Do you suck at follow up? I know I do.
Follow up is one of those areas that has always been really hard for me.
Does your busy schedule make it hard to get back to all of your prospects?
Are your sales stagnant?
Do they seem to lack repeatability?
Do you struggle with cash flow?
Problems paying all your bills?
Do you struggle to have good follow up?
Do you try to get back to all of your prospects and clients but there just aren’t enough hours in a day to get it all done so naturally, the one thing that you should be best at is the thing that suffers?
Do you know how much more profit you could generate if you simply automated this one task?
Are you ready to really kick things into high gear?
For many entrepreneurs, follow up is one of the areas of business that gets the most neglect. Notably, some people are really good at it but if you’re like me I need all the help I can get.
I figured out a long time ago that follow up was not my thing.
I suck at it.
But the fact of the matter is it’s too damn important to ignore.
So knowing that I suck at it, I set out to automate it.
When a task is something you don’t like to do, the best thing you can do as an entrepreneur is to lay out a plan of automation that improves the weakness you have.
Tasks can be mundane.
If you don’t like doing a task it’s because it’s not in your DNA to like that activity.
It’s a fact, people are different.
We don’t all act the same and thankfully we don’t think the same.
However, I find it very revealing that so many people are bad at follow up.
I have found that follow up must be neglected for other reasons than just being a character trait.
I looked deeper and found out that people lack follow up skills by choice.
When I say, by choice, what I mean is we all have choices of how we spend our time.
Follow up takes the focus off you and puts the focus on your prospect or customer.
If you don’t follow up well, you are more concerned for yourself then you are your prospects and customers.
Follow up opens the two-way communication between you and your clients and nurtures long term relationships.
So because I was really bad at follow up I decided to create automated systems to do what I was not good at.
Communication is the number one element of all relationships.
Without communication, the relationship will die.
That’s why we need to communicate with our clients, prospects and especially our spouse on a regular basis.
Are you ready to take communication to the next level?
If you do your sales are going to go through the roof.
Let’s get started.
Break your selling process into multiple areas.
In a previous post, I made reference to the sales ladder.
The first one or two rungs on the ladder going up might be no or low costs steps.
Meaning, rung one might simply be the step where you give your lead magnet to your client in exchange for their name and email address.
The lead magnet is designed to show the prospect how your product or service will make their life better or solve a problem they have and position you as an expert in your field.
Sometimes another no-cost rung is created such as a lunch and learn, a webinar, seminar and many other methods of providing additional education to prospects.
Once a client has enough education about how your product or service will make their life better they will make a purchase when the timing is right for them.
The problem is you never know when the timing is right so you have to be there when it is.
If you do not have automated marketing, it is highly probable that you could completely miss the window of opportunity with your prospect and they will make a purchase from your competitor.
If they received your lead magnet they are interested in the subject.
Your lead magnet attracted them so from that point forward you should speak to them until they make a purchase, ask you to stop sending them information, or until they pass away.
The phrase in the business goes like this, you communicate with them until they buy, fly or die.
The methods you use to communicate with your prospects and clients can be many but email is one of the easiest because you can write them once and then have them premade and ready to send when someone downloads you lead magnet.
Email is also the cheapest and if you do it well your cost per customer acquired will be extremely low.
Email allows tremendous automation that you can set up a year in advance or more.
A few words of caution about email.
Don’t spam people.
Spam is sending unsolicited commercial email to someone who did not request it.
If someone “opts in” to your email list by downloading your lead magnet you have every right to communicate with them but you need to give them a way to stop or “opt out”.
Use an email service like GetResponse, MailChimp, Infusionsoft or Aweber.
There are many to choose from, pick one.
When you use an email service they will provide a method on each email to allow the prospect to opt out of your list.
When someone opts out they weren’t your ideal client anyway so it’s not a big deal.
Most email services allow tracking which lets you know who is opening and reading your emails and gives you a more clear picture of who you are targeting.
Tracking is everything but not for this discussion.
Those who don’t opt out are prospects and the goal is to be there when the timing is right for them to reach out to you to make a purchase.
The goal of each email should be to show communicate a message of solving a problem or improving their life which drives the desired response from your prospect.
The response might be to click a link, sign up for a webinar, make a small purchase, watch a video but each email should have a specific goal.
Don’t just send to send.
Quantity is not nearly as important as quality.
Quality means how well your reader understands how you can solve their problem or make their life better.
When they become confident about this, they will purchase from you when they are ready.
Are you ready to fix your cash flow problem?
If you are I’m hosting a free live webinar to show you how to get more customers now.
You can get details and sign up by clicking here.