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During the first week of November,  I wrote an article titled, The Dirty Little Secrete About Follow-ups, was published in Marketing, Media, & Money Magazine. It was so well received,  I’m including an excerpt below. If you want to read the full article, I provided a link for a complimentary subscription to the magazine.

Enjoy!

 

There’s a dirty little secret about follow ups that few are willing to admit. While we all know the benefits of reaching out to prospects several times, most aren’t doing so.

Why?

Experts believe it’s the process and in some cases that’s true.

But where most get stuck is in the tools they use.

What experts don’t talk about is how complicated the follow up process becomes when you are simultaneously nurturing a variety of relationships.

Think about how many conversations you have on a daily basis with prospects, clients, mentors, joint venture partners, referral partners, one on ones, etc. Your relationships are all in different stages and all have different needs. Not having the right tools makes it inevitable that some relationships will fall through the cracks.

So, let’s talk about how the right CRM tool not only helps you solve these problems but adds revenue to your bottom line.

Qualifying your people

“Studies show that 44% of leads in your pipeline consist of
the wrong people.”

That may be a hard pill to swallow, but consider this, if your sales conversion is low, it’s highly likely you’re talking to the wrong people. Let’s understand how this relates to your business development activities.

If your client acquisition activities include email marketing campaigns, at least 44% of your email list will never buy from you.

If your sales conversion rate is low, it’s very likely 44% of prospects are not a good fit.

If you’re developing professional referral relationships and few are fruitful, you may be talking to the wrong people.

Solution: Weed out those who aren’t a good fit by knowing your ideal client. Your ideal client avatar helps you craft compelling copy to attract them and allows you to detect the tire kickers early in the sales process. This avatar concept also applies to building your inner circle network. Who’s most likely to refer clients to you? Who’s most likely to share speaking opportunities with you? What industry are they in? What problems do they solve? Be intentional about those you spend time with by identifying who you want to connect with before attending networking events and conferences. Once you know who you want to meet, create a list of questions that will help you identify you’re talking to the right people. After you’ve developed your questions, consider where in your nurturing process to place them.

Tips: Add questions to your scheduler for networking one-on-ones and discovery calls. As an example, you can add a short survey to your opt-in forms. Weeding out the tire kickers saves you time and increases profitability. Remember, creating sustainable profit is all about building quality relationships.

Stop prospects from slipping through the cracks

When speaking with business owners about their challenges, inconsistent follow ups is the first issue they admit having.

It?s a common issue most business owners battle with. Losing important post-it notes and forgetting to reconnect with leads who weren’t ready, adds up to thousands of dollars in lost revenue. It?s not enough to have contact information in a centralized location…

Want to continue reading the article? Click here for your complimentary subscription.
Wondering if your CRM is the right one for your company? Click here.
Do you have CRM tips or shortcuts to share? Comment below!

 


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