167. The Leadership Skill Every Woman Entrepreneur Needs

Welcome. I am marketing expert and business coach Melissa My Marketing Coach Melissa Kellogg Lewicki, and this is the Doing Business Like a Woman podcast where we are exploring and teaching you how women are reinventing the way business is done and money is made to help you create greater impact and financial freedom one business at a time. Today I want to talk about follow-up. And I feel really strongly about this topic because what I see with so many people that I talk to, they're investing time and money and going out and meeting new people or hosting events or traveling to things. But if you're not following up in a way that deepens connections and honors the energy of those relationships, that you spark in those environments, then you're leaving money on the table. But even before we get into all that, I should probably introduce myself. So for those of you that don't know me, my name is Melissa My Marketing Coach and I am the CEO and founder of the Avanti Business Academy for Women. I also am a managing director for the eWomen Network chapter here in Northern Colorado. And I absolutely love helping women entrepreneurs to create wealth in all of its forms through entrepreneurship. And one of the ways that I'm really great at teaching is marketing. I have been in marketing and serving clients and helping them market their businesses for 21 years now. And I really strongly believe in simple marketing, especially for those of us that are solopreneurs or have small teams, because we don't have all day to be sitting around doing marketing. We need to be spending as much time as possible in our zone of genius, serving clients. And everything I develop is really around that simplicity but highly effective. And so follow-up really, really feeds into that because if you're following up in a way that is nurturing relationships, building relationships, you don't have to be running around hustling, meeting tons and tons of new people all the time. What we know is that most people are not— if we say out of the 100% of people that are in your orbit that you have met or that you go out and meet or have in your speaking engagements, about 20% of them will be— if we're lucky, 20% of them on the high side will be ready to buy right away. They will know you're their person, they will make decision, and they will move right away. And we love those people. Those are great people. They are ready to roll, right? And then you're going to have 20% of the people that you meet that may never buy anything from you, but they may become raving fans and they may come to all your free things, take advantage of all the goodness you put out on social media and whatever, but they're never going to become a client. And that's okay. That's fine. That's just part of the process, right? But there's the 60% in the middle. So if we think of this as a bell curve, you've got the 20% on each end, and, but you have that 60% in the middle that are always available for conversion. And so for most of us that are not following up systematically and consistently, we're missing out on that 60% of conversion. We're leaving all that money on the table. So What I see a lot of women entrepreneurs do is they're running around meeting people, speaking, traveling places, and they scoop up that 20% that are ready to work with them right now, but they forget about that 60%. And instead they're looking over the heads of that 60%, and they're actually doing the harder thing, which is going out and meeting more new cold leads that are going to need that time to learn to know them, like them, trust them. So that's why follow-up is so important, why it's so important to have a follow-up process, because instinctively I feel like we know this. We know that we need to be following up. Anytime I'll talk to someone, they'll be like, oh yeah, I have a baggie full of business cards in the bottom of my purse, or this, I've got a stack of business cards on my desk that I haven't, you know, done anything with. They talk about that in a shameful way, right? They know, we all know instinctively that we need to be following up, but why are we not doing it? Right? Most often it's because we don't know what to do or how to do it right, or how critical it is to our business. So we think it seems like a lot of work. I've got all these other things that are on my to-do list today. So we'll just do that tomorrow. And then tomorrow becomes tomorrow and tomorrow, and it never gets done. But I want to invite you all to join me and stop this today. This all stops today, right? Because what we know is that the fortune is in the follow-up, that most buyers are going to need 9 to 12 follow-ups from you, 9 to 12 touchpoints from you before they're ready to buy. And talk about working together. So you can automatically and very easily stand out head and shoulders above others in your space and in your industry because the majority of people— and I have seen this over and over again over the last 20 years, the majority, 21 years— the majority of people don't do this, don't do follow-up well or even at all. So you can have that strategic, that competitive advantage like that, just by deciding and following through on creating some systems that you can follow. Right? So sometimes people will say to me, I don't want to do a whole bunch of follow-up because I don't want to be bothering people, or am I bothering them? Or am I being too salesy? Or am I being too pushy? But if you just change your thinking about that, the follow-up is not to sell them something they don't want. It's to help them say yes to something they really do want. And we all know that we have stalled or procrastinated on making decisions that we really do want to make for things that we really do want to have. Right? And so when you keep showing up and keep following up for them, you're inviting them into that decision, and it gives you the opportunity to really have that more meaningful impact on their lives, right? And help walk them into that impact and that transformation, that change, that result that they really want. And you are the best at offering for them, right? That's why we all got into business in the first place, right? Because we wanted to have an impact. Okay, so hopefully you're on board, right? Follow-up is something— is necessary, something we need to be doing. And so what do we do? And I think that's where most of us get tripped up, is we don't know what to do, how to do it. So what I want to do today is walk you through a system that you can create that is specific to you and your business so that you can set yourself up for success and just make it your standard that follow-up is just part of doing business for you, right? And so what can that look like? Really, the way I like to think about it, the way I teach it, is that you have strategies that you use to meet new people. Right? Whether it's networking or posting reels, or— I know you post a lot of reels— showing up on social media, speaking engagements, whatever ways that you're out in the world meeting new people. You have those strategies, you're doing those things, right? But then you also need to have a set of strategies that you're deploying to nurture those relationships. And so that's more important than ever. Because we are in a buying environment where there is a lack of trust, right? And so anytime you can offer more connection to someone that is different than others, you're gonna instantly stand out in their minds, right? And we know that when people need what you have to offer, they're gonna buy from the last 3 to 5 people that they heard from. Because you're top of mind. So this helps you to be top of mind. Okay. So you have your ways that you meet new people. And today I invite you to design a follow-up process for each one of those strategies. So I teach that we want to have one, potentially three ways that we're meeting new people consistently in our business, right? Right? So for each one of those strategies, you're going to have a way that you're following up. So the 3 main ones that I see that we're going to talk about, and you can adapt these for how you meet new people and in your business, but number 1 is in person, meeting people in person, whether that's networking or meeting people at the grocery store or in the community, whatever, however you're meeting new people in person. So that's one way. The other way we meet a lot of new people is on social media, right? People discover us on LinkedIn or through, through Instagram and Reels, things like that. And so then they follow you or connect with you. Those are meeting new people. And then number 3 would be events or speaking engagements. So say you host events or you speak in front of other people's audiences. Or maybe you are a guest on a podcast. So those are the 3 main ways that I'm going to talk about today. And then if you have specific questions, we can talk about that too.

Okay.

So for instance, say you meet someone networking. So what I am teaching and encouraging you to do is have a way that you are going to follow up with everyone, every single person that you meet when you're out networking. So you're gonna have your process. You don't have to think about how am I gonna contact, should I write them, email them, or message them or call them, whatever. Just make a decision now of how it's normally gonna be. And then all you have to do is follow the plan. And I think that's what makes it more simple. So you meet someone networking. Here's generally what I teach is that you want to intentionally collect a method of contacting them, right? So you want to collect their contact information, whether it's connecting with them on LinkedIn right then and there, or collecting a business card, or doing the iPhone thing where you touch the top of the phones and people's information gets exchanged, whatever it is. You want to take responsibility for collecting that contact information. And then my standard, and I'm not perfect at it, but my standard is within 24 hours, I want to follow up with a direct outreach. So I'm not dumping them into some funnel somewhere. I'm going to directly reach out to them. Usually for me, it's an email, a DM, say you connect with them on LinkedIn. So then it's a DM, or you can make a point of calling them on the phone. So within 24 hours, my process is I will send them an email and say, it was great to meet you. I would love to connect with you and learn more about you and what you're up to. And then suggest a way to do that, whether it's a coffee chat, meeting for coffee, or having a phone call or whatever it is, however you want to connect with people. And that you can make specific to you and even specific to the circumstance if you want. So for me, what I do is I use Gmail for my email. And so I have a template set up in there so I can choose that template and send the email and literally just takes seconds, right? So it doesn't have to take a lot of time. And then I'm also putting them on my spreadsheet of connections so that I can remember to follow up with them. So if they don't get back to me regarding that email, then I will follow up with them. Or if I call them and leave a voicemail, I want to keep a record of that. So then I know to follow up with them. I'll do that. And then whatever the follow-up activity is, say we meet for coffee. Then when, during that conversation, I want to understand, you want to have curiosity. I want to understand who they are, what they're up to. And I'm always thinking about qualifying them in a way of, could this potentially be a client in the future? Or maybe they're a power partner, someone that I can collaborate with, or someone that might refer business to me, right? Or I can refer business to them. So I'm always thinking about how can I best serve them? And then I'll ask questions and be curious in that conversation to get that idea, right? So then based on that, then I will know what to offer in that conversation, what to offer as a next step. And what this requires is knowing what your relationship journey is with everyone that you meet, right? So for a potential client, perhaps you meet with them and have a conversation, and then you have to know what all your nurture activities are. They follow you on social media, they come to your workshop, they sign up for something else. So you kind of have to know all the different steps that are available for them to take with you. And then it's our responsibility as the CEO to shepherd those relationships all along the way, right? So number 2, if we think about some people that are connecting with you on social media, I want you to have a process for that as well. If you're on social media, So for example, any new followers that come in or connections within 24 hours. So that's my thing within 24 hours, I want to direct message them, DM them and say either voice message or written, typing it. Thank you for connecting on this, on LinkedIn or on Instagram. I'd love to learn more about you and what you're up to. And then you want to just be thinking about how can I open up a conversation with them, right? Get them engaging and you're engaging with them. And then you want to put that on your spreadsheet of people that you're in connection with and track that because you want to remember to go back and check in on that conversation. Or maybe engage in their content and continue to offer value to them, invite them to your thing that's happening, or offer them a freebie that you have or something like that to where you're beginning to build this relationship, right? And some of this is manual, right? Obviously we're also already doing nurture activities, whether it's having an email list and sending out emails or posting regularly on social media. We're doing those sorts of mass nurture activities, but we also wanna be doing these personal touchpoints, which is really necessary follow-up in this modern buying environment. And then the third way, so say for example, you have a speaking engagement where you are speaking to someone else's audience. Right? So, if it's allowed by the event organizer, I want you to always have an opportunity to collect contact information, right? So whether that's having a drawing where people can put in their business cards for a drawing for a free gift, or whether you have a QR code in your slide deck with a freebie that you're offering. Or maybe you have just a signup sheet on a clipboard. That's totally doable. Also, you want to have a way where you're collecting contact information because it's our responsibility again to kick off that relationship. So once you have that way for people to leave their contact information with you after the event, I encourage you to reach out personally to every single person that was in the room. And again, I do either call people or leave voice memos or send an email, have an email template in my Gmail to reach out personally and invite them to my next thing, whether it's a free workshop or an event, whatever kind of is aligned with what the speaking engagement was about. And get them engaged, get them enveloped, invite them into your world.

Right?

Because people don't want to just be dumped into another funnel. That worked a few years ago, but it's just not as effective now. Right? So the more personal contact that we can continue to integrate into our follow-up, the more success we're going to have with those follow-ups. So on that note, yes, I do still teach and encourage you to have a 3 to 5 email sequence. So for an event, whether it's an in-person event or speaking engagement or an online one, have an email sequence that you can send out to folks that's more automated. And so I have a framework that I'll offer around that, uh, but also have the personal touch, right? When you contact folks, if you call them or send a personal email or text, you can ask them, to get them engaged. What was their favorite part of the event? Do they have any follow-up questions or anything as they have been able to sit with the content or whatever you were teaching or talking about? And that often opens up a really great conversation. And then think about what you feel like on that conversation or within that engagement is their next best step. And you can ask them, what do they feel like is their next best step? How can I support you in that? What support would you love for that? And that really often opens the door for continued engagement with you. So if you are having an email sequence, like I said, I encourage 3 to 5 emails in a follow-up sequence. And if you made an offer during your talk, even if it was for a free consultation or whatever, I want you to think about what would be all the reasons that someone would not take you up on that offer or that freebie, right? Maybe they don't understand what it is or why it's valuable, or they're afraid you're gonna hard sell them or something. Those are just some examples, right? So whatever those objections or hesitations might be, those are great things to address in your email sequence. So when I'm thinking about an email sequence, obviously my first email is, is always thank you for attending the event or coming to the class or the workshop, providing a replay if that's applicable, and then remind them of the freebie or the offer that you made. Right? And then, so that would be the email number 1. And then for emails 2 and 3, or 2 through 5, I would say to think about all their top questions and address those questions and hesitations in the email. For example, common themes might be they don't have time or don't have money or aren't sure if it'll work for them or Maybe they need more clarity. So those are some things that you can address in an email. You can also offer a testimonial or a client success story, and that can encompass some of those follow-up emails. As far as ongoing nurture activities, so I'm always encouraging that those personal reach-outs to continue those. Right. So thinking about all of the steps in the relationship journey that someone takes with you before they buy or before they're ready and comfortable to buy and addressing those in your personal reach out and also addressing those in your ongoing nurture activities, such as if you do weekly emails or in your social media. Presence, and maybe you have a podcast in the future, but those are all kind of passive things, right? People have to read your email or look at your social or go and listen to your podcast. So having those personal reach-outs, having that as part of your follow-up is a much more active follow-up process. And will result in more business coming in because not many people are doing that and it really helps you to stand out. So in conclusion, or as in summary, an effective follow-up system means that for each one of the ways that you are meeting new people, you have a simple process to follow. That kicks off that relationship and nurtures it all the way through. The nurture process could go on for years and years. I've been in business for 21 years, and I've had clients that have come to me after knowing me for 10 years and wanted to work with me. So I've been nurturing those relationships for that long. Right? But it could also be very quick, right? And so you're going to have people in all stages and all timelines, but the follow-up is going to be what's consistent for all of them, right? And so having those simple processes that you can follow for each one of the ways that you bring in new people into your world, will allow you to be able to do this simply and easily. It doesn't have to take a lot of time, but it does require intention and it does require focus. And when you do have the intention and the focus behind great follow-up, this will result in more consistent revenue for you and your business. Less ups and downs. You'll have a much better pulse, a finger on the pulse of what's going on with the people in your orbit, what they need, how you can serve them, how you can help them, what their needs are and how their needs might be changing. You'll be doing less running around to find new leads and new business because you'll see and you'll have relationships and you'll know where people are in their buying journey. And it'll give you more predictable business flow and cash flow. And you're going to make more money more consistently and have a deeper impact on those already in your orbit, right? Because marketing is simply serving your future clients. So if you take the same care and intention and focus as you give your current clients and apply that to your marketing and your follow-up, your business will be so much more profitable and enjoyable and lots— and much less hustle and frantic, I gotta make money right now energy. So I want to invite you today to make a commitment to yourself and your business to create these follow-up systems. And hopefully you were able to jot down some ideas here today. And maybe if you would like to share those 3 things that you're going to take action on in the next 7 days to support follow-up and support those, that regular rhythm and system of follow-up, I would love to hear that. Do you want to share anything? That's coming up for you?

Yeah, with my work with you, I've done pretty good with following up with the in-person events. Yeah, where I've fallen off a bit is the social media follow-up, making those connections on LinkedIn, sending a message through LinkedIn. I always get those messages when people send them to me, and I appreciate that. One thing I noticed the other day is like there's a new venue in our area, and every once in a while people say, oh, where can I have a wedding or a small gathering? And so I just called them, and they immediately, by the next day, had sent me message, oh, hey, thanks for following. Do you have an event coming up or are you interested in learning about the events we're having? I'm like, oh, that's easy. Someone who just followed my page, I could go, and that was on Instagram. Yeah. Oh, I don't have a system for that when people just follow me on socials. So this was a good reminder to do that. And then also the clarity on the, the 3 to 5 follow-up emails. So I wrote it all down. So yeah, some of it's just, oh yeah, okay, I'm doing that well and keep doing it. And some of it's okay, some new ideas, but I love how you just make things simple and repeatable. And part of me was freaking out when you were like, okay, now follow up one-to-one with each person. I have a canned email, so it's not they're on my email list to 500 people, same email, but it is personal to each one. So I like myself in for a second. So if I pull out a speaking engagement, they can all get essentially the same email, but it is personal from Melissa My Marketing Coach. So I freaked out for a second. I'm okay now.

Good. Good.

Yeah.

And it sounds like a lot, but actually when you sit down and think about what those numbers actually are, like, it really isn't because if you have a process that you follow, that's easy. Then literally it could take 30 seconds a person. And if you had 10 people, that's a couple of minutes, a few minutes.

And I love the starting the conversation. What was your favorite part of the event? I've done that for other things, and that's just a fun way to start it and get people back into that moment. So I love that kind of asking questions.

Yeah, yeah, because, and I hear that a lot, I don't know what to say to them, how am I going to sell, call them up and just sell? You're not calling them up to sell. You're calling them up to build the relationship, to deepen the relationship. And so it's not buy my thing, buy my thing. It's, yeah, tell me what was your favorite part? What do you feel like you're going to put into place? How are you going to implement? And do you need help with that? It just naturally can flow into a sales conversation.

Oh, and one more thing. I love how you said make a system and just do that system. So when I get my piles of business cards and, you know, I'm pretty good at following up with everyone, I send them an email, but every once in a while I'm like, hey, what if I just got in my car, went through all the, went through all of them, sent them a voice message. And we've talked about that, but I don't do it. So I need to pick the thing that I'm actually going to do.

Yeah.

Just be okay with it. Yeah. Yeah. So that was a good reminder to me. Like what I'm doing is fine.

Are there 100 other ways we could do it? Yes, of course. But let's just decide on this one, make a plan and follow the plan.

That sounds like it would be good too. Yeah. I won't take the time to do that. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's important to have follow-up time on your calendar every single day. I like to set aside the mornings because that's when I feel, I guess I have more control over my time. It's things aren't bothering me too much in the morning. So it's take that time before 11 o'clock. To use that for reaching out to people and doing the follow-up and then just protect, having some protected time for follow-up because it's really easy to let it fall off the plate and be the one thing that gets pushed aside when other things are taking longer than they're supposed to and so forth. Yeah, for sure. So if you're like, I love all of this and I know, but I know I'll never sit down and actually do it and create these follow-up systems. I want to let you know for all those that are catching in replay, cause I know you know this, Monique, but I can help you. And today I'm offering a special 90-minute get it done session for $297. And in 90 minutes, we can create your entire follow-up system for you. So whatever customized to you and your business, customized to your nurture program and, and all the kinds of follow-up that you need. We can work one-on-one. And after that meeting, I will put all those notes together and send you a full playbook of everything that we decided on. And so all you have to do is go to your playbook and follow the plan. So yes, I just did a session with a client recently to do this, and it was really powerful for her to just take the things that we've been putting on the back burner for so long and spend 90 minutes together, get it done. And now all she has to do is follow the plan. And so it's super effective. And so you can schedule that right there and get on, get it on your calendar, on my calendar, and we'll get you consistently following up because really that is where I see so many people leaving money on the table, leaving relationships and impact on the table too, by not having those follow-up systems nailed down. So, all right. I hope you, um, take those few things that you wrote down that you're going to take action on. And put 'em in your calendar, set aside some time for that, and set up a, an easy 3-step system for each one of those for the social media folks. And, uh, if you need to tweak any of those emails for the event follow-ups. But that's what I have for you today. And I will see you soon.

Bye. Bye. Thank you.

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