the art of leading

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The last two steps are the closing and the follow-up:

Closing

This is what makes someone a salesperson. Someone who has a positive self-image, has a group of prospects, and has a planned presentation, but does not close the sale, is not a salesperson. That person may be good at building relationships, but not at selling. Buying costumers are needed. In the same way, someone who goes through all the previous steps but does not gain any followers cannot be called a leader. Gaining a follower is the equivalent to making the sale. You have to be sure to motivate people to follow you. Here, what becomes important is that you do all the little things that, again, makes people happy to follow you. You close the sale when the prospect decides to become your follower. But this will only happen after you have provided all the tools that are necessary to reach a conclusion. If you have, all you can do is urge the person to make the right decision.

Follow-up

When the product is sold, a transaction occurs. The seller sells, and the buyer buys. You have met your goal! The problem with this statement is that a true salesperson doesn’t just want to make that one-time deal. The true salesperson doesn’t want this sale merely to stay as a one-time transaction. The true salesperson wants to make it a continous transaction. In other words, to gain a repeat costumer.

Leaders want repeat followers. They want loyal followers. They want people who stay committed to their mission and who are willing to continously work on it. The way to build this relationship is to deliver the value that you promised. Not only that, but also to offer continous support in the journey to reach that goal. A leader should not, for example, gain a great following only to turn around and abandon the mission.

The best example of not following up is the politician who promises and doesn’t deliver. That person ‘closed many sales’, represented by the amount of votes he had, but didn’t follow up, letting the followers down. Properly following up, then, involves staying true to what you believe in, keeping up the things that gained you a following, and offering support for your followers.

Categories : Communication, General Leadership //