The Death of a (complacent) salesman: Here’s the ABCs of selling to sustain your business

Follow-up is one of the hardest things to do, and most people are generally terrible at it. As a CEO, you will have many, many meetings with potential investors, customers, partners, and employees. Each meeting will generate a list of actions that will need following up. It would be best if you found a good way to manage this, or you will end up disappointing many people. The old adage of ‘under promise and over deliver’ should be in your mind when agreeing to do anything. Weigh up how the decision to take on a particular action will impact the business, your time, the time of others in the team, etc. Only if the return on investment of time makes sense should you agree. Follow-up of sales meetings is crucial, and you need to equip your sales team with the right tools. These tools will differ depending on whether you are selling $100 widgets or $1m services. And it would help if you found salespeople who are obsessed with follow-up. Without it, opportunities will just slip through the cracks.