#181: Following Up with Prospects — a Different Way to Think About the Process

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia. Hey there. Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast. I am your host, Ed Gandia and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to earn more and less time doing work they love for for better clients. Just a quick reminder that you can find detailed show notes for this episode@b2b launcher.com episode 18 1. Those notes always include a great summary of our discussion as well as any links to resources I may mention during the show. You know, I would say that after the process of prospecting, following up with prospects has got to be the most dreaded activity of for many writers. I find that for a lot of people, this whole process of just following up with prospects who are at somewhere in the stage of interest, let's just say, you know, kind of early on we want to engage with you. We want to talk about something you may, we might have you help us with or you've already sent out a quarter proposal and you're waiting to hear back and you're trying to follow up anywhere along that line. For, for a lot of writers, this task, this process feels odd and unnatural. For a lot of us, it feels like we're bothering the prospect. You know, it's like, I don't know, I don't know how to do it. I feel like I'm bothering them. How much should I follow up? And all these feelings start popping up. And I find that many of us can craft these amazing stories in our heads about what's really going on behind the scenes. Like the prospect is disgusted. They want to know. They're wondering who you think you are trying to charge these fees. They were really surprised. They're disappointed. They don't want to talk to you ever again. You're a fraud. I mean, it's crazy. These stories we can make up. These are like award winning stories in many cases. And what I have found is that most of the time none of that is the reality. It's not what we think. And I can tell you this because I spent years in corporate sales before I was out freelance writing. And I was in situations where I had no choice but to perfect the art of the follow up. Now, one thing you should know about me is that my personality is I don't like confrontation. I don't like feeling like I'm bothering people. So believe me, this whole idea of follow up was foreign to me, was awkward I didn't like it. So I get it. I understand why you might feel that this is such a difficult thing in such a stressful part of what you do. And because, you know, it's just not something that we're taught to do and it can feel in many cultures like a disrespectful thing. You know, it's like, hey, I'm going to put this out there and if, if you're interested or if you want to move forward, just get back to me in like, I don't want to feel like I'm bothering you now. All those years in sales, I try to perfect that art form. I try to create, you know, a system, a process. I'm not sure I ever got to perfection. In fact, I know I didn't. But I do have some ideas to share with you today that will make this whole follow up thing much easier on you. And I got about seven different tips that I'd like to talk about. All very practical, and this is going to be a short episode, but I, I think you're going to walk away with some, some practical, useful information here. The first thing that you need to understand is a follow up is necessary. Look, we live in a world where really follow up really moves the needle, okay? I wish we didn't have to. I wish that things were such that you could put something out there, send a quote or respond to a prospect who's interested and the ball's in their court and 100% of the time they get back to you. But we don't live in that world, okay? Prospects are busier than ever. They have lots of competing priorities, ever changing situations. Especially if you're going after the corporate market or any kind of business really, even if it's small businesses and entrepreneurs, everyone is just crazy busy and frankly, many of these prospects are wearing a ton of hats. And you know what reminders from you that, hey, you know, I put this out there, they're useful and they're expected. It's in fact, it's the professional thing to do. If you didn't follow up, it could come across as unprofessional for a lot of prospects. It's expected, okay? So that's the first thing you gotta understand. The other thing is that really when you think about it, in many cases they're having to follow up with people too. So it's part of what they have to do. So it's not foreign to them. You're not offending them. If they're in business especially, this is a Natural part of their job is being followed up on and because they have to do follow up, too. So you're not bothering them. Now, of course, you don't want to overdo it. We're going to talk more about that in a minute. But as long as you don't cross that line and you keep it professional and you have a process and you follow something that makes sense, then you're going to be fine. So that's the first thing. Look, it's necessary. It's a necessary part of business. You can't avoid it. The second tip and idea is to make it easier on yourself by getting permission from the prospect and a date from them before you end a discovery call. So what do I mean by that? You're talking with a prospect about a potential opportunity, about a project, about something they need help with. And the one thing you must always, always do in that call, and one of them you already know if you've been listening to my show for a while, which is always talk money. But the second thing I should say you should always do is to always end that call with a next step. What is our next step here? And you should also ask when you. When they recommend you follow up with them. So the way I say this is great, Bill. So what's our next step here? Well, you know, I need a few days to kind of think this through or maybe you don't need to ask them. Maybe you're the one letting them know what the next step is. All right, Bill, I'm going to think through this a little bit more. I have a page full of notes here. I'm going to put together a quote for you and you'll have it tomorrow by lunch. So you're the one indicating the next step. And here's the second part of this process, which is to ask when you can follow up. So the way I would continue that is. So I'll have this to you tomorrow by noon. When do you recommend I follow up with you? And in most of the cases, over 90%, they're going to tell you. I've had a few instances where the prospect will say, you know what, no need to follow up. I will. You will hear from me. You will hear from me by a certain date. But see, notice they're still giving you an answer. So. But I like to take the lead. I like to say I'm going to give this to you tomorrow by lunch. When should I follow back up with you? Okay. When you do that, you not only are establishing that next step and Getting clear with the prospect and getting on the same page there, but you're also getting their express permission on when you can follow up. And that, as you'll see, makes everything so much easier. The third tip is that you cannot manufacture urgency that doesn't already exist, especially if you're working with B2B marketers. Okay, so as opposed to individual consumers. What do I mean by that? What I mean is that you're discussing an opportunity, a project, with a client or with a prospect. And many times we get into this mode that, okay, well, maybe if I kind of keep following up aggressively, like, you know, twice a day or every day for a while, or if I start saying, hey, this deal ends next week, or I can't hold this price for another day after Friday, something along those lines that we can create some sort of urgency that. That is really not real, that's fake, and don't try, doesn't work. Prospects can see through that immediately. So if there's not intrinsic motivation already to get moving on this, you can't manufacture it artificially. Okay? So you need to understand that trying to come up with artificial means is only going to backfire. It's going to make you look bad. So don't, you know, you need to understand before all that in the discovery call, where they're going with this, why is this important, what the urgency is when they're looking to make a decision, all those things, and hopefully that will get the prospect thinking about the timing and why it's important. Maybe they just haven't really given it that much thought and that can help. But once you put it out there, once you send that quote, there's really not much you can do to create urgency that doesn't already exist. The fourth tip is to understand that crazy things happen sometimes. I'm talking crazy things that could explain, once you realize that they did happen, why you never heard back from the prospect. I've been in many situations where something unexpected happened between the time that I sent a proposal or a quote and they were supposed to get back to me. Like, the company got acquired, there was a massive layoff that was unexpected, at least by my contact there. The prospect had a medical emergency or a family emergency. I've had a couple of instances of that. And the most dramatic I ever heard was from a coaching client of mine who had put something out there. So this was an existing client, it wasn't a prospect, but he had been doing a lot of work for these guys for a while, and they had talked about stepping up Their relationship and really doing a lot more work starting really soon. And my coaching client put a package together that was, you know, it was high dollar. In fact, he was stretching himself here, getting outside of a comfort zone with the pricing and he was doing everything right, but he was nervous so he put it out there and he didn't hear back from the prospect. And he followed up and he didn't hear back and he followed up and he didn't hear back. And he was starting to think, in fact, the story he was telling himself was like, oh my gosh, I've completely priced myself out. I've embarrassed myself, I've offended this person whom I had a relationship with, somebody who trusted me. I've lost their trust. And this went on for, I want to say it was three months. And finally one day after all that follow up, he had abandoned it. He thought, oh, I'm doomed. And think about what this is, this, that to his confidence, he thought he'd lost the business. One day he gets a call or an email and it's that client. And as it turns out, he had been in a serious accident and ended up in the hospital. In fact was in the hospital for almost two months and was completely out of touch. And so he was reconnecting and he was getting much better and he was back at work and all that. And you know, all that to say that I think it ended up with a happy ending and my, my coaching client ended up getting the, the work and the expanded work at higher fees and everything worked out. But you know, the crazy things happen like that this has only happened to me one time, okay? And this is when I was in software sales, but man, this stays with you. I called this prospect and I won't get into all the details, but the person had died. Um, I mean that, that's crazy. And this was months later, you know, so this wasn't like between, you know, I just talked to him the other day. But you know, that happens rare, but it happens. So you never know. And this is why it's so important not to just come up with these crazy stories in your head and because there's a 99% chance that it's really nothing like that. Okay? So stay cool, stay professional, stay graceful, okay? You just never really know what's going on. My fifth suggestion is to have a plan for longer term follow up. You know, assume that in many cases you are going to have to follow up over the long haul because it's going to get put on hold. The client is going to Disappear. They got pulled off into something else. You know what, in some cases, I've seen this happen a lot. Where the, the client built this up to, hey, this is going to be great. We're going to be working on this and I'm excited. And, and then you, you put a quote together and then they disappeared. And the reason was completely out of your control, out of their control. And you followed up and they didn't know what to tell you. Maybe the first couple of times they said, yeah, you know, it's still, it's on hold. The CEO this and that and the other is just reviewing it. And anyway, it ends up dying and the prospect is so embarrassed, they don't know how to tell you. And then they just go silent. That happens a lot more than I would like, but it happens. So look, at the end of the day, you need to understand that these things are just going to happen. You can't control that. But what you can control is the plan you put together. If somebody gets pretty far into your process and they ended up not buying, not hiring you, there's statistically a very high probability that they'll buy again from someone in the next few months. And that someone could be you. Okay? So my suggestion is be ready to stay on their radar screen. I call these NYR prospects not yet ready prospects. It was a timing issue. It may have been a trust issue, but in many cases it's a timing issue. Because it didn't work out now doesn't mean it might not work out in a few months. Be ready to stay on the radar screen. I have a lead nurturing process in place that makes this easy for you. And it's extremely simple. The whole idea is every couple of months, send something of value. You don't have to overthink this. Just send something of value that shows that you're thinking about them, shows that this was not a mass broadcast. You just sent something to them because you were thinking about them. And I have countless examples throughout my career where this has really paid off. In fact, when I was in software sales, consistently every year, 30% of my new customers would come as a result of my lead nurturing, meaning staying in touch with these people until they were ready to buy, until the timing was right. And when the timing was right, guess what? Because I had stayed in touch, I was the first person they thought of. Just this week I saw 2 comments in my coaching Facebook groups and let me read them. I got them here word for word. The first one is from Hannah and she posted here's a reminder, and I quote, here's a reminder that seeds planted can sprout unexpectedly. Just got off a great call with the prospect. I sent warm emails to and a physical letter about a year ago but never heard back from. She said when my direct mail piece came in, she was sorry she didn't have anything at the time. Later, when she started formulating a new content plan, my letter popped into her head and she dug out my business card, which she had saved. Keep at it even when you don't hear a peep, you might have made an impression. So I love that. It goes to show you never know what's going on on the other side. And when prospects say they're going to keep your information handy, guess what? Many of them do. Here's another one I got actually on the same day from Andrea. He says, and I quote, another proof that Ed's keep in touch strategy works. Back in 2017, I connected with a prospect at a trade fair. No work came out of that conversation, but I kept sending emails every two or three months with interesting articles. Today I received an email from him and it starts like this. Hi Andrea, I like how you maintain a contact on social media and emails in the past two years. Basically they need help with their content marketing and want to schedule a call with me. At the bottom, he even attached a screenshot with the subject lines of all the emails I had sent in these two years. So it goes to show, stay top of mind in a relevant and personalized way. By the way, it doesn't all have to be over email notice. In Andrea's case, he did a really good job in social media. LinkedIn, Facebook, these are great places where you can, you know, just comment and like, share, discuss, stay engaged. With these prospects, you never know. My sixth tip is to spread out your follow up attempts just a little bit and have your process for doing this documented so you can take the emotion out of the process. What do I mean by that? I find that, you know, it's easy to think about this logically, but when you're in the middle of it and you feel like you really need to land that gig, you start acting irrationally. Many times I know I have. So my suggestion is to have a process in place that determines when and how you're going to follow up. Now you're going to adjust it based on what you end up learning along the way because many times at some point the prospect might get back to you and say, hey, not yet, I'm waiting on this. In which case you kind of pause that process. So you need to, it's a fluid thing and you need to adjust based on what you know. But it's kind of like your worst case scenario process. And if nothing happens along the way, you get zero response, then you know exactly what to do next. So here's one example of what you could do. And let me be honest, it's not so much about following this to the T, it's really about having something written down. Okay, so this is not necessarily something I've tested. I think this is a very difficult thing to test scientifically. That's not the point. The point is have something written out that takes the emotion out of it. And when you're in the situation, you don't have to think about it, you don't have to let emotion make the decisions for you or muddle up your, your decisions. You just know exactly what to do. So here's what I do. Step one, email the day after sending your fee agreement, your quote, your proposal, if you don't get a response, email three business days after that. If you don't get a response, call five business days after that. And by the way, with calling, always leave a voicemail. Okay? If you don't get a response to that, email five business days after that. And if you don't get a response, here's your final attempt, Call five business days after that. And when I say after that, I mean after the previous step and with the final attempt. I always like to leave a voicemail if I don't get a hold of them saying, hey, listen, it's okay. This is. I thought I'd try you one last time. This is my final attempt. Sounds like you moved on. But I wanted you to know that if anything changes, if it's maybe a timing issue, something else happened, feel free, no hard feelings, just let me know either way. I'd just love to hear back to see what ended up happening. Something along those lines. The point there is to let them know, hey, this is my final attempt. And the great thing about that is that if they've been using you use a snooze button, you're putting them on notice that this is it, you're moving on. And many times you'll get a response there. Again, the timing between these depends on whether or not you do get some kind of response or feedback. And frankly, it doesn't really matter as much how many days apart or how you switch it up. The point is, have it written down so you know what to follow when the emotions Run high. You don't have to think about it emotionally. One last tip there somewhere in the middle of that follow up process, it can be very, very effective. Remember I said earlier, you can't add urgency to a situation. That urgency needs to be intrinsic. However, there is something that I've found to be very, very effective that if used and you use it honestly and with integrity, can work to add a little bit of urgency. Assuming there's already some intrinsic urgency already in the prospects court. Let me explain. At some point along the way, it can be useful to say in your message, whether it's email, voicemail or phone, that you're starting to schedule for X month and you wanted to make sure you could put them on the production schedule and so you wanted to touch base to see what the status was on that project. So in other words, you're letting them know, look, I'm already booking into August, so I'm already booking into September. And before I get this thing filled up, I want to make sure that, you know, we get your project in there. Okay, that can sometimes help. And if you use it again, don't lie if you'd really. Not if you have zero work or no pipeline, but if you are scheduling or you could use it as an excuse to go ahead and schedule and now you can say it honestly. Okay. All right, so my last tip. If the prospect changes their mind or it ends up being a no go for whatever reason, something outside their control, remain graceful. Not just remain graceful, but be grateful to them and always stay professional. I can't tell you, having been on the, on the other side, on the client side, how many people I've had to say no to over the years. And it's so disappointing to see these reactions of anger and disappointment and just. It's so unprofessional. You know what? Even if you've been very professional all along, and then suddenly when I have to tell you no, you act like a different person and you behave unprofessionally. I lose so much respect for you, so much so that I will probably not do business with you. Okay. I don't think I'm alone. To me, it feels like everything you were doing up until this point was manufactured, was a facade. And now the real you is coming out. Now, look, I understand that, you know, things are tough and you might have all kinds of things going on. Maybe something financial. That's big. You were really counting on this. Totally get it. Do whatever you can to remain graceful and professional. You never know what impact that will have. I've seen situations where, you know, the prospect was very sorry, it was out of his control and they had to say no, you were graceful. And then a few months later, they were at another company, you're the first person they thought of, and now they have more control, more autonomy, and they're able to hire you immediately. They remembered you, they remembered your professionalism, and in a way they feel, they feel bad and they want to make it up to you. By the way, a quick bonus tip. If anywhere along the way you get a no, one of the best things you could do, besides being graceful and professional, is to ask for a referral. Again, playing on what I said earlier, prospects often feel so bad that they have to tell you no, that this is a moment when you can, I don't want to say take advantage because it's, it's done ethically, but this is an opportunity for you to get something out of it and ask them, you know, let them know. I appreciate it. Thank you for letting me know. Listen, I'm looking for one client. I have room for one client, but I'm not just looking for any client. I'm looking for somebody, you know, along these lines and just describe who you're looking for. Would you happen to know someone who maybe fits that description and would you be able to refer me to them? There's a much higher probability that you'll get a yes in these situations than in other situations. So take advantage of that situation and see what you can get out of it. Look, at the end of the day, follow up doesn't have to be stressful and ineffective and you don't have to make it up every time with every single client. So my suggestion is understand the dynamics of follow up, how to do it well, and why it's important to have a documented process to follow that takes the emotion out of the whole thing. And above all, have a plan in place to stay on the radar screen of those who disappear or who change their minds, because you never know when they're going to come back to you. This has been Ed Gandia. I hope you have an awesome rest of the day. Take care. The High Income Business Race Writing Podcast is a production of B2B business launcher. Learn more at B2B launcher dot com.