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 then 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 put together a persuasive proposal, you’re finally able to 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 quota if you don’t follow up.

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

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

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 go over the information in detail. 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. When selling IT solutions, you have to follow up and ask for the order. Waiting for the prospect to call you just gives your competitors more time to catch up. Make a commitment to spend 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 how you sell IT, 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.