The ability to follow-up effectively with potential customers and referral partners is key to the success of a small business.
Create a standard follow-up guideline– Follow-up with potential customers and referral partners within your standard guideline – will it be 1 day, 2 days, or 3 days? If you wait too long, people will not remember you and the opportunity is lost.
Use a follow-up method that suits your business and your personal style- Phone follow-up helps you relay your passion for your product but can potentially interrupt the other person’s busy day. Email follow-up is less intrusive but doesn’t allow your passion to come though. Find out what works for you and keep doing it.
Be generous with information and ideas– If you made a good connection with someone during your initial meeting, you’ll have a better idea of what information will be of interest to them. Consider sending a link to a website, sending an industry related news article, or connecting them up with one of your contacts who could be a referral partner for them.
Encourage further connection- Great connections are built over a cup of coffee. Extend the offer to meet up again. Leave time in your agenda to sit down and learn about other people, their needs and priorities.
Follow-up shouldn’t be an “extra thing” you do in your business, it should be a part of how you do business. Follow-up well and you’ll reap the rewards.
Sarah Daviau is the owner of Piece of Cake Communications in Victoria. Piece of Cake Communications shows people how to become confident and effective communicators – public speaking, business networking and job searching. Opened in March 2009, Piece of Cake Communications provides one-on-one coaching and workshops to individuals and businesses.