I’m sure you’ve heard the proverb, “For the want of a nail the kingdom was lost”. I’m going to use it to describe a sales context where an act of omission almost cost a major deal.
My name is Rashid Kotwal.
One of our mantras is you have to be in regular contact with both your prospects and equally, if not more importantly, your clients.
This story was relayed by one of our clients recently. We’ll call him Jim, obviously not his real name.
Jim’s work comes in cycles – projects every 3 to 4 years. But he didn’t keep in touch with this particular client on a regular basis after the last project in the belief that when the client was ready, he’d get a call.
Now, Jim just happened to notice a work anniversary show up in his LinkedIn feed. He sent his client a congratulations note and immediately got back a message.
“Good you contacted me. We’re just about to go to tender for another project and you’re not even on the list. You’d done a great job last time, so please put in a bid.”
Jim did and won the deal. Which was worth around $42,000 to him.
So what’s the lesson?
People forget you. Even if you did a wonderful job. So keep in regular contact with your clients. Tell them everything you could do. Because I guarantee in most cases they have no idea you could provide certain services. And unless you tell them, you risk missing out.
And in case you’re wondering how often you should keep in touch, do it at least once every 90 days.
Why 90 days? Because believe it or not, people forget you could do something on day 91 should another supplier approach them with an appropriate offer.
Finally, if you’d like help putting together a communications plan you can use for both prospecting and keeping in touch with clients, drop me a note. We’ll work together to ensure you maximize your chances of winning deals.
Till next time, this is Rashid Kotwal.
