MEMBERSHIP SELLING AND
SALES MANAGEMENT INSIGHTS

But They Said They’d Join In January…

Hope springs eternal in January for chamber membership sales reps. Why? Because, so many of the prospects they called on prior to the holidays responded with “Call me in January.”

But now it’s February, and if you spent the last 30 days or so wondering why those prospects are not yet members, we have some advice to help you get back on track this month.

NO PROMISES

The first thing you need to accept is that a “Call me in January” response is not a promise to join the chamber after the turn of the new year.

The final weeks of December are some of the busiest, yet often, the least productive weeks of the year.

It’s common for people to defer what doesn’t need to be done immediately until after the holiday season.

There are three types of prospects who might respond to you with “Call me in January.”

READY & WAITING There’s the prospect who genuinely intends on joining.

ON THE FENCE There’s the prospect who hasn’t made a decision to join or not join yet.

TOO NICE And, there’s the prospect who deferred you until January because, though they don’t intend on joining, they are too nice to say “no.”

As a sales rep, your job is to stay in your process. It will help you determine who's who, and you will persevere.

RE-CAP & REMIND

Call and ask your prospect’s permission to re-cap your past conversations about joining the chamber.  Even those who have every intention of joining may not remember their intentions and what they wanted to accomplish with the help of the chamber.

Identify through your notes why your prospect shared that joining would be a good idea.  

Create urgency for them to join now. And remember, urgency is prospect-centric, it’s not because you need to make a sale.

If they genuinely intended to join, and you do a good job of reminding them of their reasons and creating urgency, it should be an easy close.

DIG DEEPER

For those prospects who said to call in January because they were on the fence about joining, use your follow-up call to dig deeper.

Ask questions. Listen to what they have to say. Learn about their challenges so you can discover how the chamber might be a good resource for them.

You probably won’t sign them up on the phone during that follow-up call, but you will be one step further in your sales process and one step closer to transitioning them from prospect to member.

CLOSE THE FILE

For those who have no intention of joining but are just too nice to say “no;” on the surface, it’s not easy to recognize them.

Don’t guess or make assumptions. Stay in your process.

Follow up and dig deeper to try to identify if the chamber could be a good resource for them. Don't worry if you discover that it's time to stop chasing them as a prospect and close the file.

We know you would prefer to close the sale, but closing the file allows you to focus your efforts on more serious prospects.

Successful chamber membership sales is all about the process, and you staying in it.

As always, we encourage you to practice this technique, make it your own, and let us know how it goes.

Remember, we’re easy to talk to. Feel free to reach out with questions about this technique or other issues.

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