than they currently have. According to accounts, five to ten times as many customers in a matter of weeks, and that number keeps rising.

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