Follow Up
by Dera DeRoche-Jolet

Now that you’ve put an ad in the newspaper, run a few radio spots and sent out that direct mail piece to your customers and potential customers, it’s time to sit back, wait for the phone to ring and the sales to rush in. Right?

Wrong! Now is the time to follow up. Anyone who responds has an interest in what you’re selling. That interest must be kept and won over. Nothing is worse for your company and its image than poor follow up. A wrong move on your part will cause your potential customer to lose interest. Even worse, that potential customer may still be interested in an alarm system for instance, but may lose interest in your company and go somewhere else. You’ve already spent your time, money and energy on advertising or direct mail, it would be foolish not to follow up with the same commitment.

Here are ten tips to help you follow up, make the sale, get new customers and keep your old customers.

1. Provide reply cards or coupons that have space for legible handwritten information. How can you respond to someone’s interest if you can’t read the name? Use labels on your piece that can be peeled off and pasted on the reply card. Provide boxes for your recipients to check if possible. Leave plenty of space and say "please type or print."

2. Don’t forget to advertise the phone number. You’d probably be amazed at how many ads or direct mail pieces have gone out the door without a phone number. Sure they could look up your phone number, but without it you’re making it that much harder for them to contact you.

3. Have enough people and phone lines. No one likes to be kept on hold for very long and a person who gets a busy signal a couple of times will probably just give up.

4. Have knowledgeable people handle any requests that come in. One thing that really turns me off on any company is when I call for info and no one seems to know anything about it. Make sure you inform everyone in your office including your receptionist. Train those who will be answering questions.

5. Make sure you have the product in stock and readily available. Not having the product ready for delivery certainly won’t endear you to your customer base. I’m willing to bet a great majority won’t be your customer base for long if you can’t deliver what you promised. Don’t advertise products until you know you can deliver. Also, don’t offer information pieces or brochures until you have them on the shelf.

6. Keep in touch. You may not be able to send a salesperson, ship the product, or install a system the very next day. Contact the respondent and let them know that you haven’t forgotten them and that their requests are being taken care of.

7. Don’t follow up with a cheap response. If you follow up with mailed literature, make it look as good or better than your first piece. Many companies make the mistake of spending big bucks on the initial direct mail piece and following up with a cheap response. Those that are responding to your piece are more valuable than when they were on the original list. Treat them that way.

8. Don’t send confusing material. If you are advertising a specific product in your local newspaper, don’t send a brochure containing information on the entire line without highlighting the specific information that they requested. Enclose a personalized letter with direct references to their interest. Keep in mind that they don’t know as much as you do about security.

9. Follow up regularly by mail, phone and/or in person. Prospects often ask for information long before they buy. By keeping them on your mailing and phone list s, your company will always be in front of them when they are ready to buy.

10. Build a database of responders. That list is a goldmine. Those people are interested in your products and services. Don’t let it go to waste. Build the database with all that you know about each person that responds. Follow up regularly using that list.atters whether sales or marketing comes first. Alarm companies that do not put marketing "first" in their plans, might not be here tomorrow.