Post Sales Follow Up

Are you searching for a post sales process to implement at your company? This article provides suggestions. Don’t forget to use marketing automation technology to pre-configure a post sales process like this that automatically schedules tasks for your sales people in your CRM such as Salesforce.com. You’ll be well on your way to a systematic approach for post sales follow up. This document covers a proposed process companies could follow with a new customer after making the sale. Being proactive about your customer relationships is not only beneficial for cultivating referrals, it’s preventative medicine when it comes to client defection. Most clients defect to a competitor due to perceived indifference on the part of their current solution provider or vendor. Experts estimate defection rates are over 70 percent. Defection due to price or finding superior product generally occurs at a much lower rate.

Create a Referral Kit

To support your post sales follow up process we suggest creating a Referral Kit. Shall a customer agree to your Referral Program send them a Referral Kit. The Referral Kit includes essential documents and links they can pass on to other companies.

Benefits of a Post Sales Follow Up Process

Following this process provides your company with the following benefits: 1) Up-sell and cross-sell opportunity - New products - Edition upgrades 2) Stronger relationships 3) Referral opportunities - Customer’s partner network - Customer’s competitors - Individual’s personal network 4) Public Relations (PR) opportunities - Press releases - Testimonials/quotes for our website - Displaying logo on our website - Video testimonials - Reference letter (which we can include in our standard Proposal)

Incentives for Client Referrals

If a customer is interested in a Referral Agreement you should provide some incentive to them. Every use case will be different and may require a different offer. An offer should only be valid for an opportunity that closes as a result of a referral. Here’s a list of possible offers to consider extending (primarily for subscription-based businesses): 1) Reduction in annual subscription for the next Contract Year (5% or 10%) for every referral that closes. 2) 5% to 10% commission on a sales resulting from a referral. 3) Free upgrade for every two (2) referrals that close. 4) AMEX gift card for $500 for every deal that closes. 5) Discount on first year subscription license for referred customer (5% up to 20%).

Example Post Sales Follow Up Process

An example post sales follow up process that spans a period of 12 months is below.

Day 1

Thank them for being a customer. Send standard Thank You email that is already created using Lead Liaison’s platform.

1 Month

Assess the overall experience. 1) How was the On-Boarding experience? 2) By the way, when is your birthday? Note, get birthdays for the key folks 3) Send Thank You note 4) How are things going? 5) What are you unhappy with? 6) How can we do a better job? 7) Does anyone need personal training?

3 Months

Elicit product feedback. Ask them to be a reference. Feedback Questions 1) What improvements in our product/service would you like to see? 2) What feature(s) are you using the most? 3) What feature(s) are you not using at all? 4) What new feature(s) would you like to see and how would you prioritize those? 5) What’s different now compared to your expectations going in? 6) Is there anything that you don’t understand or anything that doesn’t make sense to you and/or your team? Reference Questions 1) Would you be willing to act as a reference for us? 2) If yes, could we also add you to our Referral List which we hand out to prospects who request it? 3) What’s the best way to work with your company on PR opportunities (see #4 above under “Benefits”)?

6 Months

Secure referrals. Invite them to share experiences on blog. 1) Who do you know that might appreciate knowing about our company’s products/services? 2) After you get the first name, say, “Who else do you know?” Repeat the process until your client runs out of names. 3) Would you be interested in establishing a formal Referral Partnership with us? 4) Would you be interested in ghost blogging on our blogging platform (asked to head marketer)?

9 Months

Express gratitude. Warm them up for renewal. Send key employees a company a T-Shirt.

11 Months

Secure critical feedback to prepare for renewal. Send customer survey (using Lead Liaison’s software). Update of any contact info – new people, phones, email, office location.

Repeat Cycle Every 3 Months

Keep the relationship warm. Schedule phone calls every 3 months after the first year. Look for referral, reference and up-sell/cross-sell opportunity To be alerted of future posts, please click on the RSS button.