subject: There's Gold In The Follow-up -- But Only If You Do It Right! [print this page] How many times have you sent a prospect information about one of your products or services only to realize four days later that you haven't heard a word back from that prospect? The prospect didn't buy anything from you and, even worse, you lost track of them.You don't even remember what they asked for or what you sent them! Was it your new 'special report' or your new book or product?
Sound familiar? It can and does happen to all of us! Our businesses are busy. We are tied to our computers busy emailing prospects and customers all day long. Business should be BOOMING! Right? But wait! How can anyone sustain a business if they can't keep track of their prospects?
I submit that over time, you simply can't sustain a profitable business if you can't follow-up with your customers and prospects in a systematic way. Why? Because they will go elsewhere where they WILL receive personalized follow-up. If you have been operating without a system, you are LOSING MONEY every day and probably don't even know it.
Remember, you need to get your sales message to your prospects over and over again before they will 'hear' the message and purchase something from you. It's just human nature. Very few people (less than 1%) will buy something from you the first time they hear your message. It is estimated that it takes an average of seven interactions before a person 'hears' and is ready to pursue purchasing your product. So when you send your information and don't get back to your prospects, they have probably moved on to something else.
What are the smartest business people doing? They are recognizing that THERE IS GOLD in the follow-up! Personalized follow-up! Potential purchasers do need sustained follow-up and many will be prepared to purchase something from you, eventually. Once they do, you can potentially have a customer for a long time, a customer who buys what you have to sell over and over again.
So how can you provide high level, personalized follow-up when you are busy running your business and chasing your leads? How can you get back to the 10 people who requested something on Friday, the 15 on Monday and the 25 on Friday?
The most successful people have automated their process for follow-up. So when a prospect goes to your website for information, they get it instantaneously. Your response is customized to capture their name and, thus, personalize your message back to them.
Furthermore, that prospect automatically goes into your pre-established database and is sent follow-up messages at specific intervals established by you.
So say, for example, they click on your message that says, 'For more information, Click here.' They click, they automatically get your first message within 90 seconds.
Within the next several months, say, that prospect can potentially get 15-25 additional messages from you all geared to telling that prospect repeatedly about your products and services. Do you push your product and services in all 20 messages?
You can educate as well as sell. When you can educate and provide additional information, you add value. We work with a system that has, very quickly, increased our productivity and actually made our prospects happier and more responsive - all because the follow-up was measured and organized.
A built-in mechanism allows the prospect to tell you when they are ready to purchase something. They simply hit 'reply' and they stop getting the automated messages and you then can focus on giving that person exactly what they want. The beauty of the system is that IT works for you. With a little upfront work to setup the system, you now are free to focus on building your business knowing that all of your prospects are being cultivated.
In this highly competitive market, your chances of long-term success are slim without systematic follow-up in the equation. Do what the successful do - go for the GOLD!
