Don’t be shy about following up

Audio version below

This morning I was speaking with a fellow independent communicator about the subject of following up. Sometimes we indies fall into the trap of responding to a request for a quote, and then forgetting all about it. You get busy. Stuff happens.

In my experience, clients appreciate your following up, for a couple of reasons:

1. Your quotation may have gone astray. This happened to me this afternoon. I had sent a proposal on March 25. The prospect phoned today, March 31, to say she had just found it in her junk folder. If I had followed up, she would have been alerted to the presence of my precious message among offers for malehood enhancement.
2. The client may truly want to move ahead on the project, but is bogged down with other priorities. So, your follow-up call helps her to stay on track with her project.

My favourite way to follow up is by phone. These days, email is so ubiquitous that a phone call stands out. And if your original email got trapped in Spam Land, what makes you believe that your follow-up note won’t suffer the same fate? In the call, I don’t want to badger the person by saying what might be on my mind: “Hey, have you read the proposal that I spent six hours on? Huh, didja?

No, instead I say something like: “I was wondering if you’ve had a chance to look at my proposal for your podcast project. April is looking pretty busy, and I wanted to be sure to set aside time for you.” In this way, you’re seen as helpful, not pushy. And of course, in your heart of hearts, you do want to function as an important resource for your client, right?

So please don’t be afraid to follow up. Even when you’re busy.

Here's an audio version of this post. Note, if you want to download it, click on the "down" arrow in the player.

Following-up by donnapapacosta ;

Comments

[Victoria Fenner]

Good reasons why it's best to resist the urge to be shy, Donna. (Why don't you do a column sometimes on shyness ... I think all of us are shy and some just hide it better than others. It's a business and life skill to constantly work on, isn't it?)

And great that you're using Soundcloud. I looked for several years before finding something that works for me so well. And it's based in Berlin, so it's so Eurocool!

[Donna Papacosta]

Good idea to write further about shyness, Victoria.
About Soundcloud: I had tried it out last year then sort of forgot about it. But now I'm finding it very useful, and of course Eurocool. ;-)

[Spy Gadgets]

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[Timberland Outlets]

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