I'd like to introduce the concept of a “Soft Ping”. A Soft Ping is a purposely non-push but creative technology sales follow up maneuver that gets great results. Sometimes in sales you have already pinged someone fairly recently and you are uncomfortable following up again. Or, sometimes you don’t have confidence the person working on an important order for you is on top of it and you want a way to keep them focused on it. The overall goal is making sure your deal is making progress so you can close the order in the timeframe you need. What we do with a soft-ping is reach out to our contact again (it works with their boss too) without actually asking the status but adding some additional value to them. This reminds our contact to follow up on your order without being overly pushy and frequently you get an update on the status- without asking the status.
Here are a couple of examples of a soft-ping:
• The “Thank You” soft ping: “John, I just wanted to call and say thanks so much for working hard for us on the purchase order to help us close it out by month-end, I know you have a lot going on and you’ve been good to work with throughout the process. If I can do anything to help you on this or something in the future please do not hesitate to ask”.
• The “Anything we owe you” soft ping: “John, I just wanted to call and say thanks so much for working hard for us on the purchase order but while you’re working on that is there anything I should be doing on this side in preparation? Let me know if there is anything I owe you to wrap this up by month-end or if we have any loose ends on my side.”
• Other soft ping moves include: sending a humorous e-card, leaving a humorous voicemail, or --- insert your creative approach!
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