When was the last time you followed up with your book of business? I’ll bet you’re thinking “way too long!” The lack of follow up is the #1 problem for all salespeople, Realtors included. You are not following up with your clients enough. Let’s explore:

 

• Why follow up is so important
• The causes of not following up
• Three ways get into the habit of following up

 

Why is follow up so important?

Most basic sales process goes: Prospect > Rapport > Consult > Provide Solution > Close. What happens after the close? Do you just dump the client like a bad boyfriend or girlfriend? NO!

Follow up gives you REFERRALS! And referrals are more money!

But follow up isn’t only reserved for the end of the sales process, follow up happens throughout the cycle. Follow up happens after you  first meet a client, sent an email, or made a call. Follow up solicits feedback, options, provides reassurance, confidence, and uncovers problems that you can address and overcome.

Follow up keeps the communication lines ‘alive’ and flowing. The more you communicate between the client and yourself the closer you get to closing the deal.

 

Why don’t you have an iron clad follow up?

Complacency. We just get complacent. Come on, you made your money already, why spend another 10 minutes on the phone with the client, it’s not like you’re going to increase your paycheck? Who cares, that client probably won’t send me a referral anyway… sound familiar?

Complacency is the devil of sales; the worst addiction you can ever have. Get over it and you’ll be drunk with referrals.

 

Here are three ways you can start improving you follow up

1. Make a call RIGHT NOW! Yes, you heard me right. CALL RIGHT NOW! Just pick up the phone and call your last client and say,

“Hi, just wanted to follow up with you and see how things are going! How are you?” Do it now and come back to this article (don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere… make the call!)

Look, follow up can’t wait. If you did make the call welcome to the millionaires club! The hardest part for anyone is STARTING. Realtors think too much. They think themselves out of business. So, if you didn’t make the call like I said, here is your second chance… make the call!

 

2. Set your routine and time. What is the one thing you do every day? Go to the gym? Eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner? And what time do you typically do so? What happens when you skip it? Do you feel off balance, weird, or unaccomplished? Why? It’s because you built a routine around it that your body just naturally does on a day to day basis. Now it’s time to do the same for your follow up.

Don’t get to ahead of yourself young jedi… start with 2 tasks: email and phone. In the morning, just after breakfast, jump on the computer and email only ONE client with the following:

Hi (John); it’s (your name)… just wanted send you a quick note to see how you’re doing. I hope all is well. Keep in touch.

(your email signature)

Easy enough? It’s a quick simple to the point email without any fluff for bologna.

Next, at the tail end of lunch, I’d say about 12:53PM, make ONE phone call to that same client you emailed earlier. This time say something to the effect of:

“Hey (John), it’s (your name)… I just wanted to say ‘hi’ and see how you’re doing. How are you?”

Why at the end of lunch? Well most people are fat and happy at that time and don’t really want to go back to work, so you’re the hero by giving them an excuse to take an extra 2-3 minute extended lunch break.

Of course, if you get an response on your first email then you’ll adjust this script accordingly, but the point is, you want to always place a voice to your emails. Don’t skip the call… make it even if you get a response.

 

3. Build your follow up roster. Open that address book or dig through your client files. Your task is to make ONE list only. Gather all your previous clients’ information. You only need name phone and email. Put them in order starting with the most recent. Now print this list (if you are using the computer of course).

Since you will be starting your follow up tomorrow (right?), tonight before you go to bed, sit down and look at this list. Look at who you are going to email and call tomorrow morning and mentally prepare for it. Maybe imagine how the conversation will go.

After tomorrow, cross client #1 off the list and prepare for client #2.

That’s it! Tomorrow is day 1 of your complacency sobriety! Now, I specifically request you to do ONE action. One email, One call, One list. This is by design: it’s easy. Don’t get ahead of yourself and follow up with 2 people or make multiple lists. The point here is to build a routine. So one step at a time. As you get better at follow up and hit your stride, you can start to add more layers.

Building your follow up routine is good for business and essential for marketing. You use these the script templates to get started. Soon your #1 problem would not be follow up, but how to handle all these referrals! And that’s a good problem to have =)