Whether it’s a matter of making the most out of your marketing campaign and improving your ROI or capitalizing on word-of-mouth referrals, never let a lead slip through the crack—they could be your next diamond in the rough. Every single lead you receive through your business should be considered that one magic client who can help you elevate your business, taking it from where it is now to where you want it to be. The power of follow-up is immense and should be considered one of the best friends of bootstrapped budgeters.
First, it should be noted that trends indicate positive results when business owners verbalize their follow-up efforts with their prospective clients as “reconnecting” instead of “following up;” it’s much more personal and will help you achieve a better business relationship. For example, “Hello, this is Derek Heck from Bootstrapping Blog and I’m reconnecting with you in regards to our last conversation.” Pretty simple right? Yet countless business owners fail to do this on a daily basis. It’s similar to neglecting to insulate your pipes or letting a leaky faucet go unchecked—it seems minor at the time, but you eventually end up losing a lot of money through this type of negligence.
Or perhaps you do have good intentions and plan to follow up, but just haven’t had the time. Well, I’m sincerely asking you to burn your Procrastinator’s Creed contract and jump into action. If not, then your lead goes from blazing hot, to lukewarm, to somebody else’s client! Plus, by following up promptly, you will be telling your prospect volumes about how you’ll treat them as a client, meeting deadlines on time and providing a close watch over their account. Remember, clients don’t just want to know that they’ll get the service or product they’re buying, they want to know that they will be comprehensively taken care of.
So what’s a good timeframe for following up? Probably about a week later. You don’t want to come off as a telemarketer selling jewelry cleaner and calling back the next day. Let them breathe a little and have time to look over your proposal. And make sure you set a solid date and time, indicating when you’ll be reconnecting—call them exactly when you say you will! And make sure they actually write your appointment down when you plan it. Don’t be afraid to specifically ask them to get their planner out and write it down. If you don’t, you’ll end up getting more flakes than a bowl of Wheaties.
And how about a “blind” follow-up? You won’t always have the opportunity to speak with your prospect in the initial phase. For example, you may receive a lead through your website—if someone signs up for your newsletter. In this case, you should develop a standard follow-up template or autoresponder. Remember, the Web is faceless and without emotion—you need to constantly think of ways to reach out to people and remind them that there’s an actual human behind your website
Here’s an example a website lead follow-up:
I see that you visited my blog at www.bootstrappingblog.com recently. I hope you’ve been enjoying our content and have been able to apply some of what you’ve read to your own business.
Call-to-Action Paragraph.
And in case you missed it, I thought I’d pass this article along:
“It’s nothing personal.” Bullspit! There’s no such thing as nothing being personal in the business world. No matter who’s involved in a business equation, people are either spending money they worked hard to earn, or are looking to earn the other person’s money through hard work. Unless you’ve won the lottery, any blood, sweat and tears poured into your business makes the scenario very personal. Read Full Article
Please feel free to contact me and let me know how I can help you with your business. I eagerly welcome all inquiries.
Now go get ‘em tiger!
Always a good reminder – with the proviso that the above template is never sent in error to long-term subscribers.
I’d been a regular visitor to a (small) blog I liked very much and commented frequently. Imagine my surprise to receive a “Welcome! So glad you just found my blog! Sales pitch, sales pitch, sales pitch” email months later. It stung a bit!
Like the idea of including further reading.
Yes these are things that you need to be careful about. And quite frankly I have never been a fan of the automated canned sales pitch.
But further reading is a way of showing that you are hoping to provide extra value to them.
There is no denying that marketing your business online is a necessity in today’s market and social media networking is more effective way for new small business popularity.
We own a seasonal tax business. I’m always trying to figure out a way of reconnecting with clients during the year without coming off like an interruption. Any suggestions?
[...] of the best places to start prioritizing is when you consider how much time you should spend on reconnecting with your prospects. Letting go of a prospect can be like leaving your child behind with a babysitter for the first [...]
Hi Mary,
Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. Marketing is an interruption by it’s very nature. The key to it not being a bother is in giving them good content. I know up in Canada we get new tax information all through the year but I never hear about it until tax season.
Timely newsletters outlining new tricks, tips and loopholes might be a good start. The other thing that I know I struggle with as a business owner is recording my mileage and stuff like that so simple worksheets and forms like that sent to me during the year would be a big help.
Or a quick and easy way to handle my receipts or even a monthly reminder that it is a much bigger job if you leave it to the end or the year, why not do it now. This might even be a way for you to make your business a little less seasonable if you wanted. Send a note about letting you guys handle the monthly reciepts, but that might be more accounting then you want to have.