My Quarterly Follow Up Rant

I was chatting with a colleague of mine the other day about a referral I had made a few years back. they were ready to sign a contract after their initial consult and then…crickets.

WHAT THE HELL PEOPLE?

Why oh why do you keep doing this? What is so hard about follow up that you can’t be bothered to send over the proposal or contract or details and recap of the call you just had?

Why is it when you’re networking and someone says they need to hire you, you find the worst place to put that business card so you either never find it again (“oops I forgot” only works so many times) or find it weeks later. That business card was COLD HARD CASH and you treated it like a gum wrapper.

Here’s what I think is happening…

• You don’t know what to say – You have the card, you know you need to follow up, but you don’t know what to say. “Hey you said you wanted to give me your money” isn’t the way to start that conversation, but “I wanted to follow up with you to setup time to talk further about working together.” Is a great way to start.
• You don’t want to – True confessions, I have accidentally misplaced/recycled a business card because I didn’t want to work with them and didn’t have the energy to go through all the hoops of pretending I did.
• You don’t have a system in place – Do you need a schedule for when and how to follow up with people? Do you need prompts of WHAT to say? I’m honestly curious here…
• Being successful sounds like a terrible idea and so you do nothing to make sure you’re never successful. Too on the nose?

I LOVE follow up, if you’ve ever read this blog (or my newsletter) you know this. And one of my top goals in this business is to help solopreneuers create systems and schedules for their marketing efforts. Getting out of your office and going to network is great. Never following up with people you network with is a waste of your time, money and the people you meet. Someone said they were interested in what you sell and you couldn’t find 5 minutes to follow up?

If you struggle with follow up I’d love to hear what’s holding you back and I might even have something coming up that can help…