Do DSRs know what their customers really expect after a sale is made? Sure, it's a given that the distributor's truck will show up on time tomorrow bearing the items they've ordered from you today. And operators further expect that the products will be in tip-top shape, that no items will be zeroed out, and that all paperwork will be accurate.

Yet there's a hidden side to these transactions. No matter how hard you've worked or how many concessions you may have made when you sold the customer, operators seem to always be of the opinion that the rep still owes them a favor.

Why? The perception on the part of operator-customers is that you have not only gotten their business, but have also gotten some of their money. From their point of view, there were many other salespeople who were also trying to land their account, but they chose you as the recipient. In their minds, you owe them something else?even though you may have bent over backward already just to get the order.

By favor, we mean follow-up. The customer mindset described here is the prime reason why follow-up is so important for keeping an account's business. Here is an example of a follow-up strategy you should use when you're trying to take business away from a competitor.

1. Start small. Typically, as part of your prospecting activities, you will have been calling on a particular customer for months without ever having gotten to first base. The customer is polite and keeps telling you to come back at a later date and then, all of a sudden, he gives you a small order.

2. Insure safe service. If your laptop isn't set up to reserve stock against this order immediately, call your company right away to check on stock status. Then do what you can to make sure that this new order is given the kid-glove treatment internally at your company?that goes for the invoice as well as the products and approximate delivery time. Let the driver know that this is a new customer on his route.

3. Double-check the delivery. The next day, call or drop by this account to make sure that everything was delivered as promised, and that the right product made it to the right place at the right time. Operators give close scrutiny to their first shipment from a new distributor, so flawless execution is a must.

4. Don't let down. You'll likely get a few small reorders after this first, and you should keep the same level of intensity on your follow-up. Soon, the orders will get larger and you'll be on the way to being this operator's primary supplier.

There is an old saying that sums up the importance of good follow-up: "The secret of success is to do the common job uncommonly well." Time and time again, operators say that the primary reason they switch their business from one distributor to another is that the one sales rep followed-up and his or her competitor did not. ID