Post-Sales Call Must Haves

No matter how good or bad the sales call goes, you will get a reaction from the attendees. This reaction can help guide your post-sales call work. Sometimes this reaction has to do with you as the salesperson. Other times it has to do with your product or service not meshing well with their needs. Before you sign off your post-call wheels should already be spinning. Hopefully, you create some form of standard for the next steps between you and the client. Simply asking “Do you mind if I follow up with you next week?” or “Would you like to put another call on our schedules soon?” can be the difference between radio silence and continuing the sales funnel. 

Sales Photo by Amy Hirschi on Unsplash

Since you definitely did make the next steps as stated in our “The First Sales Call: How to Set Yourself Up for Success” then let’s get into what you should be doing after the call has ended to best prep for your next call, to improve as a salesperson, and to stay customer-oriented. 

In order to break into technical tech sales, like selling products found on FindLight, you have to be able to master the basics of professional sales. Together we can layer the professional sales tactics with technical tips to keep you on your game post-sales call. 

Post-Sales Call Priority #1: Get Organized

Taking notes post-sales calls can help build on past knowledge that will help keep you up-to-date with personalized info about your consumer. Staying organized and creating documents to remember your time with clients will help you best build your sales tactic. 

Note things like:

• Their objections
• Their questions 
• Pain points 
• Places they liked the product or service 

This will help build a new sales pitch for you. Notes should be written down, easy to find, and easily re-read before a meeting. The goal is they should help center you for the next call or email. Remember, you will be juggling a lot of interest meetings at the beginning of every quarter to generate leads, use these notes as your pathway to staying customer-centered.

These notes should be in-depth but should be easy enough to drag your eyes over before a meeting. Make sure to name the files in a way that makes it easy to find them. Starting your “system” will help you stay on top of your game. 

These notes can be powerful to look back on and reflect on how the sales call went. Within these notes, there should be the story that you used to sell the value of your product. There should be a small back and forth present with how your client and you responded to each other. Going back to your notes at the end of every quarter and troubleshooting where you might not have leaned into different sales tactics can help you grow in technical sales.

Pinpoint the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Customer

A large part of the aftermath of a sales call is showing the clients that you were listening. In the follow-up meeting or email, whichever was agreed upon, make sure you show that you noted what the client talked to you about. This is where your note-taking skills will come in handy!

Now is when you might want to gather any research to prove to the client that your product will be a part of their solutions. We are working in tech, show them the numbers! Keeping a small document with important facts and figures for your different products can help feed the technical side of a sales conversation. They can help you show the strengths and benefits of the product and make it quicker to draw upon these facts. Having to take time to go and search for these facts draws out the conversation. Having them by your side makes you look prepared but also helps keep the momentum of the conversation going. These might be more helpful during live calls but can be nice to copy and paste if the client emails you with a more spec-oriented question post-sales call. 

Sales Work Photo by ConvertKit on Unsplash

Find the Story: Reflect on What The Customer’s Problem Was

It is always good to remember that you are not just a salesperson trying to fast track a sale, lean into being the consultative guide you often are in B2B sales. You listened a lot in this first discovery call. Now is when you come back and continue building the relationship with facts from your research. The specs of the product help show a big picture, but use them to also answer the questions you gathered from the discovery call through a story. Don’t just send them a bullet point list of numbers, facts, and figures. Try to get back on the phone with them and have a story created with these numbers in mind with the potential to influence. Do the specs indicate they provide a solution? Truly, if your product and its numbers do not meet the client’s needs, it is important to tell them that. 

Intertwining the specs of the products with storytelling is what makes a great tech salesperson. It is important to learn how to sell to people despite working with very high-tech products. 

How to Follow Through Post-Sales Call

After establishing your client has a real potential to be benefited from your product, we have to continue moving forward. Things might be moving fast and they are ready to set up an order. If they are not, make sure to create the most convenient type of next step for them post-sales call. 

Either offer to do a workshop or a product demo, where they can see or learn more about the product in a more intimate way, or a second meeting with more decision-makers present. 

If you are having a hard time keeping in contact with the potential lead post-discovery call, you can always send lead nurturing emails to continue the personalized approach. They are curated content emails with items like blog posts, videos, or news stories that can be helpful in the client’s education of your product. Try playing with a subject line to catch their attention and help get them back in your loop. The emails show you are thinking of the client and want to educate them without pushing a sales deal too heavily.   

Overall, being a salesperson in the digital age is a lot different than before. A buyer can find anything and everything on the internet in between the first email or call. This is why continuing to foster a connection with the client and really honing in on their needs is what will help you close a sale. Continuing to do the work post-sales call helps make the potential customer happy and you as a salesperson.