I am not suggesting you make a sale by literally running after your prospect, that would not look good. How to chase up the sale is a very simple strategy that has worked for me and I want to share a few tips on how to do this effectively.

When someone approaches you with the possibility of a sale, whether it’s face to face, a phone call or an email, follow up no later than 24 hours, sooner if you can manage it. If this time frame is a challenge have a telephone answering service who can take down the details and pass them on to you. Ensure they follow up with a polite message informing them that you will contact them by a certain date. Hire an admin, who could be a student just starting out, or a professional, this will save you time and money.

The customer wants to know there is someone out there, who cares enough to make their life easier, once the initial follow up has been made, by any of the examples I shared earlier, you are more likely to gain that customer.

The follow up is acknowledging you are the person to look after the customer, you are pro-active, and follow up in a timely manner. Even if the prospect has indicated they would contact you, more often than not they don’t. They are busy, they have a bad memory, they have lost your business card. There could be a hundred reasons why they don’t make the first move.

When I first started looking online for speaking gigs way back in 2001 I knew there was a lot of competition out there, and a lot of those people had a lot more experience than I did at that time. My strategy meant that as soon as I saw a call for speakers, I would download the form, fill out the information and email it back within a couple of hours.

If an event organizer phoned me to find out my availability, I would immediately answer my phone. I knew I was making their life easier by doing that. The sooner they booked a speaker their work was done. They could relax. After a couple of years I engaged the services of a virtual assistant whom I trusted to take care of the follow up and other such related work that I could no longer do myself.

The secret is, we are saving our clients time and money by offering them an early solution. They are happy we respond first and within a reasonable time, because that means they concentrate on the work they enjoy and continue making money.

Chasing up the customer who has a sale to give to someone is often a case of first come first served. The first person who comes along and offers them a product, a service and a solution to their business needs, is the person they will hire. The less time they have to worry about contacting someone, means more time for them.

Always remember though that building the trust with the customer is first and foremost.  By contacting them and assuring them you can offer them the products and services they need you have established you are a professional and credible business.

Under promise and over deliver is the next step. Never promise a quick delivery, even if you know you can do it. If you do deliver faster than expected the customer will be even more likely to stay loyal to you.

How to chase up the customer is made even easier because you took the initiative and followed up first.