Your Post-Sale Strategy: Gaining Leads From Your Customers

For many businesses, getting a sale is always the great goal, but the work doesn’t necessarily end once the customer signs the contract. Sales experts refer to this stage as the honeymoon phase, an appropriate term of endearment. This is the time when you and your customer have formally entered into a union, but is also the period when the two of you will get to find out interesting things about each another.

This is the perfect chance to further strengthen the relationship, by coming up with an effective after-sales strategy which can be composed of five elements.

1. Thank You card. An email saying “thank you” should be good enough, but sending a card carries a more personal touch. With a card, you can add a few special notes like assuring your new partner that you’re just a call away if he has questions.

2. Call. Some people are not inclined to picking up the phone and making a call. Take the initiative and call customers a week or two after closing sales with them. They may just have a few questions in mind that need clarification. If not, checking up on them to make sure they’re fine is always a good after-sales strategy.

3. Giveaways. When getting in touch with a new client, always ask if it’s okay that to call him regularly. If he agrees, prepare a few free items that he will find interesting, like phones, magazines, and many others.

4. A Second Sale. This need not be done right away, because you will have to work first on gaining the trust of your customer and discovering his other interests. Once you succeed in this, you can begin looking at the prospects of offering a few complimentary products.

5. Referral. With his trust gained and his satisfaction met, asking for a referral from your client should be easy. Actually, this last element will come naturally without you having to do anything. A contented customer will gladly share his experience with friends and family, and do you the favor of a recommendation for your business. This is the best and most important part of your post-sale plan—to go full circle and offer your service again to a new prospective client.

Your sales strategy should be self-contained and sustained, and investing in after-sales skips you the steps of doing the legwork to find new prospects. If you’re interested enough to consider building a team of customer service specialists, you’ll find it more cost-effective with staff leasing service, instead of hiring personnel in-house. You get the convenience of dedicated service without shouldering as much in overhead costs.

Elsewhere on this blog:

How’s Your Outbound Sales Performance Doing?

Boost Sales through Product/Service Promotion

Three Things Successful Entrepreneurs Never Do