Keeping Track and Following Up
Follow up is a critical element in building your business. To make the best use of your own time, develop a reminder system that helps you follow through. You never want potential business partners to fall between the cracks.
Simple systems work best. The Contact Manager in Outlook has been a life saver for me. Most email programs have some kind of contact manager built in and you can also buy or download a simple contact manager. There are also some great note taking features in any spreadsheet you use. Those are nice because if you work more than one place you can email the spreadsheet to yourself and always have it handy instead of having it local on your hard drive (as with Outlook).
I know some computer savvy people that just like to keep track on paper, using either a notebook with dividers by day (1-31) and every time they talk to someone and make a new appointment, they move the page to that numbered day. Then each day you can flip to the page and see who you have to call back and see your notes as well. You can also use an index card box – I like that less because it’s too easy to take a card out and misplace it, at least with a binder if you open the binder to move the sheet, you don’t usually close it until the sheet is moved. You avoid pulling out your hair looking for something you know you just had in your hand!
Taking time to make notes after each call will make you money. Even though it seems time consuming, the details you’ll gather and the level of organization you will achieve will pay off big time if you work your system with consistency.Here are some basics to write down:
Anything personal you learn – family situation, current employement, etc
What’s got them looking for a business
What info you sent them and when
Any commitments you made to follow up
Phone Tips
The phone call is a critical part of working with leads. This is where you start to build a relationship and get a sense of one another. It is very important to be friendly (be yourself), but businesslike and to the point. This is a sorting process and you need to determine right away if this person is ready to start a business and if they are interested in what you have to offer. Your time is very valuable and you’ll be making many calls each week, so you need to spend your time with the right people. Be careful about your time. I’ve had the experience more than once of spending a good chunk of time connecting with someone, having a great conversation only to find out that they had no interest in the type of business I was in. Lovely conversation – twenty minutes of time I’ll never get back, and not very productive in the end.
On the phone, your voice is your ‘body language’, it’s all people have to go by. So, follow some simple proven rules – stand up if you can, you sound more confident and energized. Take a deep breath and don’t rush and really listen and learn how to ask questions (check out the scripts on this site for some great questions). Be real, be authentic, just be you talking to another person, the more relaxed you are, the more relaxed they’ll be.
Think if it like interviewing potential candidates for a very serious and lucrative position. Always keep that mindset – it may take time to really feel that way – but the sooner you start to think like the CEO of your business, the more successful you’ll be. Stay in control and remember you’re the one with something great to offer and you’re just making an initial call to see if you MIGHT have a fit.
Always remember that the initial phone call is to connect and make and get a first impression, NOT to explain your whole business right then and there. It’s much better to have several shorter phone calls over the course of a few days than one long one. Besides, most businesses are difficult to explain quickly and easily, that’s the job of your website.
How many times should you call a contact?
We recommend calling a person three times and then putting them in your email autoresponder system and being in touch. I’ve had the experience more than once of not connecting with someone EVER by phone, “dripping” on them through an email campaign and then months later having them get in touch with me. Timing is everything, and being in touch makes an impression if you keep the emails short, to the point, worthwhile and not too frequent.
Remember, recruiting is a numbers game and you want to move on and find the interested people. The more people you contact, the faster your business will build. Remember the CEO mentality. Would you chase them down or would you want them to show you their stuff? Take that attitude and you’ll be better at sorting right from the get-go.
