follow-up

“Success comes from taking the initiative and following up… persisting… eloquently expressing the depth of your love. What simple action could you take today to produce a new momentum toward success in your life?” Tony Robbins

Do you have a low-hanging fruit list? You know the list that is filled with prospects who have indicated they’d like to work with you? I keep my list on a white board that hangs above my computer on the wall, so I can keep these prospects in the top of my mind at all times.

As entrepreneurs, so often we get focused on the chase that we sometimes forget to follow up with our prospects. And as I’ve said before, the money is in the follow-up. You must be following up in a persistent, appropriate way with people who’ve indicated they’d like to work with you.

I urge you to take a look at all the business cards you have on your desk, and think back to the networking events and places you’ve been in the last couple of months and create a list of names of people who have indicated they would like to work with you (or are interested in your product). And yes, you have to write these down.

Put the list where you can see it every day, and be sure it is your line of site at your desk. Then start systematically going down the list and calling each prospect to check in with them, just to see how they are doing. No other agenda. You have to create value for the prospect before you start selling.

When you communicate with them, it’s a good idea to remind them of the circumstances in which you met and what they might have shared with you, as it pertains to having you help them solve a problem or issue with your product or service. What might have been urgent in their life a couple of weeks ago might not still be so urgent.

Where else might you offer value? Sending them a relevant link to a blog, or a video, or perhaps an article you’ve written, or a case study that is pertinent to their issue, are all good ways to continue to build value with the prospect.

I urge you today, to build your low-hanging fruit list and get started reconnecting with those prospects…because the money’s in the follow-up!

Be sure and let me know how it goes, and if you have any questions, feel free to contact me at mandy@mandyschumaker.com

Mandy works with talented, high energy self employed professionals and very small businesses who struggle to market their business effectively, stretch their capacity and play a bigger game. Mandy’s client’s receive proven, specific information on what they need to do to get more clients and grow their business. As a result, those who coach with Mandy increase their business, get more clients and make more money, faster and easier than they ever would have on their own. Sign up for her free Cd “7 Productivity Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs” right down below. Name: Email:

I can’t tell you how many times a client has told me, “I’m attending so many networking groups; I must go to three or four things a week”. “Wow”, I say, “You must have quite a few prospects in your pipeline”. “No”, they reply, “Because I’m just not very good on following up with people that I meet. I have several stacks of business cards on my desk that I just haven’t had a chance to get to”.

Hmmm-and you’re here to see me, because you’d like more clients? Interesting, and a VERY common situation amongst entrepreneurs. Here are three lessons I’ve learned along the way about the importance in your business of following up and keeping a full pipeline of prospects:

Lesson #1-The money’s in the follow-up so it’s imperative you actually follow up with the contacts you make at a networking meeting or event. And that means following up quickly-before the trail goes cold!

When you get home from a networking event, make it a discipline to sort through the business cards you’ve collected and figure out which people you really want to develop a relationship with. Connect with them on LinkedIn, or Facebook, AND send them an email message about hooking up for lunch or a coffee date in the next couple of weeks. The longer you wait to do this, the harder it will be to connect with folks-so do it the night you get home, or no later than the next morning.

Lesson #2-I’m often asked if you don’t hear back from someone you’ve tried to follow up with-how many times should you try connecting with them? Here’s what I’ve found to be true-I continue to try and connect with them until they tell me point blank, “Stop calling”.

Want to know how many times that’s happened? Zero. What I usually hear from prospects is something like this, “I just love how persistent you have been in getting together-I love that”. Or, “Ugh-I’m so sorry it’s taken me so long to respond to your emails-thanks so much for being persistent-things have just been incredibly crazy!”

Now, I’m not saying contact them everyday, but maybe once a week, alternating between phone calls and emails. And keep it very open, “just wondering if you might have some time in your schedule the next few weeks to grab a cup of coffee”. Or,” Just thought I’d check in with you again to see if your schedule has let up some to schedule lunch or coffee the next couple of weeks?”

Be pleasantly and appropriately persistent.

Lesson #3-You need to have a system for managing all the prospects you are working in your pipeline. This can be as crude as using a cardboard box with dividers for all the days in the month (numbers 1-31) and a divider for each of the twelve months. Then stapling a prospect’s business card to an index card, writing everything you’ve learned about the prospect on the index card, including when you’ve contacted them and what they’ve said. If they say, call back in three months, you pop that card behind the divider three months from now. Everyday, pull the cards behind the divider for the day and make he calls.

I’ve used this system for years and it’s worked extremely well for me to keep track of my prospects. Obviously, there are on-line customer relationship management systems (CRM systems) you can invest in that do the same thing, but I must say, my little cheap box has served me well!

The point is, you need to keep track of prospects. People often say to me, “how do you fill your teleclasses, or workshops or Mastermind groups?”

For the sole reason that I keep track of prospects, follow up, cultivate relationships with them and nurture them. I’ve had people follow me for years before they bought something from me, but the point is, I’ve stayed in contact with them.

Remember the money’s in the follow-up!

If you are interested in learning more about how to follow-up with prospects, what to specifically say at networking events to get clients to sign up with you on the spot, or how to get more referrals from friends and family, or you would just like to change the way you look at the “dreaded sales call”, then I hope you’ll consider joining me for my ever-popular, 4 week teleclass, “How to Overcome Your Fear of Sales and Get More Clients-NOW!” Click here for all the information.

Mandy works with talented, high energy self employed professionals and very small businesses who struggle to market their business effectively, stretch their capacity and play a bigger game. Mandy’s client’s receive proven, specific information on what they need to do to get more clients and grow their business. As a result, those who coach with Mandy increase their business, get more clients and make more money, faster and easier than they ever would have on their own. Sign up for her free Cd “7 Productivity Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs” right down below. Name: Email:

“Do what they say; say what they mean”

lyrics from “One Thing Leads to Another”, The Fixx

I’ll admit it; this is going to be a bit of a rant, so here goes. I’m terribly tired of people saying they want something (like more contacts, more business, to make more money, etc.) and yet, they aren’t willing to follow through and do the things that it takes to achieve those things!

Here’s what I’m talking about: recently I attended a fantastic networking event. In fact it was billed as “increasing your contacts by 50%”. It wasn’t cheap to attend (tickets were $45), so I assumed that only the serious networkers would show up.

One of the activities at the event was to identify something that you were looking for or needed (such as interest in your product or services, a coach, people to sign up for a class, etc). At each table, someone volunteered to be your “worker bee” and go around to the other tables, putting out there what you were looking for and if people were interested, they would give their business card to the worker bee. The worker bee’s then came back to your table with five or six business cards for the person to follow up with. All warm leads-wouldn’t you say?

But here’s what’s interesting. I received six business cards from people who were interested in what I was looking for (which was to tell them more about a teleclass I was holding). I also gave out six or seven of my business cards because I was interested in the products or services of six or seven other women at the event.

Here’s the interesting part…

I followed up with my leads, with a nice email-(nice to meet you, my worker bee collected your card and identified you as someone who wanted to hear more about my teleclass etc). However, not one person responded to the email.

In fact, I sent two emails and I called each one personally. Trust me, there was no sales pressure whatsoever-not even implied, just a friendly follow up kind of message.

What I found even more interesting is that not one of the people I gave a card to, to learn more about their product or service called or emailed me to follow up. Not one.

My second example this week is around attendance at my networking group. We meet every other week. People say they are committed, but many only sporadically show up at the meetings.

In fact, there’s one member who talks (and sends emails) to the group around the issue of instituting one-on-one coffees with people in the group. I e-mailed her over six weeks ago with some dates to meet for coffee and I’ve yet to hear back from her. In fact, she’s missed three meetings in a row (we meet every other week) and today she showed up and said she was so sorry, and would be getting back to me.

Do what you say and say what you do….

If you want to grow your business, if you want to expand your network or connections-you MUST FOLLOW-UP! You must. Don’t leave the business cards from a networking event in your jacket pocket or on your desk. If you tell someone you’ll call them next week-call them next week. If someone gives you a referral, call the referral for an appointment. If you say you’re going to make an introduction for someone-then make the introduction.

You must do what you say, and say what you do.

Okay…I feel better now. Thanks for listening and if you have any comments on this subject, be sure and leave them below!

Mandy works with talented, high energy self employed professionals and very small businesses who struggle to market their business effectively, stretch their capacity and play a bigger game. Mandy’s client’s receive proven, specific information on what they need to do to get more clients and grow their business. As a result, those who coach with Mandy increase their business, get more clients and make more money, faster and easier than they ever would have on their own. Sign up for her free Cd “7 Productivity Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs” right down below. Name: Email: