The Ultimate Sales Machine - Chet Holmes [118]
Now imagine if this suit store had a club membership or, even better, a “wardrobe analysis” or “dress for success” program. Then every email that followed could provide information of value to me, keeping me updated with the latest fashion insights. This is applicable for practically any type of retail situation, outside of mass marketers. If you sell cars, you could send updates on driving tips, safety tips, or maintenance insights on how to preserve the mechanical integrity of your vehicle. Create a relationship with the buyer. If you sell jewelry, you could send information on keeping it clean, what types of jewelry increase in value with age, the latest fashion, and insights on what to wear with what. Be an expert in your area and offer excellent insights to your buyers.
Let’s say you have a cosmetics counter at a fine department store where they do makeovers and have a wonderful opportunity to bond with clients. If you’ve ever had a makeup session at, say, Nordstrom, have you received a follow-up from them? Have you ever received makeup tips from these companies? Have they tried to make you brand-loyal so that you only want a specific brand of makeup?
If you sell boats, how about boating tips, safety tips, and suggestions on places to take your boat—all valuable stuff. There’s no area of business where you can’t build a far stronger bond with your client with outstanding follow-up.
Even mass merchandisers like Wal-Mart could go a step further, bringing news and insights about products, consumer alerts, and things of value—not just selling, but offering something that the client will value. For example, as of this writing, Wal-Mart is on a big initiative to offer more organic foods. Why not send emails offering insights on organic foods? There are probably many studies on this that would be of interest and value to buyers. And every cashier at every register could give an ethical bribe to get email addresses: “If you give us your email address, we will send you a gift certificate (through email) for $5 good in any Wal-Mart.” Surely it would be worth $5 to reach every Wal-Mart buyer via email. Plus customers might make a special trip to use the coupon before it expires and then spend more money buying something they might not have bought in the first place.
Think of the cost savings of reaching folks over the Internet instead of through fliers, mailers, television, or radio. Imagine the power of having 100 million email addresses. But rather than just using them to send sales notices, send things that get opened—things of value. And then, you can also mention a great sale. Wal-Mart goes to great pains to offer lower prices than anyone else. Imagine getting an email that reads, “How we negotiated with Sony to get you this amazing offer.” Then the email is like an article showing how Wal-Mart negotiates on behalf of the consumer to keep prices low. Such emails could blend items of interest with sales information.
No matter what you sell and to whom, great follow-up is something every company can do a heck of a lot better. This is a new world we’re in and so many companies are missing these opportunities.
Exercise
Create a follow-up letter that is a model for your product or ser vice. If you’re a mass-oriented company, do a workshop on education-based marketing ideas to get those emails opened. If you are business-to-business, use the format provided to compose a template for your first follow-up email. If you are more salesperson-to-client direct (like retail suits or jewelry), create a template to guide your sales reps in doing their follow-up.
The following steps are especially for direct sales efforts, where a salesperson is trying to build a long-term relationship with a buyer, but many of the concepts may stimulate ideas for a mass audience as well.
Follow-up Step 2: Make the First Follow-up Call
The follow-up call should come right