Follow Up with EVERY Contact
I'm all about business hacks, shortcuts, software, and apps to help you in business! When I talk to my entrepreneur clients, one of the biggest problems is they go to all these networking events or meetings (which I highly recommend) and collect a massive stack of business cards or have an ongoing copied list of contacts.
Obviously, the goal is not to collect as many business cards as you can. It's all about making connections. Along the way, you collect business cards or flyers or magnets. That's a way to keep in touch, right? Simple stuff. But what do you do with this plethora of contact information?
What you want to do is start communicating right away with those that you just connected with.
You have their business card. Before you forget about it, the first thing you need to do is capture the most important part: the contact information. Ideally, you connect with someone within two hours of a face-to-face (or Zoom) meeting, two days for an email, and then again in two weeks if you haven’t heard back.
If you can stick with that, as far as follow up, that's great!
My go-to thing is my lead nurturing process. When I have a networking event, I make time that day to take the contact info and enter them into my CRM right away. That doesn't mean I can start sending them my newsletter or other info like that – but I do send them an initial email or text to stay in touch. I'll get back to that in a minute.
There are three really great apps to collect business card information: CamCard, CamScanner, and Keap. They scan your business card and put the information into a list for you. Now, that does need to be linked to your CRM which I highly recommend.
CamScanner is multi-purpose. Personally, my team uses this for all kinds of documents. It basically takes a picture of the document and you can manipulate the file, then you can send the information or upload it to the cloud.
The follow up should be simple, right? It should be a template you can create ahead of time. For your ongoing networking, you have it ready to go as a canned email or text message.
Now, this is the thing — a lot of people swear by email. A lot of my clients do and feel that it's a great way to communicate. Then, there's the house divided that feel texting is the best way to communicate because people are more likely to text you back.
A third option is to connect via social media messaging. It’s ultimately up to you, but connect with them where they already are. Whatever's on the card is usually your best bet.
Next, you’ll need a canned response or initial communication, like:
Hi again [NAME],
It was great chatting with you at the conference this week! I'd love to continue the conversation we had about [TOPIC] and hear more about your business.
[ASK A QUESTION]
Have a great day!
[YOUR NAME]
So the last part is putting the two together. If you have a CRM or software that utilizes tags or smart fields (Dubsado, High Level, Honeybook, Hubspot, Kajabi, Zoho to name a few) you will set up a trigger that:
IF ‘THIS’ HAPPENS (ADD A SPECIFIC TAG) === THEN === ‘THAT’ HAPPENS (SEND A CUSTOM EMAIL OR TEXT)
It can be very simple. Because there are going to be contacts where maybe you don't connect business-wise or even personally. Not everyone will be your ideal client.
But you never know who might refer you for some information to someone or for new business.
And again, if you link your CRM to your contact info, it can be a seamless thing.
I want to also talk about repeat business. For most business owners, it doesn't end with a sale, right? It's an ongoing process of lead generation, business development, relationship building, and sales. Then, you onboard a client or customer. And there's all of that all the way up to archiving the project or sale.
But even then, you continue connecting with them, because our BEST customers are our past customers who have become fans, right? In fact, I found some data that says, the probability of selling to an existing or past customer is 60% to 70%, compared with 5% to 20% percent for new prospects.
So get going, capture those contacts, and start your first lead generation automation!