As a lifelong salesperson and manager of salespeople, if there is a single
thing that you can do which will increase your sales, your closing ratio,
and your income it’s this:

Follow up.

Get your prospects’ contact information, and, with their permission, follow
up with them. Call them, email them, I don’t care, but if you say you’re
going to do it, then do it.

More often than not, your prospects will turn into either customers or,
better yet, clients, and give you the sale.

Yet amazingly the majority of people who call themselves salespeople suck at
follow-up, to put it frankly.

Let me tell you an amazing story of follow up that just happened to me. A
year ago, I learned about a company from Atlanta called Whipped Lightning.
Their product: alcohol infused whipping cream in an aerosol can.

Whipping cream AND alcohol? Sign me up!

So, eager to find out where I could buy it, I emailed the company and asked
if their product was being distributed in Canada.

They responded promptly, alas with the bad news that, at that time, Whipped
Lightning was not available in Canada.

That was a year ago. This week, out of the blue, I got another email from
the nice people at Whipped Lightning:

“We are proud to announce that Whipped Lightning has finally made its way to
Canada! Please reply to this email with your Alberta postal code and we will
send you a list of stores that are convenient to you.”

So I replied, and they emailed me a list of a half dozen liquor stores in my
area that are now stocking their product.

That level of follow up is remarkable. How many sales and marketing people
would go back to an email from a year ago and update their prospective
customer? Needless to say, I rewarded them by going out and picking up a
couple of cans.

And you know what? This stuff is pretty good.