Follow-up, the sequence

After writing, my last article on follow up, I realized that I had failed to give the sequence and timeline, so here it is. However, before we start I just want to mention once again how important it is to dedicate one day a week to refill your list of leads. Rule number 1 is all about this; never come home without a sale. The reason I say that is, if you are going to go out, you may as well make it worth your time, and, get as many business cards, introductions, referrals as possible while you are out there. This will refill your bucket of leads. So here it is (you may change the days of the week, I just find these to work the best),

Monday

Make calls; call the prospects that you sent an email to the previous week. Call the leads that you spoke to before about booking an appointment. Call the prospects that you did not get to see. Call the ones that you picked up their cards without them being there.  Call the ones that were referred to you. Call everybody that you need to call, because, today, that is what you do.

The price of gas today is outrageous, the time that it takes to travel is consuming, and the telephone is your friend. Most places that you go to still pick up the phone while you are standing there even though you travelled to be there in person. So, do the same thing, get on the phone. You can reach a lot more people, efficiently, and more cost effective with the phone.

Tuesday

You should have at least one appointment to go see, and, no matter what, talk to the people around there. First scenario, the person whom you had an appointment with is not there. Talk to the people that work there, ask them about neighboring businesses, who they are, who the managers or owners are. Scenario two, the person you are waiting for still hasn’t arrived, and hasn’t called. Tell the people that you are going to introduce yourself to the businesses around and come back in an hour, and to please mention this to the boss. Scenario three, the person is there, you present, try to close, and ask for referrals. In all of these cases, you got something, either more leads, referrals, or a sale.

Wednesday

Email day, send emails to the people you just met, the ones from the week before and the ones you have in your groups. Let’s talk about your groups. One day you realized that you had accumulated hundreds of business cards from all the visits you made, and you wondered what to do with them all, well here, it is. Take the pile of cards and group them by category, i.e. service, products, or both. Next take a look at those piles and see if you can further group them, i.e. computer sales, electronics, gadgets and so on can be together, then plumbers, heating supply, cooling and so on. Once you have these sorted out, create the groups you need, I use Outlook and make groups that contain 20, I find that this number works best when sending out-group mail. If you have more than 20, make a second group, i.e. plumbers 2 and so on.

Now, during the course of your day, you will most likely come across some interesting articles. Always think about your groups and keep these articles for your bi-monthly emails. You found a great article on this new plumbing device that helps consumers unclog their drains. So, take the article, send it to the plumbing group, tell them you would like their opinion, mention your company blog, site, FB pages and whatever else you have in your signature block. And of course add a line like, I will give you a call next week to see if we can get together.

Thursday

Another appointment day, look at Tuesday and repeat.

Friday

Another appointment day, try and schedule something in the morning, most owners or managers go home early Friday afternoons, and they do not focus well on what you have to say.

Weekend

Read, clip, and prepare your group emails. If this is your own company, or a career, you should always be thinking about these things. It’s not a job when you like what you do.

Next week, making use of today's technology to be better prepared and productive...