Today's blog post was originally published two years ago:
Even though this is called the 12 days of follow up, you probably
shouldn't follow up 12 days in a row...that would probably border on
stalking. So, how often and for how long should you follow up?
Here's an excerpt from a
post (based on a series of FB posts by my friend Mary Swarts) that I did in August that talks about how often to follow up:
Following
up once a week is acceptable, professional, and totally okay. You can
let your prospect know that you'll be following up in 1 week, ask
him/her what day(s) & time(s) they have open on their calendar.
Then be a person of your word and follow up when you say you will.
Cultivate the reputation you do what you say you're going to do, and
people will willingly share referrals.
Personally, I find once a week or even once a month to be too much, although as I mentioned in
yesterday's blog post,
Joe Girard followed up with all 13,000 of his previous customers every
month! However, I don't think you should ever go more than 3 months
without some contact since it's been said that you lose 10% of your
influence with your contacts for each month that they don't hear from
you.
I would follow the steps in that post...in fact I
would probably follow it exactly...I said then that I would do them in a
different order, and then follow up every 2 or 3 months after that.
Here's another excerpt:
- Same day: Email saying it was nice to meet them at _____event
- Connect on FB & LinkedIn
- Send a Nice to Meet You card
- Call in 5 days (SendOutCards will take 3-5 business days to arrive)
- Coffee Meeting / Take a picture with prospect
- Send Card #2 highlighting their business with their picture on it
- Follow Up Call, or Text, or FB, Card - once a week
The
guideline above will help you get into the magic number range of 5-12
touches to move your prospect into action. As you start to get into the
rhythm of doing this method, you can adjust it to your style/preference.
I'd make a couple of changes to this list. I'd take a picture with them and text the picture to them right away, saying it was nice to meet them. This way they can remember you when you continue your follow up. Then I'd follow the 24/7/30 plan...email within 24 hours, follow them on social media within 7 days and schedule a coffee meeting within 30 days (you setup the schedule when you call in step 4). #6 doesn't need to have their photo on it, since you include that on the first card.
And as Tom Hopkins (also mentioned in yesterday's post) has said:
My philosophy on follow up is that you:
Follow up, follow up, follow up until they buy … or die.
And if you haven't downloaded the
SendOutCards app,
go ahead and do so. It's free and if you're not already a SendOutCards
customer or distributor the first card that you send is on me!
Here are the links to the posts in this series on the 12 days of follow up:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Interesting days
Tomorrow -
Card Playing Day and A Blue Christmas
Next Thursday -
Drinking Straw Day,
Festival Of Sleep Day and
Chocolate-Covered Cherry Day And
what could be better than Chocolate Covered Cherries? How
about Chocolate-Covered Marzipan Cherries? Click on the link for
Chocolate Covered Cherry Day for the recipe
January 27 -
National Geographic Day,
Chocolate Cake Day and
World Breast Pumping Day
Posts
