The art of following up with warm leads

“We spoke on Friday, but I didn’t want to feel too needy so I am waiting until Wednesday to email them back.”

I have heard some variation of this statement time and time again from my clients.

They get a warm lead and hop on that initial call.
But then after the call, they are afraid to reach out too often.

Out of a fear of “annoying” their client, they wait and wait to follow up, often giving a 2-week gap between communications.

This is a HUGE mistake!

Imagine you are a doctor…

If a patient comes to you for a visit and talks about their problems, then they would expect a speedy and timely response.

You would want a doctor that actually cared about you and was concerned about your well being.
You would want a doctor who recommended treatments and then ensured you took those measures.
You would want a doctor who you didn’t have to call over time, but who called YOU to follow up.

You are a doctor to your clients.
They have a sickness, and you are curing them.

So what happens when you don’t follow up in a timely manner?

They assume you don’t care.
They assume you are busy with other things.
Or, they go and find someone else to cure their problem.

Clients respect persistent follow up

It’s not uncommon that after several follow ups with a client I get an email saying “Thank you for being so persistent, let hop on a call later this week to talk more.”

Literally, the client is THANKING ME for following up!

They did not get annoyed.
They did not hire someone else because I followed up too much.

These fears of annoying your client are completely made up in your own head and have no base  in reality.

So don’t wait and follow up with them persistently.

Here are some simple rules for following up with warm leads:

1. Send an email RIGHT AFTER the phone call mentioning some specifics of the call and detailing next steps. If you are busy right after the call, get this email out the same day

2. Follow up again 3-5 days after that first email if there is no response

3. After that, follow up weekly until you get a response. If the client says “Let’s talk again in X weeks” then respect that and set a reminder to follow up then.

4. If no response after 3 follow ups, try calling, social media or other means to contact them. (One time my emails were going to a client’s spam filter for 2 months!)

5. After about one month of follow ups with no response, set a reminder to follow up monthly. The timing may just not be right.

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Stop fearing that you are going to “annoy” your clients.
Be persistent and follow up on a regular basis.
You will close more sales as a result of it.