Following up on your sales is key to maintaining both great customer service and gathering valuable information to be used for future products and launches. The question here is, are you a “Follow up flake?” I am betting that as you read this you said. “that doesn’t describe me at all.” Or maybe you are reading this and simply hoping you’ll find out it isn’t you! How about we find out whether you are a Flake or a Rockstar at follow up!
First, we should define the term flake as it pertains to us and follow-up. A flake is someone who generally makes plans with you, promises to do things with or for you but can never seem to follow through.
Flakes can be described in many different ways. They may be an experienced marketer who has gotten lazy. They just think, get the sale and boom, we are done. Or, perhaps they are brand new marketers who believe thinking up a headline is the key, and the rest just flows from there. Niiave, yes, but their inexperience shows.
How about the guy who is always flying by the seat of his pants, thinking about his next brand new campaign, that hasn’t got time to think about the results of the campaign he just finished. Maybe he sent one email and considers the job done. Or the marketers who sometimes send out follow up emails and that is that, done.
The Missing Link
In each case, they all have one thing in common, it is missing from all the scenarios. It is a BIG thing and key to a successful campaign…and that would be a plan. Yes, A Follow-Up Plan with a capital “P”. So if you can see yourself in these scenarios, then the diagnosis here is, you are a FLAKE!
The truth here is no matter how brilliant or innovative you are, how seasoned, or new you are as a marketer, or how great your campaign is, you have to create a plan. By having your simple follow up plan in place in advance will help identify obstacles, know what needs to be done and keep things in check and running smoothly.
Your plan will also help you determine who you are targeting, help you to create your follow up content, make certain your campaign includes all of the critical pieces. This includes headlines to attract your target market, strong selling points that speak to you audience and even your call to action, and guides you to make sure your timing is on point for the campaign.
What’s Stopping You?
Let’s face it, no one wants to be a flake. Certainly not when it comes to follow-up. Why would we want to work so hard to make contact with perfectly good customers, and only to drive them away? No, we want to be known as a rockstar. Not one from an ‘80s hair band, with a reputation as a hard-partying musician. Instead, how about this definition.
A rockstar is a person who is renowned or revered in his or her field of accomplishment.
To be the rockstar instead of the flake, we need to look at 3 of the most common objections to creating a follow-up plan.
1. “I don’t have time”
If you are nodding in agreement here, you’re not a flake, just mistaken. If you take the time to plan for proper follow up will actually save you time. Not to mention increase your profits and your list! Having a plan to follow is worth every second of the time investment.
You have to make the campaign at hand your focus. If you really are short of time, put something else on the back burner, or hand it off to someone else temporarily, just don’t give up on planning your follow up. Since statistics have proven follow-up can easily be responsible for well over half your total sales, continuing in the same reactive path really would be flaky.
2. “I don’t need one, it’s a waste of time”
If this is how you feel, well you are very close to moving over into the flake zone! Not only do the reasons above prove it is not a waste of time, but what about the time you spent creating your product you are selling? Why bother if you are not going to optimize the benefits from that product.
While I could go into more detail, you have probably lost interest and gone on to something else. If so, you have fallen smack dab into that flake zone! So come back and stay with me!
3. “It’s too hard…”
If you feel it is too hard, you’re not a flake, maybe just new or inexperienced. First, let me reassure you that creating a balanced follow-up plan is easier than you may think. If you can create a valuable product to sell, you can create a plan to make sure it is a complete success.
Look at it like this, the old saying is “no job is done until the paperwork is complete.” In marketing terms, the “paperwork” is the plan. By having the product and plan in place, you become the rockstar, not the flake.
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