A couple of months ago a referral partner said he had a new client for me. I love when this happens, we all do. We met with the prospective client together and had a great meeting. The prospect asked great questions and we hit it off. SWEET. I had just finished working with a client so had room in my schedule, this was perfect. I followed up, sent the information for my contract and then the hesitation began. We stayed in touch but the prospect wanted to talk to a potential mentor/coach for the work we’d be doing together.

I pinged the prospect a couple weeks later as had been discussed. Come to find out the mentor was willing to help with the work we had discussed, but the prospect really liked me, which is AWESOME. It’s nice to be liked, it’s better when they like you enough to hire you and give you their money though!

So, I followed up as I do, thanking them for the opportunity and made a suggestion based on a comment in the email. And then…I got a response “I really like you, would you be willing to meet with me monthly to advise me on some strategy for this project?” And just like that I went from losing a client to gaining a client.

I will never exhaust of telling you the importance of follow up. But also: be gracious when you think you lost a client, you never know how it may circle back in your favor.

I’m not a huge fan of phone calls. Yes they’re important and a lot of times they’re a better way to communicate with a customer or prospect, HOWEVER, I’m usually in and out and if I get a voicemail, I listen to it, if I can’t respond right then, it’s often a week or so before I remember to call. SO, I prefer email. It’s a safer way to guarantee a response from me.

I recently asked my banker to have someone EMAIL me to get information about a product I need. A couple hours later I had a VOICEMAIL waiting for me. Not what I asked, and kind of annoying. This morning I went to return that phone call and prayed for voicemail so I could just leave my email to follow up with. And instead? No answer AND no voicemail.

I understand that the banker wants to build a relationship with me. And I understand that there are rules around what they can and can’t do via email. BUT what I don’t understand? Why wouldn’t you do what the customer requests? Even if it means telling them “we need to talk about this because of XYZ.”

Make sure when working with customers that you do what they ASK, and not what you want. I get you want to build that relationship by chit chatting on the phone. I promise you I will like you more if you communicate in the way I ask you to, not the way you want.