BigS221

How to get apprehensive people to agree to follow-up meetings?

Hopefully the title is pretty self-explanatory, but I feel like when getting to the next-steps while doing presentations or demos there are some people that are just reluctant to put times on their calendars to do follow-ups and instead opt to phrases like "I'll get back with you" or "We'll keep you posted" which generally just leads to dead-end deals and ghosting. Maybe it's just a sign of weak buying signal anyways but does anyone have any solid methodologies to get next steps solidified when you get the type of person that hates getting looped into a sales cycle?

📣 Demos

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CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

State it as a fact during the call. Then send the recap following the call of clear next steps for each side, including the date of the next meeting. Then send the calendar invite after you send the recap.

InQ5WeTrust

Arsonist

No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL

The foxy is full of knowledge

JDialz

Politicker

Chief Operating Officer

Also send an appointment reminder text from a texting app and make it appear automated.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

If they don't want to schedule something before the demo ends I take that as a sign that I've done a poor job of gaining their buy-in.

As @CuriousFox said--it needs to be baked into your sales process. Also, baking in a reason for them to show back up that delivers value is helpful, too. Did you have answers to questions that you owe them? They can get the answers then, etc.

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

SaaS Eater

Follow what @CuriousFox laid out for the tactical side of things.

But this all just tells me you are doing 1 of 2 things wrong in your sales process that is leading to this issue.

1) Poor discovery/qualifying. You are either not identifying a pain point and use case that the buyer prioritizes or you are running the sales process with the wrong people. It sounds to me based on very little info that its the former so take a look at your discovery.

2) Your discovery is good but your presentation/demo skills are not good enough to highlight your solutions to the issues you uncovered earlier. You are not gaining buy in and closing throughout the demo to make the follow up a formality.

I dont think you have a follow up problem, I think you have a disco/demo problem. Sync up with your manager or a top AE at your company to figure out which one it is.

BigS221

Catalyst

Thanks for your response and insight - I don't think this is a consistent problem for myself for ALL of my demos per se as most of the time I'm able to establish solid follow ups. I think my question was more in mind for tricky prospects that really don't like to be put through a follow-up 'process' if that makes sense. BUT, with that in mind I will keep my ego in check and send some of my recorded demos to some of the top AEs in my company and see if there's some troubleshooting I could do with my disco/presentation skills.

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

SaaS Eater

What % of your demos are you struggling with this?

BigS221

Catalyst

Hard to put a number on it for sure but I'd say about 10-20%

homeschooled

Opinionated

Executive Client Partner

Agree with BigS221. You may also be demoing too early in these cases. The three whys framework is valuable to ensure your discovery/pain finding was thorough enough. Why do they need to change? - If this isn’t clear you won’t get follow up meetings. Why do they need to change now? - You might be missing this in some cases where they don’t want to schedule a follow up. Why do they need to change to your solution?

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

There are great insights in the comment, do you try to create value in the demo like how xyz functions in your platform give them the power of value props etc. Also, apart from showing things, do you ask them open ended questions like what they feel about it.

JDialz

Politicker

Chief Operating Officer

In my field and market, when any pushback like that is given I have the luxury of saying “at this point we are also determining if we want to work with you - to take you on as a client. Helping you achieve your goals can’t be a higher priority for me than it is for you.”

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Baller. 🔥

JDialz

Politicker

Chief Operating Officer

60% of the time it works every time!

WomenWantMeFishFearMe

Politicker

-1

I threaten them and their families until they agree to a meeting

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BigS221

How to get apprehensive people to agree to follow-up meetings?

14 comments

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