“What are some rules of making successful follow up calls to prospects?” (Answered on Quora…)

By Scott Sambucci | July 20, 2012

What are some rules of making successful follow up calls to prospects?

A few concepts…

Continuation vs. Advance. This is described in the book “SPIN Selling.” An advance progresses the sale whereas a continuation simply maintains the sale in its current state.

The Griswold’s continued to Walley World but advanced to no where…

For example… In an advance, you talked with a prospect last week and you both agreed that the prospect would talk with her to team set up a product demo for everyone on her team. In your follow up call, you and prospect nail down a time (“next Tues at 10am”) and process for delivering the demo (“via WebEx”.). In this same scenario, a continuation would be a call to that same prospect and she tells you that she’s been really busy since your last call and hasn’t had a chance to talk to the team, but asks you to try her again next week. Alternately, a voicemail to your prospect would also be a continuation. The sales conversation is still open, but you’re still in the same spot as you were following your initial call a week ago.

Prepare a script. For even the simplest of calls, be prepared with exactly what you want to communicate.

What if Abraham Lincoln decided to “just wing it”?

Remember, in every conversation there is:
1. What you wanted to say;
2. What you think you said;
3. What you said;
4. What the prospect heard.

Read the rest of the answer here on Quora…

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