One of the email newsletters I read this morning mentioned that Marketing Sherpa found that 40% of people who buy their reports don’t even download what they bought (much less read them). We are not talking about $30 reports here–try $300 and above, judging from the ones currently available on their web site.

Now someone out there will surely say, “Who cares? They got the money so it doesn’t matter.” But it does matter, and it should matter to you too if people are buying your products or services and not using them because it’ll hurt your future sales. Here’s why:

a) Happy customers often become repeat happy customers and tell others. But people who don’t use what they bought, don’t become happy customers. Six months from now they may not remember that they didn’t read the report or use the service or whatever. They’ll just remember that they bought something from you and it wasn’t that helpful. So they won’t buy from you again or recommend you to others. Or they will remember and feel guilty about buying anything else from you until they use what they already bought.

b) It may indicate a problem in your sales process or the product/service itself. Maybe they thought you were going to mail the report to the them. Maybe it’s too hard or too overwhelming to get started. If it’s a situation when you know a purchase isn’t being used–such as a product been downloaded or a 10-visit card hasn’t been used–contact those customers and find out why. Or use a free service like Survey Monkey to send a short questionnaire to purchasers asking if they’ve used their purchase and if not, why now. We love to hear from our regular customers, but sometimes the information from the unhappy customers can be much more valuable.

To prevent this from happening, find a way to follow-up with purchasers without being a pest. One easy and inexpensive way is to use autoresponders to automatically send emails to buyers at regular intervals. The first could be a simple “making sure you got the product or service, if not contact us at….” a couple days after the sale. Then a couple days later something to remind them of how to get started (or where to start), or answering a question you’re frequently asked it, or even an example of how someone else used the product/service. As long as you’re providing information that helps with their purchase, they’re appreciate your emails instead of feeling like you’re pestering them. And the end result–more happy customers.