The Ultimate Guide to Follow-Up

The Ultimate Guide to
Follow-Up

The Ultimate Guide to Follow-Up
Follow-Up is vital.
Strong relationships in business and life are formed over time across multiple
interactions. Yet so many people invest tons of time and energy into going out to
events, meeting new people, then doing practically no follow-up at all to build the
relationship from there.
Madness!
If you stopped going to half the events you go to and instead invested a fraction
of the time you save into properly following up with the people you've already
met, you'll atleastdoubleyour results. I promise.
Follow-up is crazy effective.
Butto makeitworkyou haveto besystematic aboutit.
Here's my guide on how to follow up effectively once you've met someone (for
exampleatan event).
PreparationforFollow-Up
TheUltimateGuidetoFollow-Up

For your follow-up system to be effective you need to work out a few things in
advance.
Thefirstthing is to get your mindset right for follow-up.
When most people think of follow-up they think of chasing opportunities or
trying to catch up with potential clients after a meeting to see if they're ready to
progress.
Butwe'regoing to befollowing up in a very differentway.
Thekey to effectivefollow-up is to make each interaction value-added.
If the only time you follow-up with clients and prospects is to chase them, nag
them or otherwise try to get something from them, then pretty soon they'll come
to dread your calls and emails. They'll screen you outand try to avoid you.
So rather than only ever following up to ask if a potential client is ready to look at
an opportunity, progress with a proposal or any other form of nagging that runs
the risk of annoying them, we're going to follow up in ways that they nd useful.
That way they actually look forward to hearing from you. They open your emails
and takeyour calls.
That means that with the vast majority of your follow-up communications you
are going to be sending useful, valuable information to them. Or connecting them
with people they'll nd helpful, or inviting them to events they'll nd useful, or
sharing industry news.
The second thing you need to prepare in advance is your prospect
categorisation.
By this I mean you need to be clear on who you want to follow up with and in
whatway.

Typically that will be your highest potential clients. But it may also include
potential business partners or referrers. Basically anyone you believe it's worth
investing timein to build a relationship.
Rather than just deciding on whether and how you should follow up as you meet
people, it's best to de ne some objective criteria in advance. That way you don't
end up being too biased by subjective factors such as liking them, and you don't
end up procrastinating. You just check whether they meet your criteria and get
quickly to action.
Your criteria will be unique to you, but might include the size of the business (or
wealth of an individual), their t with your niche, geographic criteria, , the level of
seniority of thecontact, whether they regularly hireoutsidehelp, etc.
My recommendation is to group the people you meet into different categories or
levels of follow-up. There will be some really high potential clients you'll want to
follow up with frequently to make sure you're top of mind, and other less likely
prospects that you might only want to keep in touch with infrequently just to
keep therelationship aliveon theoff chancesomething mightcomeof it.
Thesimplesystem I useis to categoriseprospects as A, B and C.

“A” category prospects would be your very highest potential clients or partners
who meet all your key criteria and who you can envision doing a lot of business
with. You might decide you want to follow up with them every 30 days, ideally.
Depending on how much time you have available for marketing, and whether you
typically work with a small number of high value clients or a larger number of
lower value clients, you might typically have 8-12 prospects in this category at
any given time.
“B” category prospects would be a good t, but not perfect. Or perhaps you
believe they have signi cant potential but are a long way out from being ready to
buy. You might decide to follow up with them every 90 days. And you might have
20-30 prospects in this category.
“C” category prospects are those where you think there is some potential and
you'd like to keep in touch, but they're unlikely to turn into your very best
potential clients or refer a lot of business to you. However, since you never know
with absolute certainty how things are going to work out, it's worth keeping in
touch to some degree. With C category prospects you might follow up once a
year. You can typically have very many prospects in this category, especially if
you automatethefollow up to somedegree.
Your mode of follow-up may also vary based on the category of prospect. With A
category prospects your potential returns are very high, so you essentially do
what it takes to build a strong relationship. You'll email, of course. But you might
send them a book through the post, or invite them to meet for a chat over coffee.
High investment, high return.
With B category prospects you'll be emailing. Maybe using the post or phone. But
your basic interactions won't be too high cost unless you spot a speci c
opportunity.

With C category prospects you're basically keeping in touch, but without a lot of
individual tailoring. So you might send them your regular email newsletter (with
permission). Or the occasional piece via personal email. But until you see them
engaging more or you note that they may be a better t than you originally
thought (and so move them into a higher category), you tend not to invest a lot in
therelationship.
Over time prospects may move between categories. After spending time
nurturing a relationship with an A category prospect you may realise they're not
as good a t as you originally thought. Or a B category prospect that looked like
they wouldn't be interested in working with you for a long time may accelerate
their timeframe.
The nal preparation step is to decide on the tools you're going to use to run
your system.
This is dependent to a large degree on the nature of your business. If you tend to
work only with a small number of very high potential clients then your whole
system may only contain a few dozen A and B category prospects, and you can
usually manage by recording their details in a spreadsheet, a very simple contact
managementsystem, or even justusing good old fashioned pen and paper.
If your business involved working with larger numbers of clients, you'll need
more prospects in your system and you'll probably need some sort of Client
Relationship Management (CRM) system to keep track of their details (for
example, tracking the different people inside a potential client's organisation,
noting their interests and issues, recording your communications with them, and
planning nextsteps).

My advice is to use as system that's as simple as possible, and does as much of
the work for you as possible (such as pulling the details of your contacts from
your email system or Linkedin). More complex systems with lots of features
mightlook attractive and as if those extra features could help, but usually more
complexity means more dif cult to use and you end up not using the system at all
and so getno benefitfrom theadvanced features.
Personally, thetool I userightnow is Contactually.
Contactually is a simple CRM system that integrates with your email system and
can upload data from your Linkedin Contacts. It's main feature is that it allows
you to “bucket” contacts into follow-up groups like my categorisation above, and
then tracks your communications with contacts and sends you reminders if
you'venotmadecontactas often as you'd planned.
It's simple, but works very effectively to make sure you really are following up as
you planned.
(By the way, the link above is my af liate link. If you sign up for the free 30 day
trial of contactually using that link two things will happen. The rst is I'll get a
commission on any purchases you make :). The second is that you'll get access to
my personal library of follow up emails for Contactually, including the 21 Word
Email, my other Re-Igniteemails, and additional follow-up emails).
What ToDoWhenYouMeet NewProspects

Follow-up really starts when you meet new people at events, conferences,
networking groups or justcasually or through introductions.
If you're going to follow up effectively you need to know what kind of things your
new prospects actually careabout.
Because, of course, those are the topics that if you follow-up on, they'll pay
attention to.
For example, if you're a business coach, you might nd out that your prospect is
interested in selling their business. Or that they're struggling to delegate and so
don't have enough time to work on the strategy of their business. Or maybe they
havecustomer serviceproblems, etc.
Knowing what their big goals, aspirations, problems and challenges are helps you
know whatwould bea useful follow-up communication for them.
You can also add in non-work related topics to the mix. Perhaps they're a huge
fan of their local sports team. Or of opera, or a certain genre of ction. All these
give you more topics you can keep in contact with them about (provided you
sharethatinterest, of course).

The business topics they care about are the core of your follow-up. But the non-
worktopics can builtyour relationship too.
How do you find out what they care about?
By asking questions.
Effective networking isn't about you doing all the talking and telling people about
you. It's about asking questions to nd out more about your prospects so that
you can follow-up effectively.
The exact questions you ask will depend on the circumstances and what you
know already about your prospect. But questions that have always worked well
for mein thepasthaveincluded:
“What are the big challenges you see in your industry right now?” (substitute
the name of their industry or sector)
“Are you working on anything interesting right now?”
“Do you have any big goals or ambitions for your business over the next year
or so?”
Note: you don't want to make your questions too threatening. In a rst meeting,
most people will feel they don't know you well enough to tell you their deepest,
darkestfears and problems in their business.
So notice in the rst question I ask them about the challenges they see in their
industry generally, rather than in their speci c business. That doesn't come
across as threatening. But nine times out of ten, they'll answer by telling you
about their own speci c challenges – because those are the ones they know most
about.

In the other questions I ask them about their ambitions, or the interesting things
they're working on. It's much less threatening to talk about an ambition or a goal
than a problem. But if you do have a problem that's top of mind, often you'll
mention your ambition or goal to solve it. So this kind of “phrasing on the upside”
of questions can elicit responses about their problems if they want to reveal
them, withoutitfeeling likeyou'rebeing too intrusiveearly on.
And obviously, you don't launch straight into detailed questioning as the rst
thing you say to them. You generally talk about pleasantries rst, about how they
got to the event, anything they're hoping to get from it, their opinion of the
speaker attheevent, etc.
If the discussion goes well, you can ask them for their business card, or offer to
connecton Linkedin. This sets you up for thefollow-up stage.
You may also makea morespecific offer depending on theconversation.
So, for example, if you end up discussing a challenge or goal or problem they have
that you have speci c experience with, you might offer to chat to them about
your experience over a coffee. Or if it sounds like your regular email newsletter
mightbevaluableyou can offer to setthem up to getit.
The key is to offer them something useful that matches with what they're looking
for, and not to try to sell them anything. It's far too early in your relationship to
offer to meet to talk about working together or to get to know them or their
business.
Asking for their business card or offering to connect on Linkedin is low
commitment and low risk for new contacts, but gives you the opportunity to
follow-up.
Initial FollowUp

The rst follow-up you do after meeting someone is critical. It's a chance to make
a great rst impression and differentiate yourself from everyone else they've
met.
Most people won't follow up at all, so any form of follow-up puts you at an
advantage. Butwewantto do better than that.
You rst step is to decide which category (A/B/C or whatever system you decide
to use) your new contact should be in and to record their details in your system.
Remember to capture any useful information which will enable you to follow-up
in a valueadded way in thefuture.
Then decidehow you wantto follow-up and with whatcontent.
In terms of content, at minimum for an A or B category prospects you'll want to
contact them at least to say you enjoyed meeting them. A Linkedin connection
requestor an email can workwell for that.
If you gleaned from your conversation with them some topic that you have useful
information on (for example an article you've written) then take the chance to
attach it.
You should also consider alternative ways of communicating. If you got on well, a
phonecall mightbeappropriate.

You could also send them a “nice to meet you” card through the post. While this
sounds a little corny, it will make you stand out and the truth is that the recipient
of the card will be a little attered as it takes a lot more effort to hand write and
post something than it does to rattle off an email. A printed PDF version of an
article with an attached hand-written “thought you might nd this interesting”
note works well too. All you really need to do is make sure your article is nicely
formatted.
If you send an article on a topic you can add a gentle call to action along the lines
of:
“Thought you might nd this recent article I wrote helpful. If you'd like to
review some of the main points and dig into a bit more detail just drop me an
email and I'd be happy to discuss over a coffee.”
Keep your description of the offer low-key and casual. Don't make it sound like a
big deal but more an informal meeting between two new friends (which is
basically what it is). If you try to “sell” the offer and tell them about all the
wonderful things they'll learn in the meeting it will feel too much like you have an
agenda to sell something to them and they'll feel uncomfortablewith theidea.
OngoingFollow-Up
Your initial follow-up will get your relationship off to a good start. But, of course,
building the credibility and trust needed before someone will be ready to hire you
takes timeand multiplecontacts. That's whereyour ongoing follow-up comes in.
They key is to make your follow-up activities a habit. Not just something you do
when you feel like it or inspiration takes you, but something you do week in, week
out.

So schedule time in your calendar every week for follow-up. It needn't take long
each week, butyou mustdo itconsistently.
My recommendation is to pick a xed time every week where you plan and do
your follow-up. Personally I do it on a Monday morning alongside my weekly
planning.
Process-wise I recommend you get out your notes on each of your contacts and
read through them, then spend a few moments quickly brainstorming what you
can do to follow up with them in a way that adds value. Your knowledge of their
big goals, aspirations, problems and challenges will tell you what they would nd
valuable.
Or in the absence of speci cs for an individual client you can use your knowledge
of whatyour typical clients find valuable.
I recommend that for your A category prospects and clients you do this every
week. You won't be able to think of appropriate follow-up every week, so
typically you'll end up following up monthly with each contact.
Similarly with your B category contacts, if you review their details every month
you'll end up following up roughly quarterly.

In terms of the content you follow up with, anything that you think would add
valueto them works. Thinkbroadly. You could useanything from:
Send an article(ideally, ones you'vewritten) – either via email or printed
Send a copy of a bookyou recommend
Introducethem to a useful business contact
Invitethem to an eventyou thinkthey'd find useful
Recommend a tool, service, pieceof software, etc.
Sharesomeindustry news and gossip
Justcall for a morecasual chat
The key to effective follow-up content is your understanding of what would be
useful to your contacts. And that's based on your initial meeting and further
interactions. So whenever you send them something or have further contact with
them don't be afraid to ask more questions to nd out more about what they care
aboutand whatyou could usefor follow up.
Wherever you can, use follow-up content that not only addresses the goals,
aspirations, problems and challenges of your potential clients but that also hits
some of the “know and feel” factors you identi ed that they need to see before
being ready to workwith you.
So rather than just sending a generic article on a topic of interest, use a case
study of a client you worked with. Make sure the case study still gets across
valuable information, but the very fact it's based on your work with clients rather
than being based on theory means it will get across the impression that you get
greatresults for your clients.

When appropriate, link your follow-up message with an offer to take the
relationship one step further, if they're ready. So if you send an article about a
topic you think they might need help with then offer to meet to discuss it with
them over coffee. Or ask for their feedback and if they show a lot of interest,
offer to share some case studies via GotoMeeting or a hangout. That way you
mover closer and closer to discussing working with them.
Whenever you think of a new follow-up for a contact, note it down because you
could re-use the exact same thing (article, invite to an event, etc.) with other
similar contacts in future. Over time you can build up a database of effective
follow-up items to use time and time again. You can even reach the stage where
for a typical new prospect you cycle through largely the same sequence of follow-
ups for each of them.
You can also “stalk” your contacts and get alerted whenever something
interesting happens to them. This can prompt a whole series of value-added
follow-up.
For example:
Set up Google Alerts to inform you whenever your contact, their business,
their competitors or topics they'reinterested in getmentioned in themedia.
Use Newsle.com (now part of Linkedin) to update you whenever your
Linkedin contacts getmentioned in thepress.
If your contacts are regular Twitter users (surprisingly many people in
business are) add them to a private Twitter list so you can focus in and
review only the updates from your key contacts and respond accordingly.
Sometimes a simpleretweet or comment is enough to keep you on their
radar.
UseGrapevine6 to suggest useful content to share based on your core topic
areas.

When you do use email to contact them, use the tracking built in to Contactually
or an add-on tool like Mixmax so you know whether your emails have been
opened and/or clicked. The tracking isn't 100% accurate, but it can be very
helpful to know whether someone has read your previous emails when you're
figuring outhow to follow-up.
TurningFollow-UpIntoClients
The next and nal step in follow-up is to convert the strong relationships you're
building into paying clients.
This can happen in a number of ways.
If you're building solid relationships with the right people, then at some point
when they have an issue they need to address that they know you can help with
they'll reach outto you for an initial discussion.
But you can also prompt this process by taking opportunities to them. You need
to do this in an appropriate way. If you come across as too aggressive or looking
like you simply want to push sales at them then pretty soon you won't have much
of a relationship.

Sometimes a speci c problem might come up in discussion with them (especially
if you've been sharing useful content in related areas) and it will feel appropriate
to ask them if they'd like to discuss that particular issue. Or you might spot a
problem they're having either by observing their organisation or it might come
from other sources. Again, if your relationship is good it should be appropriate
for you to raise the issue by saying something along the lines of “I was talking to
John the other day and he mentioned that you have a concern over quality levels.
That's an area we do quite a bit of work in: would it be helpful for you to have a
chatover someof theissues weoften see?”
As ever, frame the question in terms of the value they'll get from the discussion
with you. And givethem theoption to say yes or no.
I nd that generally, the best way to raise opportunities in a format that
strengthens rather than diminishes your relationship is to offer a “High Value
Brie ng” on a topic. So if you spot a speci c area that you think an A category
prospector client may need help with it can be worth preparing a speci c value-
added brie ng for them on that topic. For example if you work in manufacturing
and you notice they seem to be having a lot of problems with returns and
complaints you might prepare a short presentation for them on best practices in
quality control. For A category prospects with very high potential value you can
afford to invest in a tailored brie ng just for them and to offer it to them (I
suggestyou ask them if they'd be interested before you invest time in developing
it).
For B category prospects you'll probably develop one or more brie ngs you can
use with multiple contacts. So they could be based round common themes you
see in multiple contacts, or emerging trends in the sectors you serve, or simply
somevery interesting work you've done recently or perhaps a research project
whereyou'veinvested in creating new contentaround a specific topic.

Make the offer to your potential client to deliver the brie ng you think would be
the most useful to them. If you're in touch with their needs and challenges you
should be able to identify an area they're genuinely interested in. But even if it
turns out it's not a hot topic for them, you've not damaged your relationship in
any way – you've simply offered them something of value for free that they don't
happen to be interested in right now. They may come back to your offer later or
they may take you up on a different offer you make in a few weeks or months'
timeif you spotsomething elseof interestto them.
The key with the High Value Brie ng is to make it an interactive discussion where
your potential clients share their challenges so you can talk about speci cs,
rather than itbeing a generic one-way presentation from you.
For potential clients where it's not practical to meet face to face regularly you can
offer a 1-1 webinar; or a group webinar for multipleprospects.
In Momentum Club we have resources on winning new clients using strategy
sessions, high value brie ngs and webinars (amongst a whole bunch of step-by-
step guides covering pretty much every key aspect of marketing and sales). If
you'renota member you can grab a 14 day trial for $1 here.
There are two potential outcomes of a high value brie ng: both good. In the best
case, the topic you talk about is one they'd like to progress with and it leads
directly to an opportunity together.
In the worst case, you'll have provided helpful information to them and enhanced
your relationship even if they decide not to progress with this speci c
opportunity rightnow.
UpdatingYourSystem

Your A/B/C categorisation won't remain static. As you nd out more about
potential clients and contacts you may realise they're a better prospect than you
originally thought and a B category contact may become an A. Or you might nd
outthereverseand relegatethem to a lower category.
Make sure you also update your “system” (whether you're doing your follow up
manually or via a CRM system) with new information you discover about an
individual client's goals, aspiration, problems and challenges, or anything that can
help you make a connection and be helpful and interesting to them (e.g. birthdays,
favourite sports teams, conversation topics). And make sure you're also
expanding your relationships into other individuals within larger organisations.
Your follow-up system should be dynamic: adjusting to changes in both your
priorities and new information you find outfrom clients.
But What Happens When You Really Do Need To Chase
Someone?

OK, so in the real world you do occasionally need to chase someone for
something. Perhaps you met them and they agreed they'd call you for a further
discussion, but didn't. Or you submitted a proposal they were supposed to have
given you feedbackon.
Well, in those cases you have every right to just drop them a note to check up on
progress. Frame it as a question rather than “hey, you haven't got back to me” of
course. I normally askif things are“still on track”.
And I'm assuming you set up something rm during the previous interaction.
Don't make the mistake of having a meeting but not agreeing the next steps and
putting firm dates in thediary: it's so much harder to loop backand getsomething
agreed later.
And normally for things like reviewing proposals you'd try to agree a face-to-face
or on-the-phone session with them where you go through it and co-create
together, rather than justsending something to them for feedback.
When you follow up to check on progress, use the medium that works best for
them based on prior communications. But if you can, pick up the phone.
Especially if you've previously met face to face or spoken on the phone. It's too
easy to ignorean email when you'rebusy.
Go back to our principle of adding value with each communication too. While
you've every right to ask someone if they've been through the document you
gave them when you met, how much better is it if instead of just nagging, you also
sentthem somemoreuseful information?

“Hi John, just emailing to check whether you had any feedback for me yet on
those initial ideas for reconfiguring the project management system?
By the way, I did a presentation last week on emerging best practices for
fast-tracking projects – I've enclosed the slides as I thought you might nd
them useful”.
Adding value in your chasing message completely changes the psychology. If you
just nag, you can build resentment. And people simmering with resentment tend
notto bein themood to send you a status update.
But if you add value you build gratitude and they feel guilty for not responding.
They'll often send you a shortupdatenotewith an apology.
If you still don't hear back from them within a couple of days I tend to send one
final chasing communication.
A lot of people keep chasing again and again, but that just conditions the other
person to expect you to keep chasing and they abrogate their responsibility to get
backto you, knowing you'll keep calling.
Instead, I send a message that basically says “looks like priorities have changed
and this might no longer be something urgent for you, so I'm not going to keep
nagging you about it and annoy you. If I'm wrong, do get back to me and we can
discuss, butotherwiseI'll ‘closethefile' on this one”.
Telling someone you're not going to be chasing them and the ball is rmly in their
court often causes them to reach out to apologise. They now know they need to
do something if they want this to happen, rather than relying on you to keep on
contacting them (and so letting it slip further and further down their active
priority list).

Worst case: the opportunity is dead anyway and you're not annoying them by
pursuing itso they breathea sigh of relief :)
And remember, it's not like you're never going to communicate with them again.
If you've adopted the habits of good follow-up detailed in this article you should
be in regular contact with anyone who's got potential. So even if this particular
opportunity has dropped for now, you'll still be in their mind because of your
ongoing value-added follow-up.
That means that should the opportunity become live again, they'll immediately
think of you, without you needing to keep chasing them about it. You'll have
strengthened your relationship through your follow-up rather than have
weakened it.
Where Next?
Of course, your follow-up system is only as good as it's implementation. It's up to
you to take the elements I've laid out for you and make them a reality in your
business. Turn all these great ideas about following up into a habit. Something
you do week-in, week-outwithoutfail.
So what's your next step? How are you going to implement YOUR follow up
system?
By the way, to get a kick-start to your client-winning activities, download a free
copy of my 21 Word Email ThatCan getYou MoreClients by clicking here:
»» The21 Word Email ThatCan GetYou MoreClients ««

The Ultimate Guide to Follow-Up

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