The important role of follow up
For my contribution for the Revolutionary blog, I would like to include an excerpt from my book, The Art of Follow Up.
I honestly don’t believe I would have a full roster of clients if it weren’t for diligent follow up with all of my leads.
It’s not as intimidating as it may seem, trust me. If I can do it, you can do it.
You own a Virtual Assistant business. You are the Commander in Chief, CEO, Director of Sales and Marketing, Receptionist and most likely Maintenance crew, among other things. If you don’t follow up with your potential clients, who will? Your competitors will!
After you’ve sent a targeted mailing, do you sit back and wait for the phone to ring? I sincerely hope not. You must be proactive. You might be lucky and receive a couple of phone calls, but don’t hold your breath. Whether you are targeting successful coaches or top producing real estate agents, chances are you selected your target market because they are busy people. Busy people tend to let their mail sit for a long time, especially if they don’t know who it came from. Perhaps your letter was opened and well received by the reader, but then got stuck in the glove box or tossed into the recycling bin.
You must make another contact with each and every recipient of that letter. A dozen of those letters could be sitting on desks or thumb tacked on bulletin boards while their readers wait for a free moment to contact you. What if that moment never comes and your potential client keeps getting busier and busier? They could really use your services and are likely to hire you, if you follow up with them.
You have probably found yourself in a similar situation. Think about it. The most recent example in my own life was a couple of months ago. I received a letter in the mail from a company offering credit card merchant accounts to new businesses. I thought it was interesting and set it aside. I had been too busy to call him. If he had called me back or sent me more information, I might have obtained his services or at the very least spread the word to my business contacts.
Rule # 1:
Never leave it up to your potential client to contact you.
Say it aloud, memorize it and repeat it. If you leave it up to a potential client to call you, you are taking quite a risk. All it takes is another letter, a postcard or a simple phone call. You must understand how important it is to stay in touch with potential clients.
-
Please Join Us...
-
Revolutionary Products
