If you want to seal a deal… ALWAYS follow-up. People are going to Google, you, your company, your product, and god knows what else… after they leave your office… or after you send them information.
So, how do you pre-empt this… and instead stoke the fires and get them excited about moving forward?
Here’s some things to think about…
- Send them something out of the ordinary. (above trashcan, or “lumpy” mail is a great example)
- Give them 2 reasons why moving forward will put them in a better position
- The more you make it value-added… meaning things you don’t get paid to do… the more likely they are going to want to follow up. If it’s all about things you’ll get paid on… you are dead in the water… why do you think they aren’t getting back to you in the first place? Duh, they think you just want to make money off them.
- Share an idea you didn’t give them before
- The absolute best thing you can do is give them a case study of someone that had a very similar situation to them… and lay out the problems… your solutions… and where those people are today.
I am a little confused about doing things for free and calling it value added. I have decided to start charging clients for financial plans, Social Security Analysis etc.. It seems people value what they pay for and are more willing to follow a plan if they have money in it. Your thoughts? Thank you kindly
Hi! Thanks for your comments and thoughts! That has been the “Go-To” mind set for years. It DID work with the Greatest Generation… however, as Baby Boomers have become the largest segment of our clientele… it no longer works as well (I’m not saying that it no longer works… it just doesn’t work as well as it used to). In all the studies done by Maslansky and his work on the Post-Trust Era that we now live in… we are in a Catch-22. People will not work with us until we prove they can trust us… and we can’t prove they can trust us, until they work with us. So, value added is the way to go. There is zero risk in their mind to let us do free work for them… and it’s us doing work for them… that we are not paid for… that assures them that we are NOT just about the money.
-Mike