3 Follow-Ups to Replace “I’m Just Touching Base”

Good Tuesday morning, I received a question from a sales partner over the weekend that ask,  Are there any better ways to follow up with a prospect other then by saying, “I’m just touching base.” I’m struggling to find a decent alternative.
What do you recommend David?

It’s more than just finding replacement phrases like “”checking in.” or “Touching base”  When you walk in and say something or leave a message like this, your prospect forgets them in a nanosecond. Worse yet, they see you as just another pesky salesperson. Clearly, that’s not good!

Here’s the deal. To keep sales momentum alive, you need to provide value on every interaction — even a quick follow-up call or email. That means you need to rethink your entire callback strategy. I always offer a couple rolls of free thermal paper when I meet and follow up with a prospect in person, that’s my little hook to offer my merchants free paper and such for processing with me.

Here are three approaches that have also worked for me:

Your prospects will only change because of the impact you can have on their organization. Reiterate it. Remind them of how you can help.

You might say: “Shawna, in our previous conversation you mentioned how you were tired of the Non PCI fees you are being charged and how important it was to get going on this, I also mentioned we don’t have PCI fees of any kind at Graphite Payments (eliminate the need to wait)  Let’s set up time to talk so we can get you moving forward.”

Your prospects want to work with someone who’s constantly thinking about how they can improve their business. Be that person.

You might say: “Sherry, I’ve been thinking more about how we can help you increase sales (reduce costs, speed up productivity) with a touch screen POS, thought you might be interested in what we did with Heinz restaurant when they were dealing with the same challenge. Do you have a few minutes for a quick conversation?”

Sometimes your prospects are still asking themselves, “Does it make sense to move forward or not?” From the outside, you won’t know. But you can keep giving them more reasons to change!

You might say: “Mark, I know it’s a big decision to change from the status quo. That’s why I thought you might be interested in this article (ROI calculator, case study, webinar, ebook etc) on (relevant topic). Let’s set up a time to talk through your questions.” Always have your prospects email address so you can nurture them with education. It’s a simple way to follow up with your prospect.

Do you see the difference? You’re still providing value.

Even though they said they were interested.

Even though they told you to check back next week.

Even though they said they were washing their hair.

Even though they told you it was a “slam dunk” and they just needed to get the paperwork done.

Drop the “touching base” and “checking in” mentality from your vocabulary entirely. When making follow up calls, become an asset in their decision process. That’s when they’ll really want to work with you!