Following-up on other people, especially in your business email or website, can further make us look more reliable. It shows that we are steadily selling ourselves or our product with more consistency. In this episode, host Ken Courtright discusses the rewards of doing follow-ups and why we should not give up at refilling our potential clients or customers with more information.
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Follow-Up Rewards
I wanted to share something that I don’t hear and spoke of often. This is the power of a good follow-up. I got back from Las Vegas and I was at an event called CEO Space where I’m a faculty. We go out throughout the week and we mentor people. We have breakfast and lunch meetings. We even share in what’s called “See-Me” cards. If you have a lead for someone, you give them a “See-Me” card and it says, “See me and I can refer you to so and so.” Hundreds of people will get home from this event and I got a funny feeling they’re going to do what I did the first couple of times. They’re going to go right into their daily routine, Monday through Friday, the home to work and they might miss following up with someone via an email, phone call or text.
They might miss another piece of business or a great future contact. I was going through some of my processes. I followed up with at least 24 people and I started realizing, “I don’t know how many people have a systemized method to the follow-up.” We’re on episode 87 and I’m going to call this The Powerful Follow-up. The bottom line is a great follow-up can make a deal. A poor or no follow-up altogether could break a deal. I’m going to go through a series of statements that I used purposefully that you can use, replicate and find incredibly beneficial in bettering the chance of you gaining a client or a customer. We’re going to set the stage. How many times have you been to a meetup, general conference, lead’s breakfast or something and someone handed you a business card and is under the assumption that you’re going to follow-up?
A great follow-up can make a deal. A poor or no follow-up altogether could, no question, break a deal. Click To TweetI’m going to go through a series of statements and then give you the psychological reason why I use it and then if you can use it, great. Hopefully, you can. The first thing that I used a number of times goes like this, “I was studying you, your website and your industry…” I can’t tell you how many times in emails I wrote this. I would finish that sentence with, “I didn’t understand this,” or “What it looks like to me is this,” or “I was studying you and I didn’t notice…” or “I was studying your website and I might have missed it. Did I see a link to Facebook or something?” You must mention thereafter what you did find or what you didn’t find. This is huge because it shows you’re not rushing into a quick sale.
A lot of people in a follow-up, they’re going to type the person’s email and say, “It’s great meeting you at the conference. If you’d like to learn more about me, here’s the link to my website. Here are my products. I can give you a discount code.” It’s all about you. The number one rule of a follow-up is you don’t mention anything about you. You mentioned what you found out about them. It’s amazing when you show the world you’re not rushing into a sale. It shows you are logical, you’re not emotional and your eyes are off yourself and on them. I cannot stress the importance of starting with something like that. The second phrase, “I was trying to see if any of our products or services are a good fit.”
This establishes that you need to win as well. You’re not just there to sell and get them to buy something. You have to win if there’s a transaction. This also shows that you don’t work with everybody. You don’t sell your stuff and services to everybody. It’s got to be a win. It shows that you are involved in the deal. You’re not just a sales rep. Here’s another good one. “I didn’t want to presuppose… Can you tell me what you mean by…?” and then you quote something from their website, their LinkedIn profile or something. This is awesome. It shows you are seeking to understand before you are understood. It shows you are a problem solver. These are critical in a follow-up.
Here’s another one. “Do I have it right that…?” You are going to guess their current area of pain or their unstated goals. “Based on what I’m reading on your website, Bob, do I have it right that you hired three more employees? You’re up to 30 but you still need to expand further. Do I have it right that you started a new product line and now you’re probably looking for some alternate marketing idea or something?” This is awesome because it’s going to show that you have an understanding of them and their industry. Here’s another one, “If I’m guessing right, I may have a great idea, product or a suggestion for you.” “Bob, if I’m guessing right, I might have the perfect product for you,” or “If I’m guessing right, I may have a potential solution for you.” This shows that you are solution-oriented and you truly want to help.
Here’s my personal favorite. “I’d like to share some information that we don’t put on our website.” I usually save this towards the end because it’s incredibly mysterious. Sometimes, I add, “If we can connect again, I’d like to show some stuff that we purposefully don’t put on our website. We’re not in the business of training a competitor. I’d love to share some of the behind the scenes stuff we’re working on.” People love this. They want to feel like they’re part of the inner circle. This also helps motivate the follow-up. If you could set a follow-up meeting, it doesn’t mean they’re going to show up.
Seeking to understand before you are understood shows you are a problem-solver. Click To TweetWhen you say, “I’d like to share some information that we don’t put on our website,” that means you’re purposely holding something back. People presuppose there is some serious intellectual property behind that. When they ask about it, let’s say you use that method and then you get to the follow-up meeting and they say, “What was that info that you purposely don’t put on your website?” I love to explain that we’re not in the business of training a competitor. I’d like to let them in on some of the proprietary methods we use in marketing and growing businesses. I cannot stress this enough. I’ve probably used that line to get more follow-ups than anything else. Right after, “I’m looking forward to your reply.”
That’s how I finish everything. If anybody’s ever emailed me and if you want to see this live, shoot me a quick email at Ken@IncomeStore.com. You will notice that at the bottom of all my emails I put, “PS. A little bird told me you might need the information in this podcast,” and then there’s a link to the number one podcast I’ve ever done. It’s my most popular one. I talked about S-curves and about always staying open-minded to a 2nd, 3rd, 4th and even 5th revenue stream. That’s what put our company on the map. You put a link to a podcast, to your book, to a killer quote or something like that. A girl hit me back and she says, “Ken, thank you for that. I did need that podcast.” She didn’t realize that I have that same signature string at the end of every email. I am hoping this helps. The power of a follow-up is crucial. It’s critical to real business and I see a lot of people missing the power of a good follow-up. I hope this helps. Take care.
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