The fortune in business in general is in the follow up.
The most successful people I know in all businesses, and this includes my approach to things as well, are relentless in the follow up portion of business. They know that most agreements to do business, buy products, etc. happen after the 4th contact. Unfortunately most people who start a referral networking business don’t ever make the 4 th contact.
They allow discouragement and/or fear to stop them after 1 or 2 contacts. They miss the success that is around the next corner of each prospecting relationship, because they don’t take the steps to reach the corner! You HAVE to follow up in business, or it will cost you your credibility. I explain this in detail in my book ‘The Process.” The truth of the matter is that the more credible you become, and this is something you must earn, the easier it is for you to do business.
You HAVE to follow up in business, or it will cost you your credibility.
I believe in working with so many prospects that it is difficult to follow-up in a timely way with every single one of them. This is okay, because many of your prospects are slowly progressing in your pipeline anyway and it doesn’t matter so much to them how quickly you get back to them. You will more often than not hear “I haven’t had a chance to look at the information.” This will position you to be spending your time with your most interested prospects at the time when they are most interested. But what about the people who are not as urgent? The ones that you have already called 3 or 4 times? How do you keep staying in touch? You don’t want to pressure them, yet you have to follow up.
Jason Merson shared something he says with me the other day and it is perfect for this situation. If someone is not so urgent and you are busy, it will end up being a few weeks between contacts at least if you are truly working at the pace you should. When you call them you simply say “Forgive me, I didn’t forget about you…” then you can communicate that you have been really busy working with people.
“Forgive me, I didn’t forget about you…”
This sets a great tone for your conversation, keeps the pressure off, and lets them know that there are plenty of other people finding value in what you are doing…which often stimulates them to want to move forward…because no one likes to be left out.
Another tid bit here about follow-up is this: If you ever feel like they might feel like you are pressuring them, simply say “I am not pressuring you, I am just staying intouch like we spoke about…” or something like this…it is being present…which I have talked about before and will again in the future. Remember, as long as people understand that they can so no to you at any time in the conversation…you can continue it as long as you want.
