7 tips to improve business monitoring

We all want to increase our sales and be impeccable in managing more and more opportunities. But of course, one day we are happy because we have a greater flow of prospects, and the following week, we are filled with work and procedures to do.

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Now, what happens is that with so many prospects to follow you find yourself overworked, perhaps lost and quite disorganized. This is so and we know it, that's why at Drew, experts in productivity and project management, we give ourselves these 7 tips to have a good commercial follow-up.

1. Organize your contacts.

You need easy access to their data: name, telephone, time of purchase -see point 2-, size or billing. The more information you have that is relevant to you, the better.

Remember the events and what was previously discussed.

To achieve all this, it is essential to support our sales area with a key tool: CRM. If you don't use one yet, don't waste time!

Start using a good CRM such as Salesforce, HubSpot CRM (free), or Monday.com, which is also used to manage projects and organize other areas of your company.

2. Sort your contact list into a pipeline.

This is basic and is linked to the previous point. You must be clear at what stage of the purchase each one is to understand their relevance and accompany them during their purchase process.

• Prospect: the people who do not know you yet. 

• Active lead: the people who are already talking to you. 

• Opportunity: if you have already detected a sales opportunity (eg: you could buy 5 to 10 XY model smartphones from us in 7-10 days, and that means approx $X in sales!).

• Negotiation: if you sent them a proposal.

• Won

• And other classifications or groups such as: Lost, Disqualified, On stand-by, etc.

3. Priorities: if you have a large field you should water all the plants, but take more care of those that can bear fruit.

You must be clear about which contacts are having the greatest value for you so you do not lose track of them. Are they relevant because they are opportunities, or because you talk to the person who decides about the purchase? Because they are willing to solve their problem, or because it is a great future business or a stable potential customer?

Keep an eye on them, run through events with the most important ones to maintain customization, and do bulk action for the rest.

4. Do not let go of the rudder and be realistic with your time.

To be productive you must organize your day. Did you know that if you spend at least 1% of your time organizing the rest of the day, it will be 3 to 10 times more productive?

In addition, you will feel more confident and you will be able to work more focused. This is a key factor, an exponential enhancer of your productivity, since mental clarity and focus allow you to move with greater awareness through your tasks, making this moment more relevant.

1% of the day is 14 minutes. Meditate and exercise. Stop worrying: have the "religious" certainty that success will come.

5. Do not leave the next contact in the hands of the customer.

It means that if you wait for your customers' call you do not know if they will do it, if they decided not to call you or simply forgot. So: Create a task to contact them again (date and time), and of course, before it's too late.

The ideal thing: in each call or email, make it clear when and how the next contact will be.

6. Put yourself in the other person's shoes.

No cliches. The attitude with which you contact the other person is decisive, and we say it this way so that you do not forget that there is another human being on the other side. What time is it where they are? What do they do? Are they waiting for your call? Do they know you? These questions are triggers so that when you contact them you are not totally blinded by achieving your goal.

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7. Have a clear goal but don't cling to it.

Let's see, do you call your customers because you have to? Or do you call them because you want to have a certain date about when they would make the purchase decision?

Be clear about your goal before and during the talk. In any case, it may be that (following the example) that information is simply not in the hands of your customers. So, adjust your goal and get at least an approximation, or tell them when you will contact them again (don't wait two weeks for their call).

And, finally, remember:

• Customers are those who make the purchase. You may influence them but the decision is in their hands.

• Adopt a professional position, and be a referent throughout your process. Guide them.

• Add value to them every time you communicate with them: don't expect them to buy something, but rather focus on giving because that's how people will remember you when they have a need. They will come to you and buy your product or service.