3 Time-Saving Tips for Following Up With Your Leads

Do you have leads that you have yet to follow up with? Do you have a stack of business cards or a database full of leads just waiting for you to call them? It’s been said that your fortune is in your follow-up, so how are you doing with following up and following through with this essential business building activity? Most busy moms struggle with finding the time to call prospects because often they’re swallowed up most often during the day caring for their children and other performing other family commitments. And most often they’re too tired to make calls at night (not to mention that most of their prospects are either not available or don’t want to be contacted past a certain time), so how do you work through this dilemma and begin to experience success with this critical skill?
I’ve included a list of three suggestions to help you succeed with your follow up so you can stop feeling guilty about being negligent to perform the one activity that has the most impact on your business’ bottom line.
- Plan your reach-out efforts: This is a critical first step in succeeding with your follow-up. Ask yourself who you need to reach out to and for what reason before you even sit down to perform the task. This is best done the night before, especially since you will be limited in how much follow-up you can do in the evenings. I recommend you make calls during the day when you have the most energy and opportunity to actually make contact with your leads and prospects. If you make your calls during the day, then it’s important to put your list together the night before so that when you have the opportunity to call them the next day, you can jump right into it and get much better results.
- Set aside 30-60 minute time intervals to make your calls: Sometimes, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the task of following up with our leads and prospects. Because our list can be quite extensive, we think that it will take multiples of hours to make the calls we need to complete. My recommendation is to only set aside 30-60 minute intervals to make your calls, and do only one or two of these sessions each day. In total, you may end up with 30 minutes to an hour of calls, but the key is that you’re being systematic in your activity, and working your way diligently down the follow-up road. This will also allow you the time to be with your children throughout the day, and can feel more relax when spending time with them. This will be HUGE for your bottom line, and you’ll feel so much better about yourself and your business when you have a systematic way of following up with your leads. The Key is creating the habit.
- Minimize distractions while making calls: This means that your follow-up time has to be prioritized at the top of your list of business activity each and every day. It’s essential that you choose the most ideal times to schedule your calls. There typically are brief lulls of activity whereby you can get this work done. Nap time is probably the best time to follow-up, in addition to times when your children are otherwise purposefully preoccupied such as when educational programming is being watched, or when family members are home to help care for the kids while you make your calls.
I hope this is helpful, and if you ever need help implementing any or all of these tips, please don’t hesitate to ask. Remember, I’m always here for you!