Everybody knows that sales are vital to building a profitable business. But, few people understand the importance of maintaining a permanent reservoir of potential customers (I call them "hot prospects") from which sales can be made now or very soon. The majority of businesses put most of their time and effort into continually attracting new prospects. They spend very little or no time and effort on following up with previous prospects. Attracting new prospects is important. It's also expensive. Following up with previous prospects is important, too. In comparison with finding new prospects, it's very inexpensive.
If you're in business, don't overlook the "acres of diamonds" in your own backyard. You've already devoted the time and spent the money to attract these previous prospects. Most of them who haven't yet bought from you still have an interest in your product or service. It just wasn't convenient for them to take action at the time you communicated with them. You can still get business from these prospects if you stay in contact with them. The cost of getting business by following up with previous prospects will be very low in comparison to getting business by finding fresh, new prospects.How do you handle these previous prospects to keep your name in front of them without becoming a pest? I'll give you two examples from my own experience. One is a traditional, postal mail technique. The other is an online, e-mail technique. Adapt either or both examples to your operation. You'll see an immediate increase in business with little or no expense.
Follow up by postal mail
This is especially important for businesses with longer decision times or less defined rewards/benefits for a purchase. An example of this would be financial services sales such as life insurance and mutual funds. Because the client sees no immediate reward for buying life insurance or setting up an investment account, most people tend to delay taking action. There is never a right time to start. You must become very proficient at staying in contact with potential clients. An amazing amount of business can come from prospects initially contacted months or even years earlier.
Every 3 months send a postcard to each previous prospect offering something of value. This was usually a free report or booklet of useful information related in some way to financial planning. The postcard keeps your name in front of them. Plus, every time they responded to request the new information, you have another opportunity to talk with them about their financial planning. Best of all, the discussion was always conducted under favorable circumstances because they requested the communication.
If you implement this type of follow up, here are two suggestions:
- Use postcards with just a brief message. They will get read by almost 100% of the recipients. Postcards are easy to print and they're very inexpensive. Plus, the postage for sending a postcard is lower than for a standard envelop... and you get First Class Mail service.
- Send approximately the same number of postcards every week instead of sending a large number at one time every few months. You don't want to generate 250 inquiries this week and none for the next 3 months. You won't be able to follow up on all of them while they are still "fresh". What you want is 20 inquiries per week every week so you can follow up with each one as soon as you get it... while they still have a high level of interest.
Follow up by e-mail
The other example of successful follow up involves e-mail. An example of this would be an on-line business. Anybody making an inquiry receives an offer with a special price deadline about 15 days in the future. Depending on the product a significant percentage of the recipients to place an order based on this contact. Additional results will come from the next level of follow up. I use 2 methods of follow up:
- Five days before the Special Price deadline, send a brief e-mail message reminding the prospect that the Special Price Offer is about to expire. The reminder includes an offer to send another copy of the original message if the prospect doesn't have it. Of those who request the information again most will likely place an order as they are have already demonstrated their interest by replying to this e-mail.
- Every 2 months follow up again with a brief e-mail reminder of the original request and offer to send a current Special Price Offer if the prospect requests it.
Usually 20%-30% will request it.
It is not unusual to get up to 50% of your total sales results from inquiries generated by these 2 types of follow up messages. You would have only half as much business if you didn't send those follow up messages. What does it cost to generate this additional business? Nothing! The money was already spent to get the initial reply.
Implementing a follow up procedure can substantially increase your volume of business. Because following up is so inexpensive, the business it produces is very profitable.
