CHAPTER 7

FOLLOWING UP

MAKING THE MOST OF THE CONTACTS YOU MAKE – EFFICIENTLY, EFFECTIVELY AND ELEGANTLY

Let me reiterate: following up is something that you should do at every stage of the business development process. At each and every stage you must let people know what you are going to do next and when you are going to do it – every single time!

Following Up after a Networking Event

Networking is great, but it’s about as useful as a long-term commitment with Jordan if you aren’t going to follow up.

Depending on which books or websites you read, you’ll soon discover that it takes between five and seven contacts with a potential customer before they become an actual customer. What is more, the same all-knowing business-type gurus also assert that few people bother to follow up, even once, after the initial encounter.

This is daft, because if you’ve gone to the effort of getting yourself on a delegate list, smartened yourself up, pitched up at the networking event, secured the name badge to your chest, taken your courage in hand and gone and talked to some people, it seems like a dreadful waste if all you do by way of maintaining contact is sending an ‘it was lovely to meet you’ email with a pdf of something utterly enthralling attached and the killer final line: ‘If there’s anything else I can help you with, please don’t hesitate to call.’

Don’t get me wrong, I only follow up with people who meet two criteria:

I’m not going to try to arrange to see them in order to ‘sell’ to them in the traditional sense. I genuinely want to find out more about them, their role and organization and then, only if I think there is something I do that they’d like and would be of benefit to them, will I tell them about it.

So, let’s assume you’ve met someone, you get on and you reckon that what you do or what you’ve got would be of use to them. But somehow you’ve met a good number of people like this and all you have to show for it is a big pile of business cards on your desk or arranged alphabetically in that neat business-card holder you got from the stationery cupboard. You’re not sure whether to write to them, phone or email, so what you in fact do is put them on a mailing list and invite them to a seminar. You figure that if, over a period of months or even years, you send enough invitations, they will one day attend and end up buying your product or using your service.

That’s convoluted, tortuous and terribly long-winded and, in common with not targeting your networking, is a massive waste of time and effort.

I have a process for following up that I’ve honed and perfected over the past 23 years – and it works. Sure, amend it, make it personal to you, but don’t deviate too far from it. I built a successful sandwich business, legal recruitment business, an awards programme and more recently a training consultancy from a standing start on this exact process.

It hasn’t got a fancy name, nor is there an instantly forgettable acronym to run alongside it. It works if you want to break into a new market, a new sector or a new geographical area (I only know that it works in the UK and Ireland. It might do the business in Europe, the Middle or Far East or North America, but since I haven’t tried it, I don’t know.) It works if you are starting from scratch or developing a bigger market share in an area that’s familiar to you already.

Step One: Follow Up While Still at the Event

The really important point, the bit you cannot miss out, is that you should line up a follow-up meeting right there and then, rather than waiting a few days and then trying to do it. For example:

YOU: Sally, it’s been great to meet you and have a chat. I’ve been really interested in what you had to say about your firm/your business/your plans for the future. There are a couple of other people I’d really like to meet here today, but it’d be great to continue our conversation/chat and find out more about what you do over a coffee some time. Would that be OK?

This is not a definitive ‘script’. I don’t want to you to learn this and quote it verbatim. You will find your own form of words, but make sure you keep it relaxed and light (kind of ‘semi-skimmed selling’). You will notice that I don’t talk about having a ‘meeting’ and that I refer to ‘coffee’. ‘Coffee’ conjures up Starbucks, Caffe Nero, Costa – informal, neutral, no pressure, which is exactly what it should be.

Relationships (all relationships) are like fires: you have to keep them going otherwise they grow cold, dark and sad. You’ve established a relationship when you met and talked to this person, so the fire, no matter how small, is kindled; you don’t want it to go out, but it will even if you leave it for just a few days.

Remember those hot plates I banged on about in the chapter about targeting? Well, the analogy applies equally at this stage of the business development process.

When you are talking face to face with someone, the relationship is HOT. As soon as you part company it begins to cool, which means that if you wait a few days before getting in touch, it’s going to be harder to secure their commitment and is made even more difficult because you are doing it over the phone or via email, rather than in person.

So, having suggested you could meet up sometime over a coffee, what do you think their reply will be?

SALLY: Yeah, sure, that’d be nice.

I have never had someone say ‘No’ and neither will you. British people will not look you in the eye at this point and decline your offer; it’s just too rude.

If they don’t want to meet up then they will let you know, but not right there and then; they’ll do that later and by email – which is fine (but more of that later on).

So let’s assume that Sally agrees.

YOU: Great, I’ll give you a ring before the end of the week/beginning of the next and we’ll put a date in the diary.

If the time frame you’ve stated is not good for her – ‘Oh, not next week, because I’m on holiday’ – then tell her that you’ll get in touch the following week.

There’s also another closing technique hidden in there. Did you spot it?

Read the paragraph again.

It’s something we’ve already met, called the ‘assumptive close’.

I haven’t asked ‘When shall I ring you to set something up?’ or said ‘to see if you would be free to meet up for a coffee’. What I have said – quite deliberately – is: ‘I’ll give you a ring before the end of the week/beginning of next’ followed by ‘and we’ll put a date in the diary’. I have just assumed that this meeting is going to go ahead; there’s no doubt about it in my mind.

You then part company and either later on at the event, on your way home or in the office the next day, you note down the salient points of information you picked up during the small talk, in particular anything that she is doing or is involved with prior to when you’ve said you will get in touch. You do this so that when you do, you have something to say by way of an introduction: ‘How did your trip to Swansea go?’ or ‘I remember you mentioned you were going to a wedding last weekend, how did it go?’

Not only is this kind of question a relaxed and non-pressured way to get the conversation going, it lets the other person know that you were listening to them. Believe me, that fact alone will put you in the top 10% of people they’ve ever met at a networking event! It builds rapport and that’s what good sales people do.

Step Two: The ‘Holding’ Email

If I’ve met Sally and done the ‘It would be great to meet up some time over a coffee’ routine, to which she has agreed, and then I say I’ll ring before the end of the week, on my return to the office I sometimes whizz off a holding email, which goes along these lines:

Hi Sally, Nick here — the tall Mancunian bloke with a thing for shoes — just a quick note to say how nice it was to meet you yesterday/earlier on and to let you know that I’ll be in touch before the end of the week to fix a date up for that coffee.

Again, you’ll note that the tone is relaxed and informal and that I am giving her a quick prompt as to who I am.

Step Two is also important because it highlights two things that you must always do when promoting your services, both of which I’ve already mentioned:

People in business loathe surprises. They like nice, steady, predictable growth. Surprises mean having to draw up a new plan or attend interminable strategy meetings. So let the prospect know at every single step of the process what it is you are going to do and when you’re going to do it.

Step Three: Using the Phone

Do what you said you’d do, when you said you’d do it.

So, if you said you’d drop her an email before the end of the week, then guess what? Ditto if you said you’d give her a ring. If you just said you’d be in touch then either option’s open to you, although I prefer the phone.

Why Phone?

Back in 1971 a bright young chap by the name of Albert Merhabian (now Emeritus Professor of Psychology at UCLA) sat in a lab in his white coat and, following extensive research, arrived at the conclusion that if, when someone speaks, they lack confidence or belief in what they are saying, the listener will unconsciously analyse the speaker’s communication according to the following percentages: 7% weight to the words he hears; 38% to the pitch, tone, pace and volume of his voice; but a whopping 55% to the speaker’s body language.

In other words if the words he speaks don’t ‘match’ what his body ‘says’, then the listener will always believe the latter, because it’s very difficult to fake. Anyone can say that they ‘love you’, but you know if they mean it by the way they say it and how they behave.

So I use the phone, because I’m getting 45% impact rather than only the 7% available to me via email. What is more – and here’s where you want to be a little assertive – it’s harder for someone to say ‘No’ to you over the phone, if they’ve changed their mind. This is a little, tiny bit of pressure, but that’s OK.

The Phone Call

Bear in mind what I said regarding the timing of cold calls. Never ring on a Monday. Call at the less busy times between about 10.30 and 11.30 am or 2.30 and 4.30 pm.

If you get through, here’s what you say:

YOU: Hi Sally, it’s Nick here, you recall we met the other evening at the X event. I’m the guy that used to be a lawyer and has a thing about shoes.

You need to refresh her memory, since she might well have met any number of people since you. There’s nothing worse than someone calling you and they start going on about something, while all the while you’re trying to work out who they are, let alone when you met them.

Once she’s placed you, now’s a good time either to indulge in a little small talk and refer back to things that you made a note of on her business card, or to get straight to the point.

Again, there are no hard-and-fast rules about this: you sense that some people are up for a chat and others aren’t; it depends what mood they’re in. At first you aren’t going to get this right every time, but don’t beat yourself up about it: the more you do it the better you’ll get.

Once any small talk is done or if small talk seems inappropriate, you need to tell her why you are calling:

YOU: Anyway, I’m calling to arrange a time for that coffee we talked about and wondered whether later this week or next week was better?

You’re being up front and getting straight to the point. You’re not using aggressive language or tone, but you do know what you want. She did know you were going to get in touch to arrange something (no surprises, remember). I’m also using the alternative close, as I discussed in chapter 4.

If You Get Voicemail

If you get through to your contact’s voicemail, you have to leave a message.

I’ve already talked about trust and credibility (see chapter 3) being the essential ingredients for effective persuasion. So if you have told her that you will call before the end of the week, then you must demonstrate that you’ve done just that. If you don’t, it sows a tiny seed of doubt in their mind as to whether you are a person of your word.

The message needs to include the following:

It could go something like this:

YOU: Hi Susan, it’s Nick here. You recall we met last Thursday at the Lawyers in the City do; I was the tall Mancunian bloke who commented on your great shoes. Anyway, I’m ringing so that we can put a date in the diary to meet up and have a natter, as I said I would. I’ll try you again later this week, but in the meantime if you get a minute then you can always give me a call. My number is 0777 777 777. Thanks.

This is a bit like the holding email in that it’s relaxed, informal but also assumes that we will meet up. However, it adds my number because if she rings me back, then bingo!

If you leave a message and a potential client calls you, that’s what sales people refer to as a ‘buying sign’. It’s very rare that someone will call you back to say they have changed their mind – they’ll normally prefer email for that, so if you do get a call it usually means they are interested. ‘Interested’ in meeting up, that is. They might have an inkling that you might well be able to provide them with something they need, but the only thing you want them to be interested in at this point is meeting up with you.

This is a very important point. You’re not selling your wares over the telephone or via email. The only thing you are ‘selling’ here is a chat over a coffee. The only thing you want from her is her time.

She knows that you are not meeting up for a social. She also knows that ultimately you would like her to buy stuff from you. She’s not stupid, but thus far you’ve made it all so relaxed and pleasant that she’s happy to meet up.

I’ve already said that people buy from people they like and that selling is about making it easy for people to buy. If arranging to meet up with you is easy and pleasant, then the chances are that working with you will be just the same. What you are doing right from the first meeting – formal or informal – is letting the person know that you would be easy to work with.

Step Four: If She Doesn’t Reply

Leave it a week or perhaps a little bit longer before you try again. I reckon that somewhere between a week and two weeks is best.

If she picks up the phone then you’re up and running. If not, leave a voicemail similar to the first one, but add that you’re still keen to meet up.

Step Five: If You Still Haven’t Heard Back

If another couple of weeks goes by and still you’ve heard nothing, send an email.

The email should be similar to the voicemail you’ve left: informal, relaxed, chatty and containing the same info – tell her why you’re emailing and tell her what you’re going to do next.

The only thing I add in the email is a bit about the fact that I’ve already tried to get hold of the person via phone. A typical email from me would go like this:

Hi Susan

I’ve left a couple of voicemails over the past few weeks but with no luck, so I thought I’d send you an email, since I know that sometimes it’s a lot less hassle to reply then setting aside time to make a call.

I’m still dead keen to meet up and have a chat and am in your area on the 6th and 7th of July, so hopefully we can put a date in the diary.

In the meantime I’ve put some stuff about what I do in the post just so you can get a better feel for it.

Nick

Once again, it’s relaxed and I’m using a laid-back alternative close by suggesting some dates. If she comes back to me and says she cannot do those dates, then I know she’s looked in her diary, which tells me she’s interested.

I’m also telling her what I’m going to do next – send her some stuff about what I do. Notice that I haven’t used the word ‘literature’. Literature is what Jane Austen, Dickens and Thackeray produced; I don’t. Sometimes I’ll favour the term ‘info’ or ‘information’ instead.

In a minute I’ll look in detail at the covering letter I send with that ‘info’, but at this stage it’s important to appreciate the importance of email. The really great thing about email at this point in the process is that it allows the person I want to meet to say ‘No’. And I want it to be easy for her to say ‘No’.

I said right at the start of this section that no one in the UK would turn round and say no to you if you suggested, at the end of your initial chat with them at the networking event, that you meet up for a coffee next time you were in their area. You may also recall that if they weren’t interested, they’d tell you later. Well, this is when they’ll do it.

If someone you are talking to agrees – albeit informally – to meeting up for a chat at some point in the future, it is terribly difficult for them then to turn you down when you ring and speak to them. Human beings like to be consistent and agreeing to something then changing their mind is a really awkward thing to do.

However, if we do change our mind it’s so much easier to tell the other person via email because it distances us from the message. Of course, the response to your email will not be ‘Sorry, Nick, but I’ve changed my mind and I don’t want to meet for a chat over a coffee’, it’ll be delivered with a little excuse:

Hi Nick

Sorry I’ve not been back to you earlier but things are a bit hectic here, what with graduate recruitment and trainee induction.

I wonder if we might put meeting up on hold for the time being until I can get some breathing space in my diary.

Sally

This is OK. Don’t take it personally, don’t get upset and don’t get defensive or pushy. They are obviously too busy and quite frankly you don’t want to be wasting time – theirs or yours – sitting drinking coffee, if they don’t want to really be there.

But don’t give up. You must acknowledge the message with something like this:

No worries at all, Sally, I completely understand.

When’s best for me to get back in touch: October or perhaps the start of next year? (Make these dates roughly three and six months apart.)

In the meantime you’ve got all my info, so if anything comes up that I can help you with then give me a shout.

Nick

Relaxed and informal. It’s no big deal that she doesn’t want to see me yet. She isn’t saying ‘never’, just not yet. I’m using the alternative close again: telling her what I’m going to do and offering her an alternative for when I’m going to do it.

It’s my experience that in the vast majority of cases, the person will come back to me having selected one or two of the options, in which case I’ll make a note in my diary and confirm that I’ll be in touch when she suggests. You are always ‘leaving the door open’ to get back in touch. Never shut things off completely, because you never know what’s going to happen and neither does the other person. Circumstances change, so always FOLLOW UP.

Sending a Letter

Sending a letter is one of the steps in the follow-up process, but I don’t have a hard-and-fast rule about when to do so. I might send one following the first or second voicemail and occasionally after the first email.

Earlier on I ran through an example of a typical letter I might send in chapter 4, but I’ll furnish you with another here:

Hello James

I’ve called a couple of times to try to speak to you but with no luck, so yesterday — the 29th — I left a voicemail to let you know that I’d be sending you some information about what I do — here it is.

I’m a former lawyer and have worked with many thousands of lawyers, which means I understand how frustrating it can sometimes be trying to persuade a bunch of highly intelligent solicitors just how vital it is that they are relaxed and chatty at networking events and, equally, that a 45-slide PowerPoint presentation just isn’t going to woo a potential client in a pitch for business. What I deliver is practical, down-to-earth training that people enjoy and learn from; all delivered without the use of PowerPoint.

Although I’ve delivered training to all the major law firms in the City, I’ve yet to do things for firms in the North West, which is a crying shame since I’m a Mancunian now living in Edinburgh but always keen to ‘go home’. I also know that there are some cracking partnerships there as well.

I have appointments to meet the HR/training managers of about eight firms in the region over the next couple of months and would really like to pop in and chat to you, find out how you go about training and whether what I do might help.

I’ll give you a call in the next few days and hopefully we can put something in the diary.

Regards

Nick

I want you to understand what I’m doing here, so let’s take this letter apart, a paragraph at a time:

Step Six: If You Still Haven’t Heard a Thing (The Pain in the Backside Email)

You’ve left two messages on their voicemail, you’ve sent an email and written a letter with some of your company info along with it, but alas, still no response. What should you do? Give up? Call it a day? Get nasty or make it personal? Find out where their kids go to school and follow them?

You’ve got to face facts, they’re either really busy or they really don’t want to see you. Either way, you must find out.

In this kind of case I send an email like the following.

Sent: 12 June 09:32

To: Kevin

Subject: A bit of a pain

Morning Kevin

I’m still keen to meet up and have a chat. However, following a couple of voicemails, a letter and an email, I’m acutely aware of rapidly becoming a pain in the backside.

So, I’ll not be bothering you again until the start of next year, when I’ll get in touch just to see where you’re up to and whether my timing is better.

Regards

Nick

Note the time of my email and that of his response:

Date: 12 Jun 09:55

To: Nick

Subject: RE: A bit of a pain

Hi Nick,

Not at all.

Apologies for not coming back to you, things are rather hectic at the moment. I received your literature and as yet have not read it. Perhaps you could give me a call in a month and we can take it from there.

Regards

Kevin

I rarely have to send this kind of email and I do, on occasion, tone it down and use ‘pain in the neck’ instead of ‘backside’. However, the recipient gets the point. I won’t get in touch again until some time way in the future. However, you will note that even in this ‘final’ correspondence I am still letting them know what I’m going to do and when I intend doing it.

Roughly half of the people I send this to reply and the majority of them apologize profusely for having not got back to me sooner. Some then go on to suggest a date, while others acknowledge that they are very busy and that they appreciate the fact that I’ve recognized that.

As for those who don’t have the decency to respond in any way? Well, then I get to say one of my favourite words in sales:

‘NEXT!’

Irrespective of what you manufacture or what service you provide, you should never, ever beg for business. Even if winning this client would be the deal of the century. Even if you’ve lain awake at night imagining being able to tell people that you got the X account. Don’t ever seem desperate for their business.

Keen – yes. Focused – yes. Determined – most definitely, but never desperate. Needy people are very unattractive.

There comes a time when you have to – and I’m going to use the oven analogy again – ‘put it on the back burner’.

There are plenty of potential clients I have contacted and seen. There have even been those who have expressed a most definite intention to buy what I’m offering, but then failed to communicate. In these situations – if I’m alone in my office – I shout ‘NEXT!’

Even if your job is solely devoted to bringing in business, you must recognize when it’s time to move on. If developing business is something that you have to make time for in your job (and since this book is aimed at you, I suspect that’s the case), then you really haven’t got time to mess about with people who haven’t got the common decency to simply say ‘Thanks but no thanks’. And they’re probably not the type of people you want to be doing business with anyway.

I’ve said all along that selling is about making it easy for people to buy, but have you ever noticed that your favourite clients are the ones who make it easy for you to deliver?

My best clients – the ones I love doing work with, whether that’s a lot or just a little – are the ones who are polite, get back to me, let me know what’s going on, are up front, who want a good rate for the job but don’t expect something for nothing and don’t try to screw every penny of discount from me. These are the people I am happy to do extra bits and pieces for without upping my fee or on occasion not charging them at all, because they are relationships built on mutual respect and trust.

Have you ever noticed that it’s those potential clients who were a pain to get hold of, who messed you about, cancelled things, let you down, bargained you down for a big discount with the promise of ‘loads more where that came from’, who turned out to be even more trouble when you finally got to supply them with something?

Read the signs, ladies and gents: if they’re getting on your nerves now, you can bet they’ll be doing it in the future. Ditch them now!

NEXT!

Following Up on Follow Up

That’s a pretty detailed look at FOLLOW UP but it’s simple. While I’d be the first to concede that there are probably other ways to do it, all I can tell you is that I’ve built a very nice little business from scratch following these steps – with everyone on my target list and those I’ve met at events.

As with other stuff in this book, try it and see how you get on. Take what works and cut, paste, delete, alter or amend what doesn’t.