We can only remember so much, so what are we forgetting?

We can only remember so much, so what are we forgetting?

For folks who might have missed it, apparently Taylor Swift, or maybe it was the NFL, threw a big football game on Sunday evening. Taylor's boyfriend played well (and sang poorly), Usher roller skated at halftime, and of course there were lots of commercials.

The Uber Eats ad about people remembering that you can order a lot of things on Uber Eats, but to make room in your head for that knowledge, you had to forget something else, was one of my favorites. (Full commercial below...)

I don't use Uber Eats, but I thought the ad was funny, clever, and well, memorable.

And it applies to so much of what we do as solopreneurs. We can only remember so much. Which means so much gets lost, especially when it comes to follow-up.

While it may be easy to remember to follow-up with that one hot prospect, that's where you get into trouble. If you think you only have one person to follow-up with, you will put pressure on yourself, even subconsciously, to "close".

The wonderful news is that you don't have just person, you have lots of people you should be following up with, they're just not top of mind right now.

But this means you don't have pressure on any single conversation-- you can simply converse.

Flawless Follow-up

Here's how you can have "Flawless Follow-up" (which doesn't mean you never make a mistake, it means you don't let people slip through the cracks):

  • Use your positioning to attract (and repel) the right people, so you'll have fun conversations
  • Know when we need to talk to someone-- each contact has a Next Conversation Date, whose default is “keep talking to this person” at a reasonable interval (not "never talk to this person again unless I manually do something"), so you don't have to try to remember-- you can't.
  • Block off time in your calendar every week (preferably every day, or at least several days per week)
  • Have an easy way to flip through contacts that need follow-up
  • See notes from past conversations (and be able to search notes for a given person and across all notes)

Want to practice? Join me tomorrow, February 15, for "Follow-up Fest" at 2CT. We'll hop on a Zoom, answer questions, make sure you're set up for success, then mute the Zoom, and get into follow-ups, then reconvene at the end of the hour to review. (Register here.)

David Kalinowski

Stay Out in Front?! Providing Powerful Competitive Intelligence to Executives Making Critical Decisions | Servicing CEOs, CSOs, CMOs, Brand Managers & CI Leaders | Keynote Speaker and Workshop Facilitator | CI Fellow

1 年

Great point Reuben Swartz about having many people to follow up with. There is too much pressure on any sales reps to close if they have a limited number of opportunities in the pipeline. While they still must close when the is a large pipeline line, the nature of the conversation with the prospect is more conversational, as you stated, and a "soft sell" approach will work versus coming across too desperate and aggressive with there are few to follow up with.

Runako Godfrey

Managing Director, Decatur at Band Of Coders

1 年

Really enjoyed the commercial. I think we've used Uber Eats to order other stuff maybe once, when they pop-up the expiring discount to get add-ons like wine or whatever. It's honestly not a terrible idea, it just gets expensive fast.

Matt Konda

Head of Security at IonQ

1 年

Honestly, I didn't understand this commercial. What was the point? In terms of business and sales, I feel like the hardest things to remember are the little things we need to keep doing that don't have an immediate impact but eventually feed back. Eg. using mimiran to stay in touch with contacts.

Stephen Munday

???? "??????-????????????" ??????????????????: ?? ???????????? ?? ?????????? ?? ???????? + Activates Your Best Prospects | Marketing Strategy & Message Building For Small Businesses

1 年

Oh my eyes! But seriously, it's not just that it's hard to remember, but also there's that opportunity cost of using our limited brain cells for things that just aren't that important, so they don't have the bandwidth to do the creative, $10k per hour things that are.

Cindy Skalicky ??

Speaker | Author | Mentor Science & Tech Execs to Drive Decisions Faster| HOW-TO Model??Creator | Your Guide to Telling 'Stories that Stick' to Stakeholders

1 年

Reuben Swartz I love this ad, it's one that made me laugh during the Super Bowl. Great hook! PS, am I going to see you in Austin…?

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