Follow up by “just checking in”

How to follow up on prospects is one of the most common questions I get and there are as many experts with an answer to this as there are ways to do it. I take a cue from a good friend of mine who happens to be my life insurance agent.

One day, Rob was celebrating a big new account he’d just signed on and I asked him how he got such a great client. Rob told me that it was persistence and “Just Checking In” on a regular basis that landed him the sizable account. The story goes like this: One day, my friend was given a referral for this potential client, let’s call him Joe. But Joe wasn’t ready to buy life insurance from Rob quite yet, so without thinking that this meant “I don’t want to do business with you, ever” as many of us think when someone doesn’t bite right away, Rob kept Joe on the equivalent of HIS warm prospects list and followed up with a phone call, once a quarter.

And each time, he’d called and say, “Hi Joe, this is Rob from XX Financial, just checking in to see how you are and see where you are in your process of changing your life insurance coverage…. OK, not quite ready yet. No problem! I’ll be back in touch.” And Rob did this every quarter or so, until lo and behold, a couple of years later (yes, sometimes it takes THAT long for someone to come around), Rob was doing his routine “Just Checking In” with Joe, and Joe handed him the account, for over $10 million.

As he was handing over his business to Rob, Joe told him that the reason he chose Rob as opposed to the half dozen other people he knew in the insurance business was that 1) Rob never pushed him or became aggressive, 2) he felt he could trust Rob because of his reliability in following through, and 3) he liked being “checked in with” without being pressured. He liked the consistency and felt that if Rob was this consistent before he even became a client, that he’d be even better once they worked together. Awesome story.

What I get out of that is: 1) “Not right now” doesn’t mean “NO”; 2) pressuring doesn’t work; 3) a friendly approach does work; 4) consistency builds trust; and most important, 5) following up gets you clients.

That said, I now use this “Just checking in” method with people on my Low-Hanging Fruit list because it feels comfortable and I hate to push myself on others. This is just a friendly way of seeing where the person is in their process and has helped me convert lots of clients into paying clients, even years after they initially expressed interest.

Which brings me to something else: never take someone off your Low-Hanging Fruitlist unless they tell you to stop contacting you. A prospect is a prospect is a prospect until they become a client, no matter how long it takes. So, just keep checking in with them until they do.

Your Client Attraction Assignment:

Go through your Low-Hanging Fruit listand “Just Check in” with people to see where they are in their process of wanting to work with you. The objective is to get them into a one-on-one conversation in person or over the phone, where you can then see if it makes sense to start working together.