Ep. 011: Don't Forget to Follow Up
We've heard the saying, "The fortune's in the follow up." But what does good follow up look like? And how can you do it without being pushy and annoying?
Follow up doesn't have to be complicated, but you could be missing out on potential revenue by not having a system in place.
In this episode I explain why follow up is so crucial, some examples of good follow up systems, and why when it's done properly, it's not annoying at all!
LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED TODAY:
My free guide to excellent follow up: Less Hustle, More Sales
Join my free Facebook community for additional tips & support: The Sell it, Sisterhood!
Get my free No-Sleaze Sales Method delivered right to your inbox: Get Instant Access Here
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Erika Tebbens: So I'm guessing that you've probably heard the saying the fortune is in the follow-up, but in this episode I wanted to dive a bit deeper into that; what that means and what that looks like and why it matters.
So I think for a lot of us, Well, we either don't think of follow up as part of our weekly to do, uh, but you know, or we just, like, we don't think about follow up at all, or it's really haphazard or, you know, a lot of other things. Or we, we actually like, can think that it's completely annoying to the other person.
Like we can make that incorrect assumption. And so we just flat out don't do it. But I want it to take a moment to share a few reasons why I feel that follow-up is absolutely super duper crucial to your business success.
So I know that, you know, a lot of times I feel busy. I feel like I'm juggling a lot of balls, you know, my, my work, my home parenting, all of that stuff. And I'm sure you probably feel the same. And I don't know if you're anything like me in that you really appreciate when there is something you are interested in and maybe things just got a little bit hectic and you totally spaced out on some event coming up or a sale or whatever is that you really don't want to miss out on.
And maybe you have somebody reach out to you and they're like, Hey, don't forget Saturday is that right, event or you get that email, Hey, don't forget you still have Kohl's cash to spend or, uh, the gap cash or what, you know, whatever it is. Um, or the semi-annual sale is happening. Like, all of those are just, it's just follow up and then you're like, Oh my gosh, I'm so glad.
I'm so thankful. Like thank you for telling me. Yes. I was interested, I'm totally going to jump on it. Right. So that happens to me all the time. I know that I, a lot of times with direct sales parties, When I was getting invites to different parties that friends were having, uh, whether it was like an in-person party and I wasn't able to attend, or maybe it was like a, a Facebook party, like an online type party.
Um, I would always say to my friend who was hosting, like, look, if your, if your rep is getting ready to put in the party and you ha you don't see, uh, an order from me, like, I, I genuinely want to order; it means I've gotten sidetracked. It means it fell to the bottom of the to-do list. And I've just forgotten.
So please, please, please reach out because I want to order. And, uh, and, and truly, like, I cannot tell you how many times it has happened, where I've had somebody lovingly reach out and be like, Hey, are, you know, the party order has to go in tonight. Did you still want to order something you said you did?
And I'm like, Oh, you like, yes, I'm going to go do it right now. So I personally appreciate follow-up because I don't want to miss out on something that I was hoping to take advantage of, but because we have been conditioned to fear selling and because there are so many bad examples of selling and horrible examples of, you know, follow-up gone wrong and just all sorts of stuff, um, I wanted to address it.
I wanted to show away of how you can do it, that doesn't feel weird and gross, and it honors you and it honors the other person, uh, and all of that and also why it is crucial and you're leaving money on the table if you are not following up.
So I'm going to use a real life example. This literally just happened. Um, in about 20 minutes, I'm going to have a discovery call with a woman who was referred to me by somebody else I've worked with. Okay. So she'd reached out to me through my website. She's she was like, Hey, a friend of mine was raving about you. I have this business, I'm looking for ways to get help with marketing and increase clients and all this stuff.
And so I would love to talk to you. So it was like, Oh my gosh. Great. Okay. So, uh, here's my scheduling link and like a few other things I sent in the email, sent it off, didn't hear back. And I was like, okay. So, you know, again, I'm thinking she's probably busy. Uh, she obviously wanted to talk to me. Right. She was referred.
So she's a warm lead already. She wants to talk to me, she wants to see how we can potentially work together so I can help her business. So I reached out on Monday, I believe it was. As of recording this it's Thursday. And I was like, Hey, I just wanted to, um, follow up with you. I, I replied to the same email I had sent before.
I was like, Hey, I just wanted to follow up. You know, I didn't know if you got busy or if you didn't see this or whatever, but if you want to book a call, here's the link again, I would love to chat with you and see if we'd be a good fit. So she replied back and she was like, Oh, I don't know how, but I didn't even see the other email.
Like it just, she just didn't see it. So I was really glad that we, that I, I was the one to like reach back out and not be fearful and not tell myself stories. And I just went ahead and did it, and then it was great. She booked a call as soon as I'm done recording this, hop on the phone with her. It'll be wonderful.
Um, but I could have told myself all sorts of stories that would not have been helpful and things like, you know, she saw it and then she decided against it, or she went to my website and she hates me, or, uh, she ended up hiring somebody else or 12,000 other things that would be totally inaccurate that I could have said to myself to talk myself out of reaching back out to her.
And lo and behold, she just truly, hadn't seen the email. I've had people where they say like my emails end up in their promotions folder or their spam folder or whatever. So I really, really, really try to view follow up as something that is, you know, I'm the expert in what I do. I am the expert in how people can work with me and that how that process begins, which is usually with a discovery call.
And so it is on me to make sure that I'm doing my due diligence to reach back out to, to make sure that the communication is still happening between us. Okay. So that's like on the front end. Now let's say how to discovery call, and somebody just wasn't sure about working with me yet. They're like, I don't know, you know, maybe it's like a price thing or maybe it's a timing thing.
I just make a note and then I add it to my follow up sequence. And then usually once a week, I just like to go through and see if it's time for me to follow up with anyone because they, you know, right now, like I have a few people right now because it's summer where they're like, my kids are home. I just, I don't think I can really like focus on working with you while they're around.
Like, it's just too hard. I don't have the bandwidth or maybe we're going to be traveling a lot and I don't want to miss out on coaching calls and, and things like that. So I'm like, okay, not a problem. Like let's figure this out. Maybe, you know, end of summer works best. And so I just make sure that I have a note to myself that as summer is winding down, I need to reach back out to them.
Okay. So here is where, uh, like what a lot of people do incorrectly. So they start telling themselves the stories, or they're like, Oh, you know, like it could even be, well, they actually don't want to work with me, so they're just lying and they, they don't want to hurt my feelings. So they're just telling me that they are really busy over the summer.
Um, so, but, but really they're probably lying. Okay. I mean, maybe they are, maybe they don't want to be honest and maybe they don't want to hurt your feelings, but, uh, but what if they're not? What if they are telling the truth and then it gets to be the end of the summer and you don't reach back out and then they ended up feeling like, Oh, I guess, you know, cause cause then they might tell themselves stories too.
Oh, she didn't reach back out. I don't know. She's probably busy. Oh, she's probably full of clients. I don't know. I'm I'm just not gonna work with, you know, like I w I won't work with her, uh, cause I'm, I'm sure if she wanted to work with me, she would have reached back out.
And so I'm going to see if I can maybe find somebody else or maybe I just won't pay for that service right now, or, uh, you know, that product or whatever it is that you sell. And they will just kind of go on their merry way as well. So that is not good; that's a missed opportunity for both people. So what I suggest, and it's going to look really different for every business.
Um, I'm putting a free guide. Um, it is my free guide to more repeat and referral business. And it's actually a whole thing about follow-up. I might follow up system, everything it's totally free. I'm going to put the link to that in the show notes. And I will try to remember to post it with this when it goes up.
Um, But this is one thing that I really love to teach and train on because it is so, so, so important. So a few things you can do, you can, uh, what I immediately suggest is something simple, like using Trello or even, uh, an Excel spreadsheet. Or even if you just have a notebook, right. And you are going to look through the people who you have interacted with.
So if you have like a call scheduler, like Calendly or acuity, you can go back through and look at people you talk to in the last like six months and then make a list and then figure out a follow up procedure with them; is it going to be text, email, call? Like what's, what's the best way for you and for them.
That you're going to reach back out. Maybe you were having a discussion on Instagram or maybe it was Facebook. So you're going to want to utilize that; you're going to want to reach back out to say that you are touching base, you're checking in. You didn't know if maybe now is a better time to work with them or whatever it is, again, it's, this is going to be very dependent on what your business is and what you sell.
And one of the things that I do when I work with my own clients is I, I can help them with this if they're not sure how to do it, and they need help with wording and all of that, I am more than happy to. So be sure, you know, to reach out, even if you, even, if you just want a 20 minute strategy chat with me on this, um, I'll put the link in the show notes for that as well, but it's also just, it's always in my Instagram bio, um, too, there's a, there's a link, so don't be shy, reach out, like, uh, allow me to help you with this.
Uh, if you're feeling stuck and nervous about it. So you are going to want to reach back out to those people and then going forward, you want to set up a timeframe that works for you. So let's say you have a discovery call and then at the end of that call, you get off and you send them. Either an email recap or a proposal or something, then you're going to say, okay, if I don't hear back from you in like 48 hours, then, you know, I'll, I'll make sure to reach out.
Okay. So you're letting them know, this is what I do, this is how I follow up. Okay. I'm re I'm going to reach back out to you in 48 hours. If I haven't heard from you now, they might read it and be like, Oh my gosh. Yes. Like, hell yes. Right now, like I'm hiring you. Or they might be busy too, and they might need some time to sit down and think about it and, um, reach back out with questions or whatever it is.
So you've already given them the expectation that you will be reaching out within 48 hours. If you haven't heard from them, uh, to follow up. Now at 48 hours, maybe they're like, gosh, you know, this looks great. Um, I would love to work with you, but right now I am really busy with whatever. Maybe, you know, they're moving or, uh, they're doing a lot of travel or something like that.
And they're like, is it possible, you know, could I start four weeks? Yeah. Now, or six weeks from now, now obviously the nature of your business and your own personal schedule and all of that is going to dictate what you say here. Cause you might be like, Ooh, I, you know, I only have the one opening and um, so if you want it, you gotta, you know, you're going to have to prepay or do a deposit or something like that.
That will be business dependent. But let's say the answer is yes. Sure. That should be fine. Then what you need to do is say, okay, so if four weeks out is better for you then, is it okay if I follow up with you at like week three and then we could see from there, how things are? And then chances are they'll probably say yes.
And so then, you know, three weeks from now, you're going to on your calendar, make sure that you are following up with them. Then now let's say it's more, more ambiguous. They're like, I just, I don't, I don't really know. I'm really unsure. I don't know if I can spend the money or whatever the case may be.
You can still let them know. All right. Is it okay if I check back in, in 30 days or maybe it's like 45 days or maybe it's 60 days, again, whatever, whatever it is you want. Um, and you know, again, depending on what you do and your schedule and your workflow and all of that, this will change, but just let them know.
And then we'll probably say like, okay, yes, that's, that's fine, check back in with me then. So maybe you check back in with them let's just say 45 days from now. And they're like, ah, you know, I don't know. I'm still not sure. Okay. Well then you say like, can I check in with you maybe in 90 days? Uh, may you know, maybe then you at the 90 day.
Okay. Can I check in with you at six months or an, and I know like a vet, so eventually. Um, this is not to say that like for 11 years, you're necessarily going to constantly do this dance, but it's really, really helpful because what happens is, and I've seen this in my own business. Both in, um, I've seen it with people hiring me and I've seen it with me buying from other businesses.
So I've had people where we like went out to coffee or had a discovery call or whatever we connected. And then it was many, many, many months later that they finally were like, okay, I'm ready to work with you because the population I work with tends to be a really, you know, highly ambitious women and highly ambitious women tend to love to think that we need to do everything by ourselves.
We need to figure everything out on our own. So sometimes it takes that person. Uh, and, and I will like, I will let myself into this category of being stubborn and trying to just make it happen on our own. And then we get to this 0.6 or nine months or 12 months down the road where we're like, I, I, I tried it and I can't like, I'm not happy.
I'm still super frustrated. So forget it. Like I'm, now I'm ready to reach back out to this person and possibly work with them or hire somebody. So if you are there, w like when their pain point has grown, when you are there to be like, Hey, I'm here, I'm here for you. I've got you. It's like a breath of fresh air for them.
Um, and then they're like, yes, I am ready. I am now ready to spend the money to put in the time to do whatever it takes. Like, yes, I want to hire you. And I know, so for me too, in my previous business, um, a good friend of mine had connected me to, uh, my business mentor, who I used last year for my first whole year in business.
She'd connected with. Me to her several years ago. So I was in her free Facebook group. I was just like, kind of in her orbit, watching her a little bit here and there. And, um, but it wasn't like, I thought, you know, maybe could I hire her? Should I hire her? But it was like, no, I don't know, you know, my, my business is different.
I'm still in direct sales. I was like, I don't, I don't quite think it's like the right fit yet, but I still hung out in her orbit for probably at least two years. Um, and then when I switched and I started my consulting business, I knew right away, like I was like, I'm not going to do this whole song and dance of like interviewing a million different business coaches, like she's the one, like, it was just, it was a logistical thing. It was like, okay, I'm ready, let me book that discovery call. Let me figure out the logistics. Let me figure out the price and like, boom, boom, boom done. I'm in.
But if she was sitting there, like looking at her Facebook group and being like, I have all these people in here, but like, you know, they're, they're not like converting or they're not like, you know, a bunch of them are just like, looky-loos, they're just hanging around and they're not hiring me and what am I doing wrong? And the whole, the whole thing again, the telling of the stories, right?
The, the fact of the matter is like it, like I kind of came out of left field and hired her. And you never know, who's watching you right now, who is watching from afar. And then when they're ready, they are ready and they are going to hire you.
It's going to be a very easy process. Um, But she could have been telling herself stories and been like, Oh, I'm, you know, I'm, so this I'm so bad. I'm terrible. And blah, blah, blah. Um, but like just by showing up regularly and being herself and, and doing what she did, I was, I was ready when the time was right for me to hire her.
So we can't. Like just like, we don't want people to give up on us so easily. We can't give up on others so easily. So, um, I'm not gonna go even deeper into follow up because you can get that all in my free, in my free download. But I would just say like the statistics are there, you could do any sort of Google search online that, um, more and more like.
The amount of information we see on a daily and weekly basis is so much that the follow up stats that they used to say from like five and 10 years ago of, you know, people need to see something X amount of times before they jump on it, that has gone way up and it's fluctuating all the time. So here's what I would say.
If you have the, like, if, if you're saying in your business where you are reaching out and making direct connections and not everything you have is just like fully passive. Go ahead and however, you are going to track the people that you connect with, make sure you're tracking them, make sure you figure out a follow up system at a time system that works for you and your business.
Convey that to the other person, let them know when you'll be following up how you'll be following up and then be sure to follow up on that timeline. And, uh, you know, don't give up on people so easily. Stay in touch, let them know it's a two-way street. All of that, because you never know, like the person that you might talk to this week, you might hope so badly that they hire you and they might not now, but they might next month or in three months or six months or a year.
And so, uh, I would just say, like, be sure that you are not telling yourself stories. Be sure you're not viewing it as well, if I reach out I'm being. Pushy, uh, you are not being pushy. And again, in that freebie, I go through specific examples of where people lost my business because they didn't follow up.
So I'm get, I'm not going to like ramble on and on about it here because it's there, but it, uh, keeping good communication with people like keeping that. Uh, communication open is not being pushy. Being pushy is when you will not let it go. Being pushy is when you are freaking relentless and you are like reaching out to them every single week, being like, you know, are we going to work together?
Do you want to buy my thing, blah, blah, blah. That is being, uh, annoying and pushy and people don't like that. What is not being annoying and pushy is just regularly checking and with people from time to time to say like, Hey, I'm still here, how are things, you know, do you need anything? Um, if so, let me know.
So if you have any questions about, about that, Be sure to reach out. Remember, um, I hang out on Instagram @erikatebbensconsulting. So if you liked this, if you're listening to this, if you got value from it, be sure to take a screenshot. Like if you're listening on the app, like I do on my phone, take a screenshot, upload it to your stories or wherever on Instagram and tag me.
Cause I would love to hear. A. If you already have some sort of follow up system B. Um, what you plan to do going forward in terms of follow-up and C, if you have ever, uh, had a time where if somebody would have followed up with you about something, you know, to make a purchase or to attend an event or whatever, if you would have said yes, but then you ended up not taking advantage because you just got busy and you forgot or something happened.
And, and follow up with a safe with the day. So I absolutely want to hear that. Um, I love to see your takeaways and your AHAs from these episodes as well. So, yeah, and be sure to download, um, that freebie too, and as always happy selling.
