Value Added Follow-Up

Last night I delivered my Greatest Sales Secret webinar that was over 3 hours long. There were many sales secrets discussed, not just the Greatest.

How many deals have you lost because you haven’t followed up enough? Many people don’t see success with follow-up so they give up. They make one phone call and that’s it—that's not follow-up. You must follow-up persistently, consistently and creatively so you will be differentiated from the market—because nobody is doing any real follow-up.

People underestimate how much energy and effort it takes to win a sale, to getting attention, and to get in front of people. You don’t get a six pack by going to the gym once or twice. It takes consistency. Following up with persistence will get an initial conversation with someone, get their attention, and eventually secure an appointment.

Three things to get your follow up game tight:
1. Be persistent: Even if you are bad at follow-up, eventually you’ll get something just by not giving up.
2. Be creative: You are a pest if you aren’t creative. Bring something new to each interaction.
3. Understand your cadence: What is the speed at which you follow-up? Nobody likes doing things that they suck at. Have some predictability of what’s going to happen. Get a rhythm.

In your follow-up don’t rely on one single channel of communication. No one thing is effective by itself.

• Phone
• Email
• In person
• Texting
• Fax
• Gifts
• Articles and Blogs

The point is that you need to practice Value Added Follow-Up.

Practicing follow-up is how you can be persistent without getting on someone’s nerves. Make a strategy for your follow-up. If you want one whale you need to get 100 lines going off your boat. You call a guy 3 times and he doesn’t return your calls and you start thinking he’s not interested. Think of every call as a win.

Better to lose a deal because you follow up too much than too little!

Buddha says, “In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins, not through strength but through perseverance.” The water flows over, under, and on the side 24/7/365—it just keeps going and going.

When I pursued my wife, Elena, I had to use creativity. Creativity is what separates good follow-up from stalking. Your persistence must have creativity whether in business or relationships. Make a commitment to persist in things, and then find the line. How far is too far? Know how to cross the line but also how to reel it back.

Persistence is the single most common trait of the most successful!

Your friend in business & sales,

Grant Cardone