Cement the Deal with an After-Sale Strategy

The best part of every salesperson's job comes when he or she hears those magic words from a prospect: “We’ve got a deal. We’re going with you.” Congratulations. You have just closed an order and your prospect has become a customer or client. Nothing could go wrong at this point…right?

Unfortunately, there are things that can happen between the time you shake hands with a prospect and when you receive a signed agreement — things that you don’t want to happen. You don’t want your calls for the client to return a signed contract to go unreturned. Similarly, you don’t want to get back to your office and have a voice mail telling you your new client or customer has changed his mind. Having a simple conversation with your prospect after you’ve agreed on a deal will help prevent those scenarios.

After striking a deal, your first reaction may be that the best thing you could do now is to take the order, shut up and leave quickly. Sales reps have been taught that for years. That’s because the sale process probably included dog-and-pony shows, enthusiastic antics and probably some sort of a slam-dunk close. The idea is to get out of there before the prospect regains her senses.

But the after-sale strategy of having a conversation about the deal with your new customer can prevent buyer’s remorse — the sense of regret that can come after making any buy decision. This step is a simple matter of making sure the sale is locked up by deliberately giving your prospect a chance to back out. This accomplishes two things. If the customer expresses reservations or backs out while you’re still in front of him or her, you can address those concerns. In effect, if there is a “crack” in the sale, you can patch it up on the spot. The after-sale conversation also allows you to address the kinds of issues that your customer may think of at 2 a.m., or when talking about the deal with a colleague or another vendor. You have the chance to influence those conversations by addressing the issues straightforwardly with your new customer.

Here is what you can do:

After you shake hands, set a start or delivery date and have your office begin the process of getting a contract out (you may have agreed to some terms that need to be altered in your standard agreement.) Do whatever you need for an official “order.”

Then, thank your prospect for the order. “Steve, I appreciate the business, and you can be assured that the things we discussed and agreed upon will get my undivided attention.”

After that, deliberately bring up a negotiating point or some detail about the sale. For example, if the client happens to be switching to you from another vendor, supplier or professional, you need to address the issue of change. “Steve, I’m a little bit worried about something. When you go to your current vendor and tell them you are planning to make a change, how do you usually handle that?” This is important, because the old vendor is not going to take this lying down. You need to help prepare the new client to deal with this challenge. The previous vendor will probably offer some special considerations, maybe even a discount, to keep a customer. You can remind your new customer of the complaints she had about the old supplier, and how doing business with that company presented problems and cost her time or money. Most new customers will respond by saying something like, “No, I’m not changing my mind. We’re done with XYZ supplier.” The key here is to get them to verbalize it out loud to you. That way, they “own” their decision a little more and when the old vendor is applying the pressure, they will be more prepared.

Or if the sales process involved compromising on some terms, review them. “Steve, just before I leave, I’m still a little uncomfortable about something we agreed upon during the presentation. You originally wanted a different start date. But we agreed that it makes more sense to start two weeks later. I bring this up because I don’t want to leave today and then have you call me and possibly cancel the order because of that. You wouldn’t cancel because of the change we agreed upon?”

It doesn’t make any difference which compromise you brought up. What is important here is that you gave your prospect an opportunity to back out while you were still in front of him. Again, the goal is to get them to say the changes are OK. When they say this, they “own” their decision a little more.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, your prospect will agree to the compromise, and the sale is locked up. It’s that 1% you want to avoid. You don’t want to open up a deal for renegotiation. But if there is any reason why your prospect is uncomfortable, in reality, you have not closed the sale.

Even after you have left their office, if they feel some sort of buyer’s remorse, the fact that you gave them the opportunity to back out and they didn’t will play a large part in convincing them not to cancel. Their thought process would probably be something like this: “Hmmm, I wonder if I made the right decision. Maybe I should call and put it off for a few weeks, or even cancel for now. On the other hand, they did ask me specifically if I had any intention of backing out and I did say I wouldn’t. I guess I’m just feeling a little buyer’s remorse. It will be all right.”

With an effective after-sale strategy, you’ve kept the competition out and staved off buyer’s remorse. Now, all you have to do is remember to collect the check and take it to the bank.