.png)
The key to more sales, aka more revenue, is to find new leads wherever they are.
But how do you manage all of your different lead sources without making a big mess? And what’s the most effective way to nurture your leads, regardless of which channel you found them in?
One of the things you have to do is follow up. And that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about here: tips and best practices for the sales follow-up email.
We’ll look at why follow-up emails are so important and what needs to be included in a follow-up email. We have a handy list of the three key tips and best practices for the sales follow-up email. Then we’ll talk about how to communicate seamlessly across all channels and how to revive sales that have been lost through cart abandonment.
Why the follow-up is so important
Most sales don’t happen on the first visit, so following up with prospective customers is crucial. In fact, without a follow-up, you probably don’t have a sale in the first place. So primarily, you have to have a follow-up email template ready to customize and send.
According to one sales consulting firm, 80 percent of sales require five follow-up calls after the initial meeting. But sadly, 44 percent give up after only one follow-up.
What needs to be in your follow-up email?
What do you include in a follow-up email that works? I’ve put together this list of three key components that your follow-up email should include:
- Remind them of what you are trying to sell them. If they didn’t buy yet, you could highlight features or positive reviews of what they were considering purchasing. If they downloaded a white paper about your product, they may have questions you can offer to answer.
- Remind them of their need for your product. You can personalize the message and speak to the customer’s specific needs. If they’re looking at buying an air fryer and you know they’ve also looked at weight-loss cookbooks and exercise equipment, you can personalize a reminder that points out the health benefits of air frying versus using oil.
- Ask for the sale with an easy-to-see Call to Action. Include a link to the product or, even better, to their shopping cart. Show them how easily they can finalize their purchase. You could even give them a coupon as an incentive to complete their purchase.
Using the list and example above, you could say this: “Hi [name], Check out this simple healthy recipe you can make with the XYZ Air Fryer. Use this coupon code at checkout to get 10% off plus free shipping. Click here to finish your order. Enjoy!”
How to seamlessly communicate across all channels
If your sales team is going to meet your potential leads and customers wherever they are, they need proper tools that will help them communicate seamlessly.
What happens when you email your potential customer, but they send you a message in Facebook Messenger? Does the same person receive and respond to those messages? How do you not duplicate efforts and waste time and resources?
A good friend told me about her recent car-buying experience. She’d had a low-hassle, quick experience working with a “big box” auto dealer in the past, so she opted for another big box dealer when it was time to trade in her ride for something new. But this time, her customer experience was very different – and not in a good way.
Instead of wrapping things up in a few hours on a Saturday afternoon, as she had with her previous purchase, this time the whole process took a few weeks. And instead of dealing with one point of contact throughout the process, she had to communicate with a handful of different people via different channels. And they didn’t always have the same information about her purchase, which caused her to repeat herself over and over again.
Your sales team can prevent an experience like this by managing all channels in one view. By using an omnichannel platform, you can collaborate on answering messages via email, live chat, WhatsApp, Facebook, and more. This way, your team always has access to the right information on any customer.
Rescue lost sales with follow-up emails
Besides helping you build relationships with your prospects and customers – and creating loyalty to your brand by showing that you know your customers’ wants and needs – follow-up emails can also save sales that would otherwise get lost to cart abandonment.
Cart abandonment rates are very high for online shopping. According to Statista, 88 percent of online orders are abandoned. There are countless reasons why someone may abandon their cart. But your response, when properly timed and presented, could revive 10 percent of lost sales with just one follow-up email, or up to 69 percent when you send multiple follow-up emails.
Bottom line, if you want more sales, you have to follow up, and email is one of the best ways to do it. With the right tools and processes to manage follow-ups across channels, you’re in a better position to recover more sales and keep more customers.
Further reading
Want to read more about improving your sales process? We've got you covered:
