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ACTION PLAN MARKETING

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September 22, 2008

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Rex

You're right. Follow up is very important. I was continually looking for new prospects till someone tipped me off to the fact that I wasn't following up on my current ones.
Attorneys Salt Lake City

thomson dawson

Robert--

Great post... there is a big difference between a follow-up call to someone you have met personally and a cold call...which I define as telephone follow-up to an unsolicited introduction.

Cold calling is for suckers... there are many opinions on this for sure... here's my take on the subject:

A cold call is an uniformed interruption... with the prospect most likely thinking:

"I don't know you, I have not heard of your firm, you are interrupting my busy day... are things so bad in your business you have to call a stranger"?

Far better to create awareness to your value proposition in the minds of well defined and qualified prospects... this takes a long time... that is why it's important to segment your contact strategy into early, mid and late stage categories.

Early Stage:
prospects are qualified but they don't know you

Mid-Stage:
Prospects are aware of you but have not entered into any specific dialogue with you

Late Stage:
Prospects know you, have awareness and interest in your proposition.

You only get to "sell" late stage prospects... the 1 in 100 that have made it that far in your sales cycle...

The only short-cut to a late stage propsect comes through:

- direct refferal
- networking, speaking and writing

but it is still critical to keep your "background marketing activities" relevant and consistent to early and mid-stage prospects... I use opt in email marketing and a blog for these prospects...

it takes me roughly 6 months to a year to create a late stage prospect (without a direct referral)

note to self: always be marketing!

www.pullinc.com

I like your work! Glad I stumbled onto your blog...

Charles Dominick, SPSM

Great article, Robert.

I disliked follow-up calls because I like to succeed 100% of the time. With follow-up calls, you're bound to have some failures. But the success rate more than pays for the time spent on failed calls.

Still, not liking follow-up calls, I did what made sense to me - I hired someone else to do the sales while I focused on my core competency. This has been key to the growth of my company and has more than paid for itself.

Some people love phone sales and are great at it. So there's no good reason why a great professional services provider charging the fees that they deserve shouldn't make use of such an individual.

Brenton

Robert,

Very timely. I've sent out a personal letter and portfolio to a select group of companies. I've made two follow up calls so far and have booked meetings for both. However, I was stalling with the remaining follow up calls and needed a good kick in the pants!

Cheers.
Brenton

Susan

Thank you! I needed to make some follow up calls after sending out a direct mail letter to contacts on my database. I had some of the excuses you listed. You have now fired me up to go ahead!!

Susan

Louise BJ

It's not just follow-up calls that seem to be such a block for people! I always follow up with a 'nice to meet you' email - something hardly anyone else does, unless it's to send me a sales pitch!

Great post Robert, I think I'll print out the list of excuses to remind me next time I hesitate to pick up the phone and follow up.

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