Knowing the stats and watching data allows you to know your customer better. And when you know your customer, you know how to talk to them.

If you are in sales, talking to potential clients is what you do. Whether you are accessing them via email, phone or social media, you are talking to them a lot. But is it enough?

One statistic that will make you a better salesperson:

80% of sales require five follow ups.

And another statistic to tell you why:

44% of salespeople only follow up once.

By knowing that the majority of salespeople only follow up with a potential customer once, and that five follow-ups are usually needed in order to make a sale, you have the power to change your behavior.

Why do 44 percent of sales professionals only attempt to interact with a prospective customer twice?

Some answers from sales professionals include reasons such as being too busy with other things, forgetting altogether, and losing interest in the chase, but the majority responded that they did not want to feel like they were annoying or pestering people.

According to The Sales Artist:

“The core reason why salespeople don’t follow up is because they don’t plan the follow up. And that plan starts during the initial interaction with the prospect. If the purchase decision can’t be made during the initial interaction, the follow up should be scheduled then and there.”

The bottom line: you can differentiate yourself from the competition if you follow up.

The problem: doing so is time consuming. Or is it?

Writing an email takes about three minutes—ten if you type really slow. The bigger problem is for salespeople on the go who are in transit and unable to sit down and write. In these situations, a call is ideal, but often clients prefer conference calls (the average B2B decision-making group includes 5.4 buyers), and these bring the hassle of dial in codes and PINs.

Four Apps to help you plan your follow up:

If you use mobile technology to your advantage, you can jump ahead of your competitors.

1. MobileDay

MobileDay’s neat little one-touch conference call dial-in app will sync with your native calendar so that you don’t have to worry about all those PIN codes and passcodes ever again. When conference calls and online meetings aren’t as troublesome to get into, you’ll find the prospect of calls less daunting.

Additionally, the MobileDay app includes features that allow you to one-touch dial into a conference call and then forward that call to your desktop phone—pretty nifty if you like using your office phone for the audio quality but dread those long PIN numbers.

2. Full Contact

FullContact is a smart address book. You can organize your contacts better, which means that you will be able to plan to use them. Social profiles and photos can be synced, and duplicates removed.

This app basically lets you have all your contacts in one place—really helpful when you are plugging at leads from both social media and more traditional sources.

3. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator allows you to make good use of the 380 million plus professional profiles on this popular platform. The Lead Builder Feature helps you search for potential clients whose professional interests are relevant to your product.

Real-time updates and notifications will keep you on track with those follow-ups—sometimes all it takes is a prompt to spur you into action.

4. Point N Time

An app that allows you to make notes and document meetings while on the go. Point N Time’s Meeting Mapper means that you can track each meeting in terms of your project plans and sales methodology.

Meeting Mapper is a native Salesforce solution that makes sure that your meeting notes are transferred over to your accounts and opportunities. Because the data is stored in Salesforce, your whole company to see your meeting notes and updates.