As a sales ops leader, what can you do to help mitigate and thus reduce the level of cancelations/refunds/returns?

The key, as I discussed in the blog for salespeople [https://go.sellingeffectiveness.com/LI.12.30.PM] and leaders [https://go.sellingeffectiveness.com/LI.12.31.PM], is more a matter of understanding and addressing buyer’s remorse.

Understanding Buyer’s Remorse

Just a short recap – buying something new requires change. The primal part of our mind fears the unknown (change). This means that every time your team sells to a new customer, that customer will be hit with panic, doubt, and fear at some point once the sale is done.

Your team could do all the parts of the current sales process right, and buyer’s remorse will still kick it.

Know that buyer’s remorse always happens.

Sometimes it is slight, and that new customer gets themselves through it.

Sometimes it is enough to get them to call/email/come back in and cancel (whatever that means for your industry).

Here are the processes that you can put into place. These are similar to what the guidance was to sales leaders. But it is your responsibility to actually create them as repeatable, scalable processes.

1. Address Buyer’s Remorse During the Sales Process

First – ensure the sales process includes a section of the conversation to address that some level of post-purchase ‘questions and concerns’ (you don’t need to call it doubt and remorse) can occur. The key is for your salespeople to let every new customer know, every single time, that if that does occur to call and/or email with the questions/concerns so they can talk through it.

You and the team might be worried that by bringing it up it could cause it to happen, but setting expectations isn’t the same as a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you set the right expectations that align with human behaviors, and then it happens (the new buyer gets hit with questions/concerns), then it will build even more trust and credibility.

To get this part of the sales conversation done every time, you can use some/all of the following:

• Updates to your scripting (assuming you actually provide scripting to your team…which hopefully you do!)
• Post sale checklist items – where the salesperson must acknowledge all of the sales process covered. This you can refer to later if there is an audit that reveals part(s) was missed
• Call/Video/Meeting recording review and audits for compliance
• Build it into your non-negotiable sales standards/requirements

2. Incorporate Financial Impacts into the Compensation Plan

Second – affect them financially.

You want to make big changes in what your team focuses on? Change their comp plan.

Now I am not suggesting anything drastic. In fact, I think you should probably be kinder with the cancelations that you might currently be hitting them for. You see, there will always be a certain percentage of people who cancel/refund, change their mind. If your team is filled with actual salespeople (and not Order Takers) they will persuade people to buy things that they say they want now but will freak out about later. And that’s okay.

Your comp plan should allow for a certain % that doesn’t affect your reps negatively. This could be 2-5-10-20% of their sales. The reason is vital is that you don’t want your team to worry about every client who cancels. Of course, you want them to save every deal they can but you also want a culture where they know the ones that might cancel as soon as they sell them. I always knew the ones that I persuaded to get help way outside of their comfort zone and was pretty sure they would call me back sometime after worrying about their decision.

Give your team the benefit of the doubt of a certain, acceptable level of cancelations. Above that point, it should start to cost them financially.

3. Implement a Consistent Post-Sale Follow-Up Program

Third – build a required, consistent post-sale follow up program.

I recommend tracking this in your CRM and through your phone platform. If you just make it a task in your CRM, the reps could check the ‘task completed’ box and never actually make the outreach. And don’t let them just send emails to try and check in on their new customers. It would be way too easy for that scared, worried customer to reply back asking to cancel – which requires no level of confrontation.

You need to make sure that they make the calls, and you can tie those calls to the required customer follow-ups. In call center environments I have been in, I have had the tech team program the phone (Five9) with the CRM (Salesforce) to actually lock the rep out of their phone (removing them from the inbound queue), popping up the customer record in Salesforce, and making it so the only action is to dial on that customer follow-up.

4. Build Automated Follow-Ups

Fourth – build automated follow-ups.

Use your CRM and/or marketing automation software to send out emails/messages to new customers. I know I just said to not let your reps do their follow-up via email, but these will be additional messages – more focused on use of and success with the product/service they purchased. Tips, best practices, ideas, and anything else that will help reinforce in their mind that buying from your company was the right long-term decision.

Your team won’t send these types of messages consistently, which is why you should build them out. Think of it as a long-term nurture strategy for new customers that will lead to less cancellation attempts and should also lead to repeat business and/or referrals.

Conclusion

When you put those four sales ops processes in place you will have taken control of reducing the chances that someone will even think about canceling/returning what they bought from your team.