Did you know that if you do not follow up with prospective clients, connectors and even possible collaborators, that you can leave up to 80% of your sales on the table? And when you struggle and aren’t diligent with follow-up, you leave that prospect in the hands of competitors ready to turn your work into their sales success?
Aye yae yae – all the time and energy goes to setting things up for someone else’s timing.
The pace of your follow-up after any kind of meeting, speed networking or networking in general, should match both your style and your prospective customers. Everyone is unique. How do you know then whether the schedule might be monthly, quarterly or something else? How do you know what to include in your follow-up plan?
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Several criteria to consider:
– Have you asked your prospective customer or client their preference of follow-up? Some people do better with telephone, others email and others in-person.
– Is your follow-up message weighted more toward building a relationship or just asking for a decision? The follow-up is both about selling and building the relationship at the same time. NOTE: shift your focus to helping the person buy and it will minimize you possible queasy factor with selling. When you help another person to buy you can’t help but want to understand their needs more.
– Will your frequency be enough to cut through the clutter and keep your name at the top of your contact’s mind? You need to understand your prospects style to tailor this.
– Are you mixing educational or editorial messages with advertorial or marketing information? If all you are going to do is talk about about you, your company, your sale, yourself, it’s weighted too heavily on one side. Talk with you prospective client about things that you heard them say interested them.
– Are you being yourself? If you are an introvert the follow-up is where your strengths with shine: listening, being more curious and wanting to maintain the relationship to preserve your own energy. If you are an extrovert you may want to strengthen your: focus on the planning and then be your natural gregarious self while you strengthen you listening.
– Are you being personal?
Follow-up can be systematized and within the system you can tailor to each person’s unique buying style.
Yes; you can send too many messages, leave too many voice mails, send too many cards. The likelihood of this with most people is slim because anywhere from 80% to 99% of business owners and salespeople don’t follow-up at all!
No; you can’t necessarily follow-up too quickly. You want to follow-up according to the other person’s seeming decision making style. Some follow-up will be speedy, some follow-up will be slower. Take the pace of your prospect.
Maybe; if you start following up mid-year with all the people you have already net through any networking, you won’t need to attend any new networking events! You will begin to help prospects make decisions that favor purchasing your product or service which you introduced to them earlier in the year. No curdled cream.
We’ll be wrapping up this series with a follow-up plan that you can fit your own product or service.
But what other criteria do you believe you want to consider to continue to be the best you that you can be in your follow-up?
Excellent post with helpful suggestions. The key words for me were to “build a relationship”. If done with sincerity there is such appeal in what can be a total “win-win”.
That “win-win” attitude will convey IF a person does the follow-up. Great point Keyuri. Otherwise, if there is no follow-up the “win-win” is fairly slim, isn’t it?
Pat:
You are correct. Why spend all the front end time without getting a reward — the sale?
Following up should be built in as part of the marketing plan.
Rob
Rob you have a point here! Follow up NEEDS to be part of the marketing plan; without it the plan is incomplete. Thanks.
This is definitely an area I need to work on. I am good about sending a follow up post card after the meeting. I dont have a plan for future follow ups.
How often do you recommend following up with contacts. Since I am a book publisher it can take months and years before someone decides to write a book;therefore, I primarily focus on relationship building rather than selling. Most of my business comes from contact referrals.
Julia, book publishers are like my corporate training clients: could be months or years before they know their need.
I do quarterly usually – you may want to ask your top three publishing prospects their preferred time frame.
Also, have valid business reasons when you DO stay in touch – maybe you received writing recognition, let them know; maybe you recall they mentioned a personal interest or hobby, forward them a note when something interesting comes across your radar screen.
Find out when their birthday is or their anniversary (either with spouse or with their publishing house) – send a REAL greeting card. Not an ecard but a real greeting card.
All of this helps in building know, like, trust and buy.
I do like the tip to find out their preferred communication Patricia, rather than just doing what you prefer.
I also look for one way I can help them as a way of developing the relationship as well as remebering something from the conversation.
Thanks for the article.
As people we tend to like others who are most like us. Ask anyone you know to look at who they hang out with: friends have similar interests, hobbies and even styles. So it makes sense for any sales that depends on relationship building.
You are a Go-Giver aren’t you Susan? Go-Givers tend to want to help others too. Thanks for your comments.
Follow up is key.
It doesn’t matter if you spoke with Obama. If you don’t make the follow up call to the person he told you to call, all you had is an encounter with the president. But your food is not going to be served at the White House.
Simple as that really.
Excellent example Catarina.
An encounter is all you have when you let go of follow-up. Brilliant.
Pat, I love the tip where you “ask prospective customers what method they’d prefer” regarding follow-up! Brilliant.
I personally followup with heartfelt greeting cards and often get phone calls and greeting cards thanking me for my card.
Great article, thank you!
D’vorah
Dvorah, I like to think of the tip you like as common sense! But, I’m grateful you think it is brilliant.
Yes ma’am. Cards do it; watch for the next post in this series about Speed Networking.
Thank you for the comments.
People lose so much business by not following up. It is sooo important and can not be said enough times.
I have found that you can’t really over do follow up. And I personally feel that a “no” is better than a persistent “maybe”. At least you know that the person isn’t a prospect and you move on.
Laura, “maybe” is like the word “sorry” – sorry to hear it because it keeps us hanging up when in reality it’s highly likely there is already a yes or no about something. It’s just that even the prospect isn’t always clear on what they want.
Thanks for bringing that up.
Saying no seems to be difficult for some of us across our lives!
I like that technique to kind of “tease” out a more definitive position. Thanks Laura.
Yes, and some prospects don’t want to say “no”. So I push them a bit.
Another technique, along these lines, is to take it away from them. I’ll say, “You know this doesn’t sounds like a match. I appreciate your time.” Sometimes they’ll come back with, “No, wait, I’m interested, but the timing is wrong.”