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Increase
Your Profits With Effective Follow Up
By Bob Leduc
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
"real life" 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
Before retiring, I was in the financial services sales business.
Most of our business came from sales of 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. I became very proficient at staying in contact with
potential clients. As a result, most of my new business came
from prospects I met months or even years earlier.
Every 3 months I sent a postcard to each previous prospect
offering them something of value. This was usually a free report
or booklet of useful information related in some way to
financial planning. The postcard kept my name in front of them.
Plus, every time they responded to request the new information,
I had 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. Not me.
If you implement this type of follow up, here are two
suggestions:
1. 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 in the US is only 20 cents... and you get First Class
Mail service.
2. 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.
Since retiring, I've written a manual and several reports that I
sell on the Internet. E-mail inquiries go to one of my auto
responders or come directly to me. All of them receive an offer
with a special price deadline about 15 days in the future. About
half of the orders I get come from this first contact. However,
the other half results from my follow ups. I use 2 methods of
follow up:
1. Five days before the Special Price deadline, I 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. Only about 10%-15% request the information again.
Almost all of them place an order.
2. Every 2 months I follow up again with a brief e-mail reminder
of the original request and offer to send my current Special
Price Offer if the prospect requests it. Usually 20%-30% will
request it.
About 50% of my total sales results from inquiries generated by
these 2 types of follow up messages. I would have only half as
much business if I didn't send those follow up messages. What
does it cost me to generate this additional business? Nothing.
The money was already spent to get the first 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.
Copyright 1999-2000 By Bob Leduc
Bob
Leduc retired from a 30 year career of recruiting sales
personnel and developing sales leads. He is now a Sales
Consultant. Bob recently wrote a manual for small business
owners titled "How to Build Your Small Business Fast With
Simple Postcards" and several other publications to help
small businesses grow and prosper. For more information...
Email: BobLeduc@aol.com
Subject:
"Postcards".
Phone:
(702) 658-1707 (After 10 AM Pacific time)
Or write:
Bob Leduc, PO Box 33628, Las Vegas, NV 89133
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