How to Respond When a Prospect Says “Not Yet” in Decorative Concrete Sales

What do you do when your decorative concrete sale goes from a check in hand to a "not yet"? Don't waste the marketing investment it took to gain that prospect. Plan your follow-up instead.

In this post, discover why scheduling follow-ups for the future will change your business.

Be sure to stick around to the end because I will share specific phrases you can use to determine the right time to re-engage a "not yet" prospect.

"NOT YET" IS NOT "NO"

In sales, "not yet" is not "no," and you can do some simple things in your decorative concrete business to make the most of prospects who fall into this category.

In other industries scheduling a future follow-up on a specific date is called x-dating.

Your potential customer permits you to follow up with them on a specific date — on X date.

There are a couple of scenarios where we will x-date a follow-up call.

Let's say a potential customer calls the office. During our initial pre-screening, we discover that the prospect is gathering information about decorative concrete because they are in the planning phase of a new building project.

Check out this post if you're wondering what questions to ask during your initial call with a prospect.

During this call, we determine they are not ready for an official estimate because their house plans won't be ready until August. So we chat about what they are looking for and then give them a broad price range for the system they seek.

We tell them we'd follow up with them in late July and end the call.

Then we choose a date during the last week of July to schedule a follow-up call. We add everything we talked about to the notes and move on with our day.

On the specified date in July, it will pop up on our dashboard to follow up with the customer and will include all the details we recorded so we can sound professional in our follow-up.

Pro Tip: Keep good notes in your files. You think you'll remember all the details, but you won't --  especially if the x-date is months into the future. In our office, if it's not in the notes, it didn't really happen.

Another time we x-date our follow-up is with a prospect we've already gone out on the estimate, and there is a specific reason why a future follow-up is what is needed.

For example, you get through the entire estimate, and they really want to move forward but can't until they save more money.

In this scenario, we delay the drip campaign discussed in this post and schedule a follow-up on a future date instead.

Once again, we update the notes with all the details we'll need when it pops back up on our dashboard in the future.

Scheduling follow-up calls in the future requires keeping a calendar, which is most efficiently achieved using a Client Relationship Management system -- also known as a CRM. Here's our preferred system.

You might be thinking this is a lot of trouble. Or asking, isn't "not yet" just another word for "no"? Absolutely not!

THREE BENEFITS TO SCHEDULING FUTURE FOLLOW-UPS

Here are three benefits to scheduling future follow-ups for potential customers in the "not yet" category.

Benefit #1: It makes the most of leads.

The dollars you invest in marketing are just that -- an investment. You want to make the most of that investment by fully nurturing your leads.

If something as easy as scheduling a follow-up call means you turn the prospect into a customer, then you want to be disciplined to do that.

Benefit #2: It builds trust.

You're telling your potential customer you will follow up. And then you do.

This builds trust in the hearts and minds of the customer that you are a person of your word.

Benefit #3: It sets you apart from your competition.

Many people in this business don't even show up to the estimates they schedule, much less follow up in a few months as promised.

Following up with potential customers tells them you value them and offer excellent service. This will set you apart from your competition.

BONUS: PHRASES TO USE TO SCHEDULE A FOLLOW-UP CALL

Here are some phrases you could use with prospective customers to x-date the follow-up call.

Let's take the new construction example I discussed above.

"We can give you a detailed estimate when you have your building plans. When are those plans scheduled for completion?"

In our example, they told us they would get the plans in August.

"Great. I'll follow up with you in late July to see if you're still on track with your progress."

Let's take the example of a prospect who wants a particular system but needs more time to save money.

Your question is as simple as, "When would you like me to follow up with you on this?"

If they say, "Give me six months." Then you know to x-date the follow-up call for six months from now.

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT

So there you have it. Two scenarios where your prospect may be a "not yet," a plan to schedule a follow-up call in the future, the benefits of x-dating these calls, and simple phrases you can use to get them to agree to a follow-up.

If you're ready to launch or re-launch your decorative concrete business, we'd love to be your partner for success, whether it's investing in our online course or opting for custom coaching.