Follow up Immediately
Your sales call or meeting is now over. You’ve got things to do, and chances are your customer does as well.
Summarize them and send a follow up email. Something like this, perhaps:
Jim,
Good meeting. Lots of excellent discussion, and was fascinated to learn that the company is now expanding into Malta and Corsica. Just to summarize the conversation, here are my takeaway:
- We owe you more detail on the implementation process for the JiffyWiz product suite.
- Hans Ollo had questions about 24×7 support. Either Tom or Jerry will get back to him directly on that.
- Jan is to get back to us about your Q2-Q3 production schedule.
- We’ll schedule a follow-up meeting in the next 2-3 weeks. I can coordinate that though Hans.
Am I missing anything? I’ll add it to the list, and will check in with you early next week.
B.
Quick. A few short sentences. People like bullets.
Write it in your style, of course. Terse is fine. Wordy if you must. But do it. Immediately. Include summary notes, decisions, action items, questions and open issues. If there are specific individual contributions that helped make the meeting a success, those may warrant mentioning. And thank you’s and next steps, of course.
If you want to put off sending it until the next day so you don’t seem overbearing, that’s fine. But capturing the details right away, getting them down and sorted out is key.
Details are a hassle. We all forget them. We get distracted. We procrastinate.
Maybe you’re like me. The longer I wait to do something, the less likely is that I’ll do it. And chances increase (exponentially?) that I won’t do it as well. Because it’s not fresh, vivid, immediate. The thing has been cluttered up by other thoughts and tasks.
I need a deadline. For sales call follow-up, it’s the end of the day at the latest. Not because I’m super-organized, but because I get thrown by the next thing in front of me. Tomorrow, my notes won’t be as helpful and the pile will get bigger. Follow up is a priority.
Besides, your customer will (or should) appreciate it. You’re taking the notes. Tasks and issues are documented. Your commitments are recognized and written down.
It’s another reminder that you’re on the job.