The Three ‘Fs’ of Following Up

Feb 15

Here are three principles for successful follow up that we have observed working with clients at Wigler Group:

Fun

Too often, people make false negative assumptions—"they must not be interested"; "they are annoyed by me following up", etc. Have fun with it. If you have a real solution to your prospect's problem, you should assume that they will be happy to hear from you and your optimism will shine through in your communication style, improving your results.

Follow-Through

To stay top-of-mind with your prospects, you must follow through over a long period of time. To "follow through" is not the same as to "annoy". For example, if a prospect says "call me back in two weeks", call them back exactly on schedule. Most people forget. Doing what you say you will do—on time—will set you apart.

Forever

Many people have an unrealistic time horizon for the results from follow up. If you have qualified prospects, your time horizon should be forever. Many B2B sales cycles are measured years. Therefore, the leads you begin to follow up with today may not become your clients until next year or even many years later. If you implement a proper follow up process and give it a year or two to snowball, you might be amazed at how the pace of progress begins to accelerate.