10 Ways to Follow Up Like a Rock Star

A sales rock star that is.

Whether your selling AV services to an association, a SaaS product to a Fortune 500 company, or providing leads to medical spas, the power of any great salesperson (and entrepreneur who is his/her own salesperson) is in the follow-up and the constant touch points with their prospects and existing clients.

You can use a handwritten note, one of several services like this to send out custom cards for $1, or you can find another unique item. Doing any one of the following ten things in your sales process will cause you to instantly stand out from the crowd.

1. Right after a sales meeting or networking event

As soon as you leave that first encounter with a new prospect or even someone you hit it off with a networking event, write a quick handwritten note, or using a done-for-you service, type out a quick note on your phone. For the services that let you do it, snap a quick selfie of yourself in front of their building and upload that as the cover of the card. This is a great, fun way to stand out and can help you with a way to follow up next time.

2. Birthdays

Birthdays are always a good time to acknowledge your prospects and existing clients. But consider taking it to another level by sending birthday cards to not just the prospect or client, but the prospect’s husband or wife and kids as well!

3. Company announcements - personalized to each person

If you have a new product or service rolling out that you think would be beneficial to your list, instead of simply blasting out an email newsletter that almost no one will read, drop a personalized note to folks and a quick blurb about why this will personally impact the recipient.

4. Podcast thank-you cards

Have your own show? (If you don’t, you should! This is the greatest cold outreach tool available…but I digress.)

For those of you who do, throw a custom image of your guest on the front of the card and make sure you get this to them as soon as they finish the episode. It’s super easy to collect their mailing address when you’re booking them for the show.

5. Dream 100 List

This is a term Russell Brunson uses with his Click Funnels tribe, but other sales and marketing rock stars like Matthew Kimberley have their version - the top 100 people you want to keep in contact with. Use a custom card or send them a book to let them know you’re thinking of them. If you see they’ve announced something on LinkedIn like a job change or client acquisition, take a screenshot of the post, have it printed on the card, and send it to them with a “congrats” note inside.

6. Restaurant guests follow-up

For the restaurant owners (or sales and marketing folks working for them) there is great power in following up with people who have eaten in your place...and so few people do it. Send a personalized card who have signed up for your rewards program. Take a picture of first-time customers and use that picture as the image on the card!

7. New client welcome card

We so often forget about our clients the moment they become a client and move on to finding the next one. Show your existing clients some love with a real-life, offline follow-up sequence as part of their onboarding process. Start off with a handwritten note, then a personalized coffee mug, then a T-shirt…you get the idea.

For those of you selling B2B, how many of your competitors are actually doing anything like this? When you have a client spending thousands of dollars with you, how simple is it to spend a few bucks and stay in front of them?

8. Demo follow-up 

Is demoing a software your main touchpoint with prospects?

Shoot over a card and inside line out next steps and mention something unique from the meeting that you discussed so that they feel the personalization.

9. Commercial and Residential Real Estate follow-up

What a powerful tool in an agent’s arsenal. Throw an image on the front of the property the client or prospect looked at and send them a “Thank you for taking a look” note inside. The image could even be the client or prospect in the property to really personalize it and create some of those “you belong in here” vibes.

This works too with any kind of physical product you may be selling: cars, event space, industrial equipment, etc.

10. Pre-meeting cards

Scheduled a week or two out with a prospect? Shoot them a custom note saying something like “I’m looking forward to our meeting” that will land in front of them a day or two before your appointment. The image on the card can be of you in front of the prospect’s building or you holding one of the prospect’s products. This is a great way to help reduce appointment cancellations.

Take Action

I hope a few of these have sparked an idea or two on how you can level up your follow-up and pre-meeting sales game.

Need help with some strategies specific to your business? Hit me up here on LinkedIn and let’s chat.