I recently hosted a tele-seminar for Independent Ladies Club called 12 Simple Follow-up Steps To Get More Business. The speaker for the tele-seminar, Nancy Matthews, pointed out that people are doing follow-up all wrong. We have all heard the saying the Fortune is in the Follow-up, but how do we really capture the “fortune” or the “business” by following up?
Here are 5 Mistakes most people make when following up to get business:
- Not concentrating on building a relationship. I always mention that common saying that people do business with people they know, like and trust, because it is very true. When you meet someone at a networking event your goal should not be to “sell” them your product or service, but to learn about them and build a relationship so they can also learn about you and what you do. Once you have establish this relationship and build on this relationship, you are planting the seed that if the person is ever in need of your product or service, or knows someone in need of your product or service, you will be the first person that they think about because they “know” you.
- Not listening to people. It seems like a simple task, but most people don’t truly listen and show a genuine interest in what other people do. When you listen you get to know a lot about a person and you can learn how your product or service can possibly be a solution for them. The key however is listening and subtly telling them how your product or service can help them allowing you to plant a seed of how your product or service can be a solution without hammer your product or service benefits and features over their head.
- Selling and Not Sharing. Every product or service is offering a solution to some type of problem, issue or concern. Your goal as a business person should be to find out the needs of individuals and share how your product or service can help them. People don’t want to be sold to, but they like when someone shares a solution to a problem they may have.
- Not being consistent. Most of the time you may meet someone at a networking event, you may even have an one-on-one with the individual to learn more about each others businesses, but then what? Are you consistently following up with them to see how business is going and to continue building the business relationship? Most business is actually made after the 5th to 12th contact, so just talking once or twice or meeting once or twice, really is not sufficient for your follow-up efforts in order to truly get the business.
- Not Connecting with People Both Online and Offline. If you meet someone at a networking event, keep the conversation going by connecting with them online. When you connect with people on some of the popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you can learn a lot more about the person and if they are connected to you, they will learn a lot more about you, helping you to build that “know” element that goes with the saying, “people do business with people they know, like and trust”. It also works in reverse. If you meet someone on a business networking site, invite them to connect offline, people like to meet people in person to know that they are real and to get a better feeling about a person, so reach out to some of your online connections, and offer to meet offline.
Want to learn how to follow-up effectively so you can get more business? Check out the 12-Step Follow-up Program by Nancy Matthews and get $100 off the program cost!
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