Landing a new customer takes persistence –– a lot of persistence. According to some analysts, 80 percent of all sales take five or more follow-up calls after the first sales presentation. And yet, many businesses drop the ball after one or two contacts, figuring it’s not worth the effort to pursue leads that are slow to warm up.

Structured programs to follow up on sales leads can ease the task of staying in touch for the five, six, or seven times it takes to lock in a sale. Effective follow-up efforts combine telephone contacts with mailings; at each stage, the message is tailored to the prospect’s position in the path to sale.
  
Software applications can help automate follow-up, but low-tech systems are also effective. Either way, a successful follow-up effort arranges key information in a sequence that triggers action at the right time. A simple file-card version might center on five organizing components.

1. A master file of potential clients, arranged alphabetically, keeps track of specific information about the prospect, with the name of the contact person, telephone and fax numbers, postal and e-mail address, and the specific product or service of interest.

2. A traveling "tickler" version of the master file condenses key information to the essentials – name, phone number, items of interest – to allow easy transplanting of key data to other file categories.

3. File divisions numbered from 1 to 31 separate tickler files needing attention during the current month.

4. File categories labeled by month hold tickler files for customers requiring contacts in coming months.

5. A product file classification provides a quick way to locate prospects interested in learning about new products or services in a specific category.

Once the system is established, following through on leads at the appropriate time becomes a straightforward task of responding to ticklers and then moving them to the next stage for action. It’s important to keep things simple, so that you can stay on the trail of lukewarm leads until they turn into hot prospects.