How to follow up with potential clients without seeming needy

Child: Can I have it?
Parent: No.

Child: Can I have it?
Parent: Noo.

Child: Can I have it?
Parent: Please … stop asking.

This child is pestering her parent over and over again, hoping to get that new toy she’s seen in the store. The parent can either continue saying no or give in. But in either case, this mommy or daddy doesn’t feel good about the interaction. They only continue the relationship because well … this is their child after all.

When we follow up with our prospective clients, we don’t want to be the pestering child that the parent wishes had stayed home.

But we also don’t want to leave our success to chance. Successful salespeople say “the money is in the follow-up.” If that’s true, we want to follow up but without being a pest. So how do we walk the line between pestering and negligent when following up? How do we follow up with dignity for both yourself and your prospect?

One way is the Value Follow Up System.

It is an approach in which you follow up by giving value every time you make contact with your prospect. You do this by following up with emails that include insights and information.

Here’s how it works:

First, you have initial contact with a prospect.

Maybe you meet them at a networking meeting. Maybe it’s someone you already know that you contact by phone. Whatever the interaction, they did not immediately become a client.

Second, you follow up by email mentioning your previous conversation and give them a link to an article or report you’ve written.

Mention that they can get more by subscribing to your website. If they don’t subscribe, you can occasionally send them a personal note each time with a link to another article. I would try this only once every two weeks and then stop after 3-4 contacts if they don’t subscribe.

Third, once she subscribes she’ll get emails that you send to your entire list as often as you send them.

I suggest once a week or at least once a month. Each email should end with a call to action. That call to action can be to read another article you’ve written, or to contact you for a free strategy session or to join a waiting list for an upcoming product or service yet-to-be-released.

Why does this work?

This has your prospect associate value with you. It also avoids seeming needy. Once they join your email list the “follow up” they get are messages that you give to everyone and they know this. It’s not about them. At least not just them. And this reduces the pressure. In fact, it virtually eliminates it. They associate you with value because you give every time you “follow up.” So each message doesn’t feel like a follow-up. It comes across as an expression of your professionalism and willingness to contribute.

Why not just follow up the usual way with phone calls?

One, is the inherent sense of pressure felt by your prospect. They may wonder if you are just calling to see if they are willing to finally choose your service. We all know that pressure can push someone away and we want to avoid that.

Two, many entrepreneurs dread these kinds of calls and so we avoid them. And why do something that you dread when there’s a much less dreadful way to proceed? You can move forward with the Value Follow Up System that has them associate value with you and which avoids coming across as needy. Instead, you communicate both professionalism and confidence.

One mistake I’ve seen people make here is to add people to their list without permission.

Just because someone gave you their business card, you don’t have the right to add them to an email list. It is always OK to send a few personal emails that include a suggestion to subscribe but nothing from a list … until they sign up to your list.

But who has the time to write weekly?

If you’re already busy, you may wonder how you can fit in one more activity. If you’re already following up by phone this will eliminate most of that, saving you time that you can use to write some short emails.

And as far as newsletter content is concerned, you can also keep these short and snappy.

Your emails and blog posts don’t have to be 2,000-word monsters. They can be 200-word tidbits that teach.

You can write out the answer to a question. You can share a story. You can discuss a problem and how you solved it. Or a problem that a client or prospect had and the solution you see for them (even if you didn’t get a chance to see it implemented yet). If you’re not yet comfortable writing, you can even make very short videos using the same ideas.

But I don’t have an email service?

You can sign up at MailChimp.com. It’s free for your first 300 contacts. After that, you can get a low-cost subscription for a small monthly fee. Don’t waste time comparing different services yet. Few services work as well as MailChimp and almost none of them will serve you for free for more than 30 days.

But I don’t have a website?

You don’t need one to start. MailChimp helps you create a sign-up page in their platform that you can send to people you want to sign up to your email list. And if you couldn’t get that going, just get a confirmation from your prospect that they want to join the list and add them manually. And as far as a place to post your articles, again, you don’t need one at first. You can just post the entire article into the email until you have a site up and running.

But if you feel the need for a website (and you will want one eventually), there are two fast ways to get started.

1) Set up a blog on wordpress.com for a monthly subscription fee. Or go to blogger.com and set up a free blog there. You don’t need anything fancy unless you are selling something aesthetic like jewelry or perfume. The faster you get this up and running the sooner you’ll have clients calling you to do business. You can make something gorgeous later.

And this brings us to the summary:

The Value Follow Up System has three elements: 1) Initial meeting where you get contact information, 2) following up by email with an article and a request to subscribe, 3) continuing follow up with your newsletter.

This system gives you several advantages:

This has your prospect associate you with value. They know you are an expert because you keep demonstrating it.

You can avoid any sense of pressure that can happen with typical emails or phone calls.

And you are less likely to avoid following up since you know you won’t be creating pressure.

If you feel something is holding you back, don’t let it be a website or lack of email platform. You can get an email service free at MailChimp and you can email articles before you have a website.

Unlike the child pestering his mother in the store, you are not just asking for something, you have something of value to offer.

And every time you use the Value Follow Up System, they experience that value. The more hits of value they get from you, the more confidence they will have in hiring you. So go ahead and set this up today.

The next step

There are a lot of barriers in setting up a coaching practice.  Many of them can be overcome by reinventing the wheel.  Of course, this takes time that could more easily have been spent serving clients.  If you want to avoid uncertain trial and error, contact me for a Free Business Breakthrough session.  I’ll help you discover your fastest path to getting clients.  To apply for a session click here.