The Emotion of Sales Follow-Up

If we had a dollar for every time a buyer said they needed to think about it we would all be millionaires. Agree? I’m willing to bet you’ve heard some sort of “I need to think about it” already this week (and perhaps earlier today!). These words are unavoidable in many cases. And they are often out of your control.

As a sales professional, how you respond rests solely on your shoulders. Digging deeper (“Tell me more about that”) is imperative, but you already knew that, right? But what happens when you let the buyer simply walk away? 

Here’s the scenario. You’ve done the work of discovery and presentation and your buyer recognizes the value but still wants to think about it. A common response says, “Fair enough. I’m here whenever you need me. Please give me a call or stop back in after you’ve had time to think about it.”

Do you see a problem here? We are giving up control of the next step and in doing so we relieve ourselves from any sales follow-up duty. This mistake gets made over and over by sales practitioners around the globe every day. Two mistakes actually:

• The salesperson put the burden of the next step on the shoulders of the customer.
• The salesperson never followed up.

The problem is that when this customer leaves and carries the burden of continuing the relationship, the net result is a drop in the buyer’s positive emotional state. 

One of the most important concepts you must understand about your customer’s journey is what goes on in the buying brain. You need to understand Emotional Altitude (EA), which can be defined as the level of positive emotional involvement in a situation or decision.

A marriage proposal should be a time of high Emotional Altitude. Enjoying a reunion with an old friend makes for elevated EA. So does a really good meal served by an attentive and friendly food server. Buying a really cool jacket or a piece of sports memorabilia – or a new car all should be times of high Emotional Altitude. 

It is important to note that the distinction here is not between positive emotion and negative emotion. Rather, the distinction is between positive emotion versus no emotion. The absence of emotion makes for an unremarkable setting in which to make a purchase decision.

Why is EA so important for sales follow-up? To answer this question, we have to understand how much of the buying decision is based on emotion and how much on logic.

One of the most fascinating guests I’ve had on The Buyers Mind podcast was the Danish researcher Martin Lindstrom, a renowned expert in the study of consumer psychology. In an extensive research study, Lindstrom observed people’s brains through an fMRI while those study participants were making purchase decisions. He could literally see which part of the brain was firing when purchase decisions were being made. He found that 85% of the decision is based on emotion and 15% based on logic.

So what does this have to do with “we need to think about it” and sales follow-up? Everything, and here’s why. The farther your customer is removed from the initial emotional experience, the more the emotional altitude wanes. And when the EA plummets far enough, you will fall out of your customer’s emotional memory altogether.

You see your customer needs you to follow up, but not so that you can burden them with statistics and data that you think is cool but actually serves to overwhelm their brain. What your customer needs is your assistance in helping them to stay emotionally engaged.

Like everything else in the sales process, this isn’t about you. Follow-up is about serving your customer by enhancing and extending their Emotional Altitude. Think like a customer. Why would you want a salesperson to follow up? 

Keep these three things in mind when making your follow-up calls.

• Your follow-up is relationship-based and extends the strong rapport that was already established.
• Your follow-up is service-driven because the customer needs to know that you have their best interests at heart.
• Your follow-up is emotionally positive meaning that emotional fire from the last conversation needs to be rekindled.

When you put this into your sales follow-up practice and take the necessary action, you will stand out for all the right reasons. You will prove to your customer that you just care more than anyone else.

Remember: People don’t buy from you because you bother them; they buy from you because you care more than anyone else.