There are times when sales pitches and charm just won’t cut it. When prospects are not in that phase when they are actually ready to commit to a sale or a contract, it’s very hard (and sometimes inappropriate) to bring them where they don’t want to be – yet.

Telemarketers would have to resort to more strategic ways to “ripen” the fruit of their labor and ultimately secure a business-favorable conclusion to each call.

Find out what best practices are needed to deal with indecisive prospects in this insightful post from Enrepreneur.com:

1. Create a follow-up marketing budget. Your company probably spends significant dollars on marketing and advertising to attract new prospects. Why not invest more in converting prospects into customers — particularly if they’ve already shown an interest in your company? This kind of approach will help you yield the highest return on investment for your advertising dollars.

2. Simplify their lives. While the ultimate purpose of your follow-up is to close sales, your messaging to prospects needs to go beyond selling. No prospect wants to constantly hear your message of “buy my stuff.” Instead, use the follow-up to establish yourself as a trusted advisor. You can send a prospective customers articles and information addressing their concerns, for example. By helping them, you build trust. When they are finally ready to make their buying decision, they will be more likely to buy from you.

3. Use multiple touch points. Email is the easiest and quickest way to follow up with prospects, but don’t limit yourself to one form of communication. When following up, you an reach out with a phone call, through snail mail, or by sharing a video link. All of these give you a better chance of engaging prospective customers, increasing their likelihood of buying.

4. Set a follow-up timeline. Set a follow-up timeline based on your typical sales cycle. For example, if the typical sales cycle is one month, perhaps you should follow up with prospects twice per week for the next four weeks, once per week for the following two weeks, and then monthly for the next 12 months.

Most importantly, don’t give up. You’ll be surprised how effective reaching out to a prospect six months after your initial contact can be. Most importantly, because your competitors will rarely follow-up with prospects for that long, you’ll often be able to close sales without any competitive pressure.

5. Establish a follow-up system. It’s important to establish a system, particularly with follow-up sequences that last many months or even years. Without systems in place, it’s too easy for someone to drop the ball and for necessary follow ups not to get done. This can range from simple follow-up alerts in your CRM system to hiring a marketing manager whose sole focus is helping sales staff secure more sales from follow-ups.

Read more at http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/229540