Rains may not have started in October YET on the West Coast, but water damage can still happen to your phone...

Gulp, ever had that sinking feeling when a glass of water spills on your cell phone, it drops in a puddle or, worse yet, it falls in the toilet!?  (I use my phone in the morning so I know what time it is, and YES, I have texted while getting ready and even used the speaker phone while applying makeup, don’t all of us girls?)

Well, we may just have some great tips here from my friend, Darci LaRocque, Swirl Solutions, who is the queen of all things cellular...

Fiitfu has a couple of new changes for you, our Members to increase your effectiveness in follow up...

Here is to YOUR success!

                  - Team Fiitfu

Take Action Now...

Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes but don't quit.  - Conrad Hilton

Well you did it, you made it through the steps required to ensure that you have a proper follow up plan in place, with this last blog to tie it all together and make it complete.  

Over the last 9 blog entries, we have discussed:

Timing is EVERYTHING!

Wow, last night I went to an eWomen Network in Vancouver, and Kim Duke the Sales Diva was there speaking on Follow Up...  such great timing to check her out and listen to her solidify all the points that I have given to you not only over the last few blog entries, but over the last year on our blog entries! 

Thanks Kim for a great presentation and great tips on follow up!  I wanted to highlight a couple of things that Kim talked about that would fit so perfectly into your follow up plan...

What If I have Screwed up with my Past Clients - Can I call them back?

I get asked all the time, “What if I haven’t spoken to a client in a long time?  I have clients that I know I did terrible customer service with, or prospects that I let fall through the cracks.  Can I call them back?" 

The answer is YES - but under the condition that you do a couple of things.

You only have ONE chance to make a good first impression.  

How much is too much?  

Have you ever been sitting down to dinner and received a call from someone soliciting, or received a call from a sales person that left a message, and you haven’t called them back because it wasn’t high priority at the moment? Next day, they leave you another message, then they call you a number of times (remember we do have call display) and don’t leave a message. They are obviously just trying to catch you at a time that you will pick up the phone!

The First Month Contact Structure

Now that we have some of the foundation together for your Follow Up Plan, lets look at your first contact, and the power of three in the first month.

When you are meeting people and come across someone that could be a possible prospect, or a referral from someone or perhaps even someone that has sourced you out for information on your business, it is important to start the relationship in a way that is non-intrusive, supportive and will prepare the client for your call.

Your first step in the follow up process is to send them off an email just to introduce yourself, remind them how you met, let them know what day they may expect a call from you, and that the purpose of the call will just be to set up a time that you can learn more about their business (or need for your product and service) and to see if your product or service may be a fit for them.  It could look something like this:

Your Database is the Foundation of Your Business.

In Step 2, we talked about two elements to creating an effective follow up plan.  The first of which we talked about in Step 3 - The Importance of Getting to Know Your Clients and Prospects.  Here in Step 4, we are going to cover the importance of effective and organized record keeping.  

One of the downfalls with follow up often comes when sales reps or business owners don’t know what to say when they call a client because they have failed to keep effective records, they don’t have the records handy or they have lost the record of conversation with clients.  Imagine the embarrassment one may feel when a client or prospect calls and you have no idea of who they are!