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It Takes FIVE Follow Ups · Smart Business Growth with Nicky Miklós

• 0:06
  Speaker: Hello, and welcome to another Smart Business Growth Podcast episode.
• 0:31
  Speaker: Now, the other day I was doing my hour of power because I still do at least every fortnight, I aim every week to do my business development hour of power.
• 0:42
  Speaker: And you may have heard me banging on about that in the past.
• 0:45
  Speaker: If not, you probably will hear me banging on about how great an hour of power is in the future.
• 0:50
  Speaker: Essentially, it's dedicating an hour, surprising, to really honing in and focusing on business development or sales activity, the things that you avoid.
• 1:00
  Speaker: When we batch and we body double, it's actually a really great way to be very effective with our time.
• 1:06
  Speaker: And I'm sure there's no surprises when I say that the biggest barrier that I hear to sales, business development, coaching as a sales leader is time.
• 1:17
  Speaker: So if you can batch and if you can body double, body doubling means that you're doing something with other people, then you're actually more inclined to be more effective with your time.
• 1:28
  Speaker: So there's a top little tip.
• 1:30
  Speaker: Not the point of what I was going to talk about today, but a really great tool or framework for you to use.
• 1:36
  Speaker: So when I was doing my hour of power a few weeks ago, I was sitting down and I thought, right, there was a potential client that I have been in conversation with for a number of months, back and forth.
• 1:48
  Speaker: I felt like the friendly stalker that I often joke that I am.
• 1:52
  Speaker: And I'm thinking, I don't know if I can do another phone call.
• 1:55
  Speaker: I don't know if I can do another follow-up because I hadn't heard anything back for a little while.
• 2:01
  Speaker: And I really kind of sat there and thought, I don't know, it feels awkward.
• 2:04
  Speaker: I just don't know if I should do this.
• 2:06
  Speaker: I thought, you know what?
• 2:06
  Speaker: I'm just going to try one more time.
• 2:08
  Speaker: I'll pick up the phone.
• 2:10
  Speaker: Up until this point, uh, again, for follow-up, I always think it's a great idea to get creative and use different methods.
• 2:16
  Speaker: So it could be email.
• 2:17
  Speaker: Um, don't start with an email, and that needs to just be one part of it because we rely, over-rely on email.
• 2:23
  Speaker: Uh, but it could be uh phone call, LinkedIn, voice note, text message, email, et cetera.
• 2:29
  Speaker: So I'd done all of that.
• 2:30
  Speaker: And I thought, you know what, I'm just gonna do one quick phone call.
• 2:32
  Speaker: And I'm so glad that I did because the client answered the phone, or the potential client answered the phone.
• 2:38
  Speaker: And the first thing they said was, Nikki, I'm so glad you didn't give up.
• 2:42
  Speaker: I'm so glad that you have still been in contact.
• 2:45
  Speaker: And I'm really sorry for not getting back to you and all the things that were going on in their world, the new tech systems, the things happening personally, like there was just a lot.
• 2:54
  Speaker: And I thought to myself, thank goodness I didn't give up.
• 2:59
  Speaker: And this is something I hear about a lot.
• 3:01
  Speaker: I hear, I have so many conversations and I hear from salespeople, leaders, business owners, I just don't want to be annoying.
• 3:09
  Speaker: I don't want it to be awkward, I don't want to follow up too much.
• 3:13
  Speaker: But the reality is, is that the person that you're following up with is probably really busy.
• 3:19
  Speaker: They're juggling multiple balls.
• 3:21
  Speaker: They've got so many things going on.
• 3:24
  Speaker: And even though we know that our service is going to help them in all the ways that your product and service does, the reality is that you are just not top of mind for them.
• 3:34
  Speaker: They're top of mind for you, but you're not their number one priority.
• 3:39
  Speaker: As harsh a truth that is, and maybe we maybe you should be one of their top priorities because you'll help them cut through the noise or you'll help them grow their business or whatever the outcome of your service is.
• 3:51
  Speaker: But the reality is that most of the time you're not.
• 3:54
  Speaker: And so we need to keep following up.
• 3:58
  Speaker: And if we don't keep following up, you'll become invisible.
• 4:02
  Speaker: And you know, there's that saying around the money's in the follow-up.
• 4:05
  Speaker: It's so true.
• 4:06
  Speaker: A quick interruption to this podcast episode.
• 4:09
  Speaker: I'm really curious, do you want to close more sales in less time?
• 4:13
  Speaker: If the answer is yes, which I hope that it is, then you need to get your hands on the growth code.
• 4:19
  Speaker: It is going to give you three proven frameworks and tools that will help future-proof your business and scale with clarity.
• 4:27
  Speaker: All you have to do is head down to the show notes and click the link below.
• 4:31
  Speaker: So I really want this episode to be a little reminder for you to keep following up.
• 4:40
  Speaker: I also want to share a statistic with you.
• 4:42
  Speaker: So HubSpot did some research that found 80% of effective sales requires five follow-up calls after the first meeting.
• 4:53
  Speaker: Five.
• 4:54
  Speaker: Yet 44% of people give up after the first follow-up.
• 4:59
  Speaker: So most people give up after the first follow-up because they don't hear back.
• 5:04
  Speaker: Now, I get it.
• 5:06
  Speaker: You know, I'm in this game, I'm in this space, and I can still feel really awkward about it.
• 5:10
  Speaker: So here is my gift to you today.
• 5:13
  Speaker: It's a statistic.
• 5:14
  Speaker: If the research says it takes five follow-ups, why don't you create in your sales process, whether you have a team or it's just you doing it yourself, that you will always do a minimum of five follow-ups.
• 5:27
  Speaker: Now, this example that I gave you, it was probably around the ninth follow-up.
• 5:32
  Speaker: You know, I'd done the minimum, um, hence I was questioning.
• 5:35
  Speaker: But even in that case, think about things like have I used some different mediums?
• 5:40
  Speaker: Have I actually tried the phone call, the text, if appropriate, because not everyone likes texts, the email, the LinkedIn message, the Loom video.
• 5:50
  Speaker: You know, make sure that you've got five different creative touch points and you're using them all.
• 5:56
  Speaker: But what this does is it removes the personal attachment because the evidence shows it takes five follow-ups.
• 6:04
  Speaker: I'm sharing this with a lot of people at the moment and it's really blowing their mind because again, it can take away that awkwardness.
• 6:11
  Speaker: The final thing I want to share with you around this is always remember to put yourself in their shoes.
• 6:18
  Speaker: Look at it from their perspective.
• 6:20
  Speaker: The decision makers that we're wanting to get in front of, to get a hold of, that are actually saying yes or no to working with you, chances are their chaos is that their schedule is chaos, they've got a lot going on, and they're really just trying to keep all the balls in the air.
• 6:37
  Speaker: So how can you make it really easy for them to buy from you?
• 6:40
  Speaker: Make sure your interactions are simple, clear, and quite, you know, keep it light as well.
• 6:47
  Speaker: That helps take the awkwardness out of you.
• 6:49
  Speaker: So in summary, please make sure that you are following up at least five times from a meeting or presenting a proposal, a pitch, a solution.
• 6:59
  Speaker: Don't make it about you, make it about them.
• 7:02
  Speaker: And the more you follow up with them, the easier it is for them to buy from you.
• 7:07
  Speaker: When you don't make that touch point or the call or the interaction, you're absolutely making it about you.
• 7:14
  Speaker: You don't want to become invisible, you want to stay top of mind.
• 7:18
  Speaker: So do you need to include into your sales process a minimum of five follow-up touch points?
• 7:25
  Speaker: I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, and I'd love to hear how you go with this.
• 7:29
  Speaker: Uh, as always, you can reach out to me on all the usual channels and have some fun with this and take yourself lightly.
• 7:36
  Speaker: Happy selling out there.