Five Steps to Follow-up like a Good Human

If you follow me on LinkedIn, you already know that I love what I call Followup Friday.

Most Fridays, I encourage my followers to initiate with past, present, and potential clients. And the reason I named it Followup Friday and picked Fridays is that back to the days when I was a corporate recruiter, it's been my experience that Fridays are a great day to reach people.

I want people to sell every day. Craig Ballantyne says if you have under $1 million in revenue, one of your main jobs is to sell every single day. I want people to do their revenue-generating activities regularly, frequently, daily, if possible. I do think Fridays are a great day to wrap up the week as well as real standouts because they're days that our prospects and clients tend to have lower energy for their regular tasks.

My experience is that they often say "yes" to sales meetings because they're sitting at their desk, wishing it were already the weekend. They're working through emails. And in some cases, they're looking for ways to avoid the work they don't want to do. So I have great success reaching people on Fridays even in the summer.

Give it a try. Whether it is for a successful Followup Friday, or you want to implement these tools for your selling activity on other days, here are my five steps of what to do.

Number one, be prepared. So let's face it. You're also tired on a Friday, right? We all have these low-energy moments. Keep yourself organized in your own CRM so you do not have to try to remember who you wanted to reach and why. Let that CRM do the heavy lifting for you. This means presetting tasks. I know and respect people who spend some time on Monday getting their week organized. I know some people who spend end of the day Thursday getting the next six days organized.

I know people who spend part of Friday getting the following week organized. You can have it be an end-of-the-day activity where you document your notes and preset tasks. It doesn't matter. I keep my CRM open and I just do it all as I go. I try not to get behind in notating what happened because then I feel a little bit overwhelmed with getting behind. So presetting some tasks and being prepared is number one.

Number two, have something of value to share, rather than saying "I'm touching base." Something of value can be a blog that you wrote. A blog someone else wrote. It could be a marketing PDF that you're using in a sales context and saying, "I don't know if you've seen this checklist."

It could be that you speak on video to your prospect or client and go into a little bit more detail. Video can sort of shake things up versus writing or leaving a voice memo. Think about what they will find relevant or note something that's happening in their industry. This can set you up as a trusted resource and as a Guide. As you all know, I love the metaphor of a Guide. We're sharing things of value, we're ahead of them in this thought process about how you get better in this particular area, that ties to what we sell. We want to be generous in what we give and avoid saying things like "just touching base," especially the word, "just" because that's not powerful.

Number three, know your CTA. CTA stands for call to action. Stating a clear call to action makes it easy for everyone to be prepared for what is happening next and for you to hold yourself accountable for the next.

Here are some examples of good, specific calls to action: "I'll call you again Tuesday afternoon" or "I will look for your email with that report by end of day on the 12th" or "I will look for your signature on the contract by the end of the day today". Naming specific days and times is better than saying, "Let me know if you're interested." People say, "let me know if you're interested" when they feel nervous. If we feel insecure in the sales process... maybe we're new at representing the product or service or maybe we've just changed jobs or we're new to selling overall, we tend to be vague. Being vague is not a gift.

I was doing some training just this last week with a salesperson at a client company who pushed back on me on this point. And he said, "If you're a good human and your brand is about a good human, I do not wanna be too pushy." And I do understand that perspective.

I understand that he's a nice person and he wants to give agency to his prospect. I also made the point that being clear is a gift and being a good Guide in the process, simplifies life for the prospect, which is a Good Human thing to do because they're busy. I appreciate it when people are very clear about what they will do next and what they want me to do next.

Number four, remind yourself of the value you provide. So I want to prime myself. Priming is getting yourself in an optimal mindset. Reminding yourself of the value you provide could be done by rereading your affirmations about what sales are or about your goals, rereading client testimonials, or Google reviews about how you've helped others. Take a look at your marble jar.

I like to have a visual representation. When someone does a book review for me, when I have a successful sales call, or when I close a piece of business, I put a marble in the jar. I love to look at my marble jar as a symbol of progress and success. Coach yourself and figure out what works for you to remind yourself of the value you provide that will help you stand out.

Finally, most importantly, do not give up too soon. Most business owners who sell (and full-time sales professionals) avoid prospecting on Fridays. Many do not initiate with enough people. Reaching out regularly will set you apart from others. Most salespeople only try reaching their ideal client one or two times. Business owners do this as well. After two times, they'll make up a story in their head and say, "well, if they were interested, they'd get back to me."

But I don't believe that.

Because people are busy and they don't know us yet, trying to get an appointment with someone only one or two times is just not enough touches to get a reply. There are all kinds of research about marketing averages and sales averages, and you're just going to have to increase your outreach to get people's attention, even with great marketing, even with great copy. People are busy.

If you have a Followup Friday success story that you can share, drop me a message at Catherine (at) extraboldsales.com. I'd love to hear about it.