Did you know that almost 60% of all sales leads are never followed up? It’s easy to understand why. First, business owners and sales managers are close to obsessed with the chase for immediate sales. Second, it’s rare to find a company that will invest in an organized and simple follow-up program. Yet, our experience has shown that simple follow-up is a very rewarding activity. Here are ten areas that you can influence with follow-up. They will put money in your pocket.

1. Build relationships

People need to learn to trust and like you before they’ll enter into a relationship with you and that takes consistent connection. Follow up with people to let them know that you are sincere in wanting to form and nurture an ongoing relationship, that you understand their concerns and problems and that you’re in for the “long haul”.

2. Build credibility and expert status

A big part of attracting and keeping clients is building credibility. People need to feel confident that you know what you are talking about. By following up with valuable, needed information you demonstrate your expertise and the value of your services and products. Send them follow-up info that shares things such as testimonials, case studies and real-life examples of how your products and services have helped people – th

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is will build your profile and credibility.

3. Educate people

A mistake many companies make is that they do not provide their prospects with information they want and need in order to buy. People need to understand clearly what benefits your services offer and what the outcomes will be if they work with you or buy a product from you. Follow up with a steady, consistent supply of helpful ideas and tips that prospects and clients can use right away. Become an important resource to people and they’ll keep coming back – which in turn builds a stronger relationship and connection between you and your prospective and current customers.

4. Stay top of mind

It’s important to stay in front of people consistently so that when they’re ready to buy you’ll be there. People usually need to be exposed to a marketing message several times before making a decision to purchase. Another reason to stay top of mind with your prospects and clients is that they may not be ready to purchase but they may know someone else who is. By staying in front of them with consistent follow up, they’ll have the information, confidence and trust to refer you to their friends, family, associates and others.

5. Keep your clients happy

Keep in mind that once someone has made the commitment to become your customer, they want to stay with you and they want to continue purchasing from you. People dislike change – so don’t give them any reason to change. But, 68% of all customers that leave do so because they don’t feel they or their business is valued.

The bulk of your future sales come from your current customers, because once you’ve made a sale and your customers know, like and trust you, they are more likely to buy from you a second time. These are the easiest and least expensive people to sell your products and services to.

Remember that it costs at least ten times as much to generate a new sale from a prospect as it does to generate a sale from a current customer. So use follow-up marketing strategies to keep in touch with your current clients and keep them happy, satisfied and coming back.

6. Opportunity to up-sell and cross-sell

You can offer special promotions, VIP programs, advanced products and services to a client. You can also use follow-up methods to let them know of other valuable services and products you have that can complement and build on what they’ve already learned or gotten help with from their previous purchase.

7. Make the necessary number of contacts

Take a look at these somewhat alarming statistics:

• it takes 8 – 12 contacts before people are ready to buy
• 50% of all salespeople quit after only the 1st contact
• another 40% quit after the 4th contact
• 80% of all sales happen on or after the 5th contact

The clear implication is that if you are a small business owner who’s only doing one or two follow-ups with your prospects and clients, you are missing out on a lot of business. Follow-up marketing strategies will help you make ongoing, consistent contact with prospective customers, partners and so on.

8. Stop the “feast or famine” cycle

Most of us are familiar with having either too few clients or having so many that we can’t handle it all. Consistent follow-up helps creates a steady stream of prospects and customers. It can help you to avoid the stress of bouncing back and forth between feast and famine.

When you spend the time and resources to nurture prospects and clients, you build a gold mine of past and present customers. Maintain the relationship with follow-up marketing strategies and you’ll ensure that you consistently attract customers and get lifetime value out of your relationships.

9. Break through all the clutter and get noticed

Is it any wonder you need to make at least 8 contacts with prospective customers? People have short attention spans and with everything that is competing for their attention, you need to stay in front of them by following up repeatedly with valuable, usable information. Americans are bombarded with approximately 3,000 advertising messages every day. It’s the messages they see most often and they relate to because they buy and use the products that keep getting through.

Not only do you need to get noticed, but you have to hold their attention long enough for them to read or listen to what you have to say, and then get them to respond!

10. All marketing is an investment in your business. Follow-up Marketing will provide you the best ROI overall.

This is especially true during periods of economic downturn when buyers are all looking for high value at the lowest cost. Increasing your communication effort to your existing customers will net you a faster and better return on your marketing investment than anything else you can do.

For every dollar you spend on follow-up marketing you will average a $10 dollar return.

We are very interested in hearing about how follow-up marketing has worked for you. Please post to this blog with any ideas or stories that would help others.