Selling IT Solutions? Don’t Forget to Follow Up

All too often, when selling IT solutions, you’ll spend all of your time and resources to get the sales appointment and submit the proposal, yet completely drop the ball when it comes to following up.

After working hard to identify a sales prospect and executing the sales process to create interest and build consensus to act, you finally get to propose your company’s solution. After more hard work crunching numbers to assemble a persuasive proposal, you can finally deliver it to the prospect. Can you sit back now and wait for the prospect to call with a purchase order? 

That would be nice. While it happens occasionally, don’t count on making a quota if you don’t follow up.

In this age of caller ID, voicemail, social media, and text messaging, people seem to have forgotten how to talk.

Selling IT solutions via email can be great, but it’s time to ask for the order when you've already delivered the proposal.

Asking by email or text message is too impersonal. These methods make it too easy for the prospect to turn you down. To increase your chances of winning over the business, you need to follow up in person or, at least, by telephone.

Here’s how:

1. Once the prospect requests a proposal, ask for an appointment to deliver it and thoroughly review the information. With permission secured, there’s no concern that you will appear too pushy or aggressive. The prospect will be awaiting your visit or call.

2. Don’t leave without scheduling that meeting. You want this deal to close as soon as possible, and if you leave without the next meeting scheduled, you risk a delay of weeks playing phone tag and battling busy schedules.

3. Just do it. You must follow up and ask for the order when selling IT solutions. Waiting for the prospect to call you gives your competitors more time to catch up. Commit to spending at least one hour per week following up with your prospects, and watch your sales take off.

What are your favorite tactics for selling IT solutions? Please share your tips, hints, and war stories in the comments area below.

And if you're serious about improving your IT sales, especially B2B SaaS or IaaS, be sure to enroll now in our free 7-day eCourse: Go-to-Market Strategy 101 for B2B SaaS Startups and Scaleups.