The biggest factor you can control
Reuben Swartz
Fun "Anti-CRM" for Solo Consultants Who Hate "Selling" but Love Serving Clients. Put the "relationship" back in CRM: conversations, referrals, follow-up, lead magnets, proposals. Host of the Sales for Nerds Podcast ????
There's a lot of stuff in business we can't control. But there's one simple factor that doesn't require sophisticated sales skills or fancy marketing tools.
Ready for it...
Follow up. That's it.
What's the point of working hard to network, generate referrals, get web leads, etc, if you're not going to follow up with them?
People are busy. Often too busy to get organized to handle your solution. (Just like we have things we know we should be doing, but we're too busy to get started.)
And you've probably been in a situation where you're trying to get something handled and you're trying to give people money to help you fix it and they won't call you back... Don't be the person that doesn't get back to your prospects.
How bad is the problem?
Here's a table with the number of conversations required on the Y-axis and the follow-up rate on the X-axis.
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If you follow-up 90% of the time and it takes 3 conversations to get a client, you've lost over a quarter of your opportunities just through lack of follow-up. (At 80% follow-up, it's almost half...)
Of course, that table assumes that everyone you follow-up with becomes a client, which isn't very realistic. Let's say that 75% of people, do... Here's the table again...
In short, we're shooting ourselves in the foot by not following up.
And this doesn't even account for the time, money, and energy invested in generating the leads we're supposed to follow-up with...
Of all the parts of my super-secret 2 step sales process for solo consultants, (step 1: figure out exactly who you want to talk to. step 2: talk to them), the follow-up piece is the one most under your control. These are people who want you to talk to them...
What's your follow-up process?
(Want more detail on mine? Join my free webinar on Thursday. Register here.)
Transforming Team Talent into Better Listeners, Facilitators, and Presenters | Voice Equity Advocate | Keynoter | Emcee
1 年You make so much sense. It's great to see this chart. Now I'm going to leave Linkedin because I need to follow up!
???? Freelance B2B & B2C Writer | Content Strategist | Brand Messaging | Real Estate, Commercial Cleaning, Roofing, Home Improvement, Sales / Consulting, Local Business, Marketing, Nonprofit, Wellness, Personal Finance
1 年Follow-up is a tough call for me. I will follow up a couple of times, but the folks who sign up after this aren't always the greatest clients. They need a lot of extra management and miss deadlines, etc. Thoughts?
Scale Your Impact and Income w/o Sacrificing Your Sanity ?? Business Growth Strategist for Coaches ?? Scalable Genius Method? ??? Podcaster ?? Co-Founder GEM Networking Community
1 年Yes! I can make it to the webinar. This is very timely. I've been working on my mindset and process related to follow-up. I've gotten better, but I know I still need to do more. Looking forward to it, Reuben.
Your LinkedIn Strategy is Hurting My Heart and My Eyeballs | "America's Top LinkedIn Thought Leader" - Forbes | Helping 7-8 Figure Businesses Claim The Top Spot w/ Most Lucrative Position, Niche, and "BSOT" Messaging.
1 年THE FORTUNE IS IN THE FOLLOW UP! They told me this in multi level marketing, back in the day. And they were right!
Do you take your natural chutzpah for granted? I'm focused on the intersection of performance and chutzpah, where key success characteristics and attitude meet boundaries that need stretching.
1 年Reuben Swartz - There's nothing like hard data to demonstrate the opportunities lost when people fail due to a lack of timely and disciplined follow-up. Your work is very persuasive.