One of the most overlooked things in sales is the constant follow-up with clients
You don’t have the positional-power of a manager to drive commitments, you need the power of persuasion.
Persuading Aristotle by Peter Thompson is a great book on understanding persuasion.
He outlines that our communication needs to convey: Ethos, Pathos and Logos:
Ethos is our own credibility or speaker’s authority
 
Logos is logic or rationale we use to support a claim. We can also use information and data to support our argument.
 
Pathos is our emotional connection with the people we are selling to.
Any great political leader (good or bad), the Ethos, Logos and Pathos will be on display.
Understanding the powers of persuasion can help us be more effective in the Follow-up.

More practical follow-up methods…

1. By the end of the day write a thank-you email to the client outlining the discussion and the commitments you each took away.

2. Include in the email when you will “touch base” to see how everything is going on their end

3. Make sure you give people a good amount of time. If they say, I’m going to be flat out for the next 10 days. Then you should give them extra time. Add another 5 days so they don’t feel pressured.

4. Make sure you have a follow up tool…CRM or even Outlook is fine. Unless you are to juggle 30-50 prospects/proposals

5. In the follow up call, always find ways to talk that makes them feel comfortable. This helps the client to be honest with you on where they are at. If you go straight for have you made a decision yet? You are going to make them feel defensive. It’s always easier to couch it as, Hi Jane, glad to hear you are back from your holiday… Just wanted to see how things are tracking on your end with the proposal we worked on? Is there anything I can do to assist?