You Have to Start with 10 No’s – Secrets to Following Up with Ease
I often meet entrepreneurs who are undercharging and undervaluing themselves. And to make it worse, in a lot of cases, they just aren’t following up with leads to begin with.
When I ask them why, they give me a myriad of very real reasons why they just can’t seem to follow-up with their leads. Here’s a couple of the most common reasons:
1. I need to have a perfect website before I can reach out or follow up with others.
2. I need to have the perfect script or conversation worked out so I know exactly what to do.
3. I need to have all of my offerings, programs and prices in perfect order before I can follow up.
4. I need to do things in a certain order and follow-up comes after organizing the office and creating client folders and…
5. I’m too new, inexperienced, under-qualified and they are just going to say no anyways.
6. I’m just plain afraid of rejection.
If you find yourself saying any of these reasons to yourself or out-loud, then this is an article you’ll want to print out and keep near your desk. It will help you move past these “reasons” (really excuses) and move into earning the money and receiving the clients that you so dearly deserve.
Let’s work through these reasons one by one.
1. I need to have a perfect website before I can reach out or follow up with others.
This is simply not true. I know all of you perfectionists are shaking your head with disdain, but I filled my first Revenue Breakthrough 12-month program without having a website up. Yes, it’s great to begin working on one and yes you’ll need one eventually. But the heart of getting clients really lies in selling. If you can have a conversation with someone and really bond with her – she will buy your services and she probably won’t even remember that she never looked at your website.
I encourage my clients to get out there and start networking and doing initial sessions long before they begin to build their websites. Usually the interaction with potential clients changes their visions of their website anyways. They begin to build their websites once they sign their first clients and money starts flowing in.
2. I need to have the perfect script or conversation worked out so I know exactly what to do.
Yes, you should prepare but for an hour or two, not for a day or even a week. Look at their websites. Research the best you can. But know that perfection isn’t going to happen. Most of the information that you learn about your perspective client or organization will come from you sitting in front of them. And you probably are going to need to improvise a little, but that’s all part of the fun. The training is in the doing on this one.
3. I need to have all of my offerings, programs and prices in perfect order before I can follow up.
You should have a basic offering that you think will work. Then if you get into a conversation with your client and you realize that your basic offering isn’t right, you can always say, “Let me take the information I’ve learned here with you and create a program that would work best for you. Why don’t we set up a time to speak again and we can go over the program in detail at that time.” This works especially well if you are a consultant and every client is different.
4. I need to do things in a certain order and follow-up comes after organizing the office and creating client folders and…
Somewhere deep inside, you know you are just hiding. The most important thing you could be doing for yourself and your business is doing follow-up. Revenue-Generating tasks always have the most importance. Once you bring the money in you can hire someone else to organize your office and arrange the client folders.
5. I’m too new, inexperienced, under-qualified and they are just going to say no anyways.
Here’s the kicker. Yes, many of them will say No. In fact, you are going to hear No’s before you get Yes’s. But you have to wade through the No’s to get to a Yes. Never be afraid of a No. It only brings you closer to a Yes.
6. I’m just plain afraid of rejection.
Ah. We’ve finally gotten to it. The truth that has been hiding behind all of the above reason. The good old fear of rejection. We all have it. The difference is that some of us choose to work with it, while others avoid it. Here’s an experiment that I do with my clients who have just raised their prices. I tell them to go and get 10 people to reject them. Yes, get 10 people to say no. This experiment allows you to accept the possibility that rejection can and will happen and when it does, it won’t kill you. Instead, you’ll just move on to the next person. Try it. Let me know how it works for you.
Honestly, following up with your leads is a task that you may never love. But if you follow up enough – you’ll begin to experience success. You’ll sign new clients! And once you taste that success, you’ll want more follow-up. And then – voila, it gets easier!
