Good Morning. Last Friday was National Salesperson Day and hopefully, it was also the day you closed a big deal. If not, that’s ok too. Around here, every day is salesperson day. 🤝 

In today’s Follow Up:

• Creating urgency in your deals 🙏 

• 30 follow up email templates ✍️ 

• A sales call tip 📞 

• Sales across the internet 🖥️ 

• LinkedIn sightings & a sales meme 😂 

Increasing Urgency in Your Pipeline

There are officially 19 days left in 2023, which means you’re hearing a whole lot of:

“Let’s circle back in the New Year”.

Prospects are checking out for the holidays, but you still have a quota to hit.

You don’t want to sound pushy, but you also want to move things along.

Offering a discount can feel like the only thing to do, but if pricing isn’t the issue, then a discount will just make your product seem less valuable.

So how can we get our prospects to move quickly? 

Let’s dive in. 👇️ 

The Need & Pain 👀 

The real secret to urgency is need.

No need = no urgency.

No matter how cool your product is or how deep you can discount, it’s impossible to create urgency if your prospect has no need or pain point.

For example, let’s say you’re a car salesman and your prospect purchased a car last month. If you want to sell them a new car, you’re out of luck. No matter how many features the new car has or how big of a discount you’re offering, you can’t create urgency if there is no need.

Your goal is to dig deep and uncover the needs and pain points that your prospect currently has, and use them as leverage. Ask questions such as:

> Is there anything you would change about the way you currently do this?
> What happens if you don’t do anything about this problem?
> What is stopping you from changing this?

Focus your efforts on prospects that have a real need, and circle back with the others in the new year.

Customer Segments

In this HBR article, the two authors recommend following a needs based approach to determine who to focus on.

They recommend labeling your prospects into 1 of 4 categories:

Urgent: These are your low-hanging fruit. They just crashed their car and need a new one this week.

Non-urgent: This one knows they’ll need it in the future, but not right now. Their oil change light has been flashing for 2 months, but they’ll deal with it next week.

Currently met: They're content with what they have, but not thrilled. They’re driving the 10 year old Lexus that still runs... for now.

None: These guys don't have a need. They just bought a brand new truck and plan on driving it till it gives out.

Working Backwards 🔄 

Urgency thrives on timelines.

Start by asking your prospect: “When do you need to see results?”. This shifts the discussion from a vague "someday" to a concrete "by this date."

From there, you can work backwards to establish a timeline. If they need results by Q1, waiting until after the holidays suddenly seems risky.

Make it clear what & when things need to happen to meet their goals.

Price Increases & Discounts 💰️ 

Now, let's talk pricing.

*It’s all about the Benjamins* 🎵 

Price Increase: If your price is increasing in the new year, use this to your advantage. Tell your prospect about the pricing increase, but detach yourself from the outcome. Act as their trusted advisor informing them of a pricing change, rather than a pushy salesperson looking for your next deal.

Discounts: A discount should be framed as an exclusive opportunity, rather than a tactic to close the deal. Think of it as a limited-time offer they can take advantage of. If you offer an end of year discount and they don’t use it, make sure to stick word. If you offer the same discount after the end of the year, you’re risking your reputation.

TLDR:

• Needs and pain: Without a need or pain point, it’s nearly impossible to increase urgency.

• Working backwards: Find out when your prospect needs a solution, and lay out a clear timeline of how to get there.

• Price increase & discounts: Use price increases to your advantage and use discounts as a limited opportunity.

30 practical follow-up email templates

Speaking from experience – emails can take up too much of the workday.

So HubSpot eliminated the guesswork from a ton of potentially awkward communications, like reaching out after interviews, networking events, sales meetings and more. Take this pack of pristine follow-up emails. 

30 direct messages included:

• Professional, customizable templates

• For prospects, recruiters, colleagues, and more

• Save time, but not at the cost of personal touch

Stash this wherever you keep useful things.

Checking in on LinkedIn 👀 

Just succeed…. 😂 

Sales Meme of the Day

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