Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

Save That Content!

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download iconThe other day I received an email from someone’s who’s list I’m on. In the email was a recipe that I wanted, so I copied the recipe into word to print it off (the email was long and had other stuff I didn’t want to print off). And it made me think: I wish it was a PDF. How easy would it be to PDF the recipe with branding and contact info included on it, so every time I use that recipe I think of the person/company?

I’m guessing you may not have a recipe you send out with each newsletter or post, but do you have a quick check list you’re including that could easily be branded and sent for easy download? What tips or tricks are your frequently writing up or forwarding to clients or contacts?

Make your resources easy to follow and make them easy to save and hold on to. In an ever increasing digital world, some people still like to hold stuff, and some people want to file it with the rest of their notes.

Ask Yellow Dog: Buy My Stuff!

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Buy My Stuff!I received a great question last week from a sales rep for a small business the other day:

If a lead gives a verbal commitment to buy, e.g. “Yeah loved the product, I’ll definitely place an order later tonight”, then does not. What is the best way to give them a friendly reminder and how long should I wait to do so?

Your question is GREAT and super common- almost all my clients deal with this issue (we all do!). I would suggest setting a system in place and depending on how frequently this happens, have a template email ready to go that you either automate or do weekly. There’s a few options to follow up…

1. The next day. Sending a quick note that doesn’t talk about their order not placed (people do get busy) but a quick “Hey Joe, it was so nice to chat with you yesterday! If you have any questions about My Awesome Company or need any help getting your order placed please don’t hesitate to contact me.” simple, gets your name in their inbox and may be that something just popped up. This also gives them a chance to respond and say they had a change of plans or something came up and they’re on it. 

2. End/beginning of the week. Set a weekly time to send out a “reminder” email to anyone who hasn’t placed their order yet- this would be if you have a lot of folks on a weekly basis who verbally commit but don’t follow through. I’d write something similar to the first email with a bit more info: “Happy Friday from My Awesome Company! I know when we spoke earlier this week you were planning to place an order on our site. I haven’t seen it come through yet and I just wanted to check in to see if you need help getting the order placed or have any questions/need anything from me.” Again, it reminds them you noticed they didn’t come through yet, but gives them the out and a chance to respond “your ordering system sucks, do it yourself” or “got busy” those kinds of things.

3. Individual a week out – If you aren’t coming across this problem in a large quantity then I’d say about a week after you had the call do the follow up. Again, something super simple and not nagging. I’d lean closer to the language in #2 than #1, but “great to talk with you last week, if you have questions…I noticed your order hasn’t been placed, if I can help please lt me know” 

These are three templated follow up email types that I’ve done for my own business throughout time, and it at the least gets your name in their inbox again. If your company has a newsletter you might also want to get them signed up for that so they have something regularly coming into their inbox from you guys to remind them how awesome you are!

Sometimes You Need to Drop it For a While

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IMG_8410_2As you know, I’m moving to Portland. On Monday. My office is a skeleton of it’s former self, and won’t be back to “normal” until sometime in February once we move into our new home. Christmas, New Years, house hunting, selling a house, getting ready for a move and oh yeah, working have been dominating my life these past few weeks. And probably will until we get to Oregon.

And so, you aren’t hearing from me as much. But I’ll be back soon to a normal blogging routine. Until then, Twitter and Instagram are the best ways to keep up on what’s going on with me and, more importantly, Hank. Packing and trying to keep clients straight is the full time job(s) right now!

I hope your new year is off to a great start, I can’t wait to hear all about it and get back to some regular blogging. We have a lot to discuss this year!