In the last few weeks’ blog posts, we’ve covered the direct and indirect networking components to the rainmaking process. Getting in front of the right people, both in face-to-face settings and with your good indirect or more passive strategies like a good website, compelling blog, etc. is key in building your potential client base and referral base. Another big part of the Rainmaking strategy, and maybe even the most important, is to follow up with potential customers.
Follow-Thru Strategies
Follow-thru should be the easy part of the strategy! And yet, this is the place that most people drop the ball. As such, it’s also an area that you can easily outperform your competition! If most people drop the ball, you will stand out for following up.
Imagine this: You go to a great networking event. You have several good conversations, you exchange business cards with a few potential leads, and you even think that some are likely to really need your services in the upcoming months. You put those business cards in your purse, pocket or wallet with good intentions of following up. The next day, you get to the office, start working on your to-do list, answer emails and phone calls, catch up around the water-cooler, and forget that stack of business cards. If you don’t follow up with the people in the stack that even MAY have been good contacts for you, you’ve wasted your time at the networking event. Why? Because the other person you exchanged cards with is equally as unlikely to follow up with you. Alas, time, effort and likely money have been squandered.
Alternatively, imagine reviewing the business cards before closing down for the day and coding them for follow-up. Then, the next day follow up personally with those people who resonated the most. (Start with those first and then let the others fall into place as well.) It could be as simple as the following email:
Dear Bob,
It was great to meet you at the XYZ networking event last night. When we spoke, you mentioned that you were interested in hearing more about the California Competes Tax Credit program, and that one of your clients might benefit from it. Attached is a link to my recent blog post about that very topic. Once you’ve had a chance to review it, let’s get together again to discuss how we might be able to assist you in claiming the credits.
Hopefully Bob will respond. If he does, you’ve started a conversation. If not, you have an opportunity for a follow-up to the follow-up.
Dear Bob,
Per my email below (attach email string), I hope you had a chance to review the information and are considering moving forward or working with your client to determine the benefits. Let’s schedule a call for next week to discuss. Wednesday and Thursday next week are open for me. Do either of those work for you?
With those two emails, you have touched this person at least 3 times now. All with very little effort. And the impact is likely to be much bigger than you will even allow yourself to imagine!
The flipside is that if you do not follow up within the first 24 to 48 hours, your target will likely forget you, and you will even likely forget them. The lesson is simple, really, if you’re not going to do the follow up, you might as well not bother with the active or passive strategies. Read that again. It’s harsh, tough love. Why bother networking if you don’t have a system for tracking the networking and the follow-thru?
But you don’t have to do it all alone! Consider enlisting in administrative assistants, or temporary workers to help with the follow-up after each event. There are software programs that can assist in your tracking, or you can work with traditional things as well. Whatever works best in your business and makes you comfortable is likely to be the best overall follow-thru plan.
Monika Miles is President of Miles Consulting Group, a firm specializing in multi-state tax consulting for middle market businesses. Clients include technology, manufacturing, software and SaaS based companies doing businesses across state lines. Miles Consulting Group assist them in determining the sales tax and income tax ramifications of creating a taxable presence in a state and how to address these issues with the various states. When she’s not assisting clients with multi-state tax issues, she passionately shares Rainmaker strategies with other professional services firms. Stay tuned for the upcoming “Jumpstart Your Rainmaking” webinar series coming in January 2016!
