Relationship selling is about building trust and rapport with your customer. The word relationship means that you don’t intend to have one interaction. Sales follow up is a natural part of the relationship selling process. It begins at that first meeting. How often have you done a presentation which didn’t result in a sale? If you stop now you are leaving money on the table.

Timing is everything. Your customer may not be ready to make a purchase or they may want more information.The phrase always be closing, does not mean pushing for the sale. It means moving your client to the next step in the sales process.

You need to plant the seeds for following up. Otherwise you have just wasted your time. Get to know your client. This means asking  open-ended questions. Find some common ground. You want to be on their side. Together you are seeking a solution to their needs. In this way you build trust and rapport.

Always book a meeting at the meeting. Telephone tag is not only a waste of time; the person will feel chased. Even if the person was interested if you don’t get back to them in a timely fashion they will forget what was of interest to them.

In addition you need to have a sales follow up system in place. This can be combination of phone calls, email and direct mail pieces. Offline follow-up with online tools is a great way to leverage your time. Using multiple ways to keep in touch will be far better received than continually picking up the phone.

Online tools can be a great addition to generate more offline sales. An auto-responder is a must have. But in this day and age of spam filters and getting deluged with email you want to have a back up system in place. Send business thank you cards. Postcard mailing can be an inexpensive way to keep yourself in front of your customer in a non obtrusive way.

This way if your email us followed up with by a card in the mail with your picture, contact information and your desire to help them; your customer would be far more likely to read your e-mail or pick up the phone the next time you call.

Relationship selling can also be called consultative selling. You position yourself as more of a consultant than a sales person. Sales follow up begins during your first consultation. Instead of sitting across the table; you are sitting on the same side with your arm around their shoulder (not literally); and together you are finding the best solution to their needs.  Hopefully your product is the solution but not necessarily. When you build rapport with your customer in that first meeting; even if what you have isn’t for them they will be far more likely to do business with you in the future and to recommend you to others. whereas if you try to push your agenda you not only won’t get that sale but you will have burned that bridge as well.

Its all about creating customer value and doing proper sales follow up. And remember sales follow up begins at that very first meeting.