The 12 days of follow up - Day 2 #TBT

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:

1. Same day: Email saying it was nice to meet them at _____event  
2. Connect on FB & LinkedIn 
3. Send a Nice to Meet You card
4. Call in 5 days (SendOutCards will take 3-5 business days to arrive) 
5. Coffee Meeting / Take a picture with prospect 
6. Send Card #2 highlighting their business with their picture on it 
7. 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

Today - Fruitcake Day, Make Cut-out Snowflakes Day, Visit The Zoo Day and A Blue Christmas

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