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Do Your Potential Customers
Forget About You?
Tom Kulzer
Your web business probably gets product inquiries
from potential customers around the globe. Inquiries come via e-mail and your web
site, and you try to send information to each hot prospect as quickly as you can.
You know that you can drastically increase the likelihood of making a sale by satisfying
each person's need for information quickly!
But, after you've delivered that
first bit of information to your prospect, do you send him any further information?
If you are like most Internet marketers, you don't.
When you don't
follow that initial message with additional information later on, you let a valuable
prospect slip from your grasp! This is a potential customer who may have been very
interested in your products, but who lost your contact information, or was too busy
to make a purchase when your first message reached him. Often, a prospect will purposely
put off making a purchase, to see if you find him important enough to follow up with
later. When he doesn't receive a follow up message from you, he will take his business
elsewhere.
Are you losing profits due to inconsistent and ineffective follow
up?
Following up with leads is more than just a process - it's an art. In
order to be effective, you need to design a follow up system, and stick to it, EVERY
DAY! If you don't follow up with your prospects consistently, INDIVIDUALLY, and in
a timely fashion, then you might as well forget the whole follow up process.
Consistent
follow up gets results!
When I first started marketing and following up with
prospects, I used a follow up method that I now call the "List Technique."
I had a large database containing the names and e-mail addresses of people who had
specifically requested information about my products and services. These prospects
had already received my first letter by the time they requested more information,
so I used the company's latest news as a follow up piece. I would write follow up
newsletters every now and then, and send them, in one mass mailing, to everyone who
had previously requested information from me. While this probably did help me win
a few additional orders, it wasn't a very good follow up method. Why isn't the "List
Technique" very effective?
The List Technique isn't consistent.
Proponents of the List Technique tend to only send out follow up messages when their
companies have "big news".
List Technique messages don't give the
potential customer any additional information about the product or service in question.
He can't make a more informed buying decision after receiving a newsletter! If someone
is wondering whether your company sells the best knick-knacks, what does he care
that you've just moved your headquarters?
List Technique messages convey
a "big list" mentality to your potential customers. When I used to write
follow up messages using the List Technique, I was writing news bulletins to everyone
I knew! I should have been sending a personal message to each individual who wanted
to know more about my products.
What follow up method really works?
Following
up with each lead individually, multiple times, but at set intervals, and with pre-written
messages, will dramatically increase sales! Others who use this same technique confirm
that they have all at least doubled the sales of various products! In order to set
this system up, though, you need to do some planning.
First, you'll need
to develop your follow up messages. If you've been marketing on the Internet for
any length of time, then you should already have a first informative letter. Your
second letter marks the beginning of the follow up process, and should go into more
detail than the first letter. Fill this letter with details that you didn't have
the space to add to the first letter. Stress the BENEFITS of your products or services!
Your next 2-3 follow up messages should be rather short. Include lists of
the benefits and potential uses of your products and services. Write each letter
so that your prospects can skim the contents, and still see the full force of your
message.
The next couple of follow up messages should create a sense of urgency
in your prospect's mind. Make a special offer, giving him a reason to order NOW instead
of waiting any longer. After reading these follow up messages, your prospect should
want to order immediately!
Phrase each of your final 1 or 2 follow up messages
in the form of a question. Ask your prospect why he hasn't yet placed an order? Try
to get him to actually respond. Ask if the price is to high, the product isn't the
right color or doesn't have the right features, or if he is looking for something
else entirely. (By this time, it's unlikely that this person will order from you.
However, his feedback can help you modify your follow up letters or products, so
that other prospects will order from you.)
The timing of your follow up letters
is just as important as their content. You don't want one prospect to receive a follow
up the day after he gets your initial informative letter, while another prospect
waits weeks for a follow up!
Always send an initial, informative letter as
soon as it is requested, and send the first follow up 24 hours afterwards. You want
your hot prospects to have information quickly, so that they can make informed buying
decisions!
Send the next 2-3 follow up messages between 1 and 3 days apart.
Your prospect is still hot, and is probably still shopping around! Tell him about
the benefits of your products and services, as opposed to your competitors'. You
will make the sale!
Send the final follow up messages later on. You certainly
don't want to annoy your prospect! Make sure that these last letters are at least
4 days apart.
Following up effectively seems complicated, but it doesn't
have to be! So many potential customers are lost because of poor follow up - don't
you want to be one of the few to get it right?
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Tom
Kulzer is the President and CEO of AWeber Communications.
Less Work - More Sales.
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