Simple Formula for Follow Up

Last week was International Networking Week and this year’s theme for 2017 is ‘Follow Up.’

I’m sure you have heard many times - ‘The Fortune’s in the Follow Up’

Are you good at Following Up – with prospects, with clients, with people you meet at networking meetings?

Do you have a system for Follow Up?

Dr. Ivan Misner, the founder of BNI, recently *published a simple formula for follow up.   His formula covers 3 simple follow up strategies.  24/7/30  - He recommends using this formula when you meet someone at a networking meeting – could be a prospective client, a possible referral partner, etc.

So this is how it works: 

24 hours – Drop them a note within the first 24 hours.  Could be a personal handwritten note or an email.  Use whatever approach that works for you and that you will do consistently.  Let them know it was a pleasure meeting them and you hope your paths cross again.  A good system to use is SendOutCards.  Here is a link www.SendingCardsMadeEZ.com

7 Days – Within seven days, connect with them on Social Media, i.e. LinkedIn or Facebook.  Follow them on Twitter or join them on Google+. Find ways to connect and engage with them via the social media platforms you use the most. Do not do this as a way to sell to them. Do it as a way to start establishing a meaningful connection with them.

30 days – Within 30 days reach out and set up a One-2-One meeting.  If you live near each other, meet in person. If you are far away from one another, set up a meeting via Skype or Zoom or by phone.  

Here’s a script that I have found to help in getting people to want to meet with me – ‘Hi Gail, your business sounds very interesting. I would love to meet with you and learn more so that I can be a good referral source for you.”

Now, do you think Gail is going to turn me down.  No, she will be more than willing to meet because I want to learn how to be a good referral source for her.

At this meeting, find out more about what they do, and look for ways to help them in some way. Don’t make it a sales call; make it a relationship-building opportunity.  Think in terms of being a ‘farmer’ and planting seeds that are going to mature into many referral opportunities, rather being a ‘hunter’ and bagging one prospect at a time.

By Using this 24/7/30 formula to follow up, you will establish a powerful routine that will help you to make your networking efforts meaningful and successful. 

Use technology (or whatever works for you) to help remind you to follow up at the appropriate intervals. After you send the first note or e-mail, set up reminders on your phone or calendar to follow up at one week and one month out.

And one last point that I would like to add to Dr. Misner’s formula, which I think is the ‘Secret Sauce,’ is to ‘Keep in Touch’  In order to build that long-term relationship you have to ‘Keep in Touch.’  And a ‘Keep in Touch’ strategy can be as individual as you are, i.e. social media, email, phone calls, snail mail, etc.  Whatever works for you.  Just keep ‘Keep in Touch’ so that you are ‘Top of Mind’ when that person needs your services or knows someone who does.

I hope you found this information helpful.  Your comments are welcomed and appreciated. 

Happy Connecting,

Annette

Painted Lady Enterprises

'Help You and Your Business Look Good'

 *Link to Dr. Ivan Misner's article on Follow up

Organizing Your Marketing for the New Year

The New Year typically brings on new resolutions and goals both personally as well as for our business.  But as with any goal, in order to stick with it and achieve it, we must have a plan in mind.  According to SmartSimple Marketing, the first step in making a plan is to de-clutter and organize our mind.  We need to focus and get pass our mental blocks and clearly define our goals, what we want the end result to be, and what action steps are needed to achieve our goals.

The new year brings on the opportunity to get rid of the old and begin the new, i.e. new goals, new plan, new actions, new thought process.  Reviewing what worked, what didn’t work, where improvements are needed and what new ideas and strategies we need to put in place.  Get rid of the notion, well I tried that and it didn’t work.  Sometimes it’s not that it didn’t work, maybe we didn’t implement correctly and with a little tweaking, it becomes a great idea/strategy/action.

One of the things I tell my clients is, you have to be persistent and consistent.  Oftentimes I see business owners try something new, but because it didn’t have instant results, the idea/action was dropped and they were on to something else or gave up all together.  Relationship marketing takes time.  Yes, sometimes there is ‘Love at First Sight,’ but it’s rare.  Relationships whether personal or business take time.  It takes time to get to know, like, and trust someone before you refer to them or buy from them.  In being persistent and consistent in our marketing, we are saying to our clients as well as our prospects that we are reliable and trustworthy.  That we are going to be around awhile. 

One of the best ways to get organized with our marketing is to write everything down, especially if we have a million ideas running through our mind.  Make a list of ideas, evaluate how much time and money each with take.  Whether you can do it yourself, or would it make more sense to outsource.  Keep all ideas in one place and as you take action, record the results, i.e. what worked, what didn’t, etc.  Does the idea/action need more time, does it need to be changed, tweaked, etc.  Remember the saying the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same actions over and over and expecting different results. 

Now is a good time to devise a marketing plan for the year. 

Here are some ideas to consider.  These can be used for social media, blogs, newsletters, special offers, etc.

• Depending on your business, you might think about a theme a month.  Refer to an online calendar like Brownielocks.com  to find ideas that are appropriate for your business.  For example:  January is ‘Get Organized Month.’

• Write down all your ideas and organize as appropriate.  Use a notebook and/or online document like Evernote, but keep everything together in one place in order to reference when needed.

• Go ahead and research and write your content for your blogs and newsletters.  Oftentimes when I start writing about one subject, several others seem to spawn.  Rather than trying to do a brain dump with one article, divide the material into smaller ‘bite size’ pieces.  If you’re doing video, 3 to 5 minute segments are suggested.  Same with written articles.

• Schedule posts to social media when possible.  Link social media accounts to cut down on time spent posting.  There are also social media scheduling tools where all social media posting can be done from one place, i.e. Hootsuite, Buffer, SocialOomph, etc. 

• Be prepared to be flexible.  You may have something come up that is more relevant.  Something may happen or be trending in the news that triggers an idea.  Adjust your plan and actions accordingly.

• Track your progress and results against your plan, re-evaluate and keep moving forward being persistent and consistent.

How do we achieve our resolutions and goals? 

-        - Get organized

-        - Make a Plan

-        - Take Action

-        - Be Persistent and Consistent

-        - Be Flexible

-        - Track our results

-        - Rinse and Repeat

      We would love to hear about your plans for marketing for the new year.  Your feedback and comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Happy Marketing,

Annette

Virtual Assistant

Painted Lady Enterprises

Tips for a Stress-Free Christmas

From Woman's Day

It's the most wonderful time of the year-but also one of the most stressful! Make the season more enjoyable by stopping stress in its tracks with these 31 expert tips.

Here are five.  Click the link below to view the entire list.

- Make a change. Take one task that drives you crazy during the holidays and tackle it in a new way. A fresh approach just might make a difference. For example, if you dread having to send out holiday cards, enlist your husband and split the list.

 - "Don't always go for bigger and better," when planning your holiday, advises Loretta LaRoche, author of Life Is Not a Stress Rehearsal. "Does the tree have to be bussed in from the hinterlands of Alaska?" she quips. "Isn't a little bush enough?"

- That massive pile of holiday cards needs to get mailed ASAP, but just the thought of it gives you writer's cramp? "Refocus on what's most important to you," says life coach Linda Hedberg. "If you're overwhelmed with dozens of cards to send out, ask yourself, Which are the 10 most important ones?" Send those and put the rest on the back burner. Or just send cards electronically with a service like SendOutCards to everyone on your list. Bonus: It's eco-friendly!

- Donna Wallace of Shawano, Wisconsin, found that adding, rather than deleting, something from her to-do list made her Christmas feel less hectic. One year, she joined her church choir for the express purpose of singing with others in praise and celebration of the season. "It grounds you to acknowledge the spiritual side," says Donna.

- As you take part in trimming the tree or preparing the Christmas or Chanukah cookies with your kids, take a deep breath and savor the moment. Give yourself permission to forget about all those tasks still left on your to-do list.

Click Here to read the entire article and read all 31 tips. 

 
Your comments are welcomed and appreciated.  

Wishing You and Yours a Very Merry Christmas and a Very Happy Prosperous New Year,

Annette

Painted Lady Enterprises

'Helping You and Your Business Look Good'

 

  Your comments and feedback and welcomed and appreciated. You may also provide feedback on our Facebook page

Thanksgiving Gratitude

It is said that in order to receive, we must be thankful for what we already have.  Not just at Thanksgiving, but all year long.  I came across an article published by Forbes by Neale Godfrey that says that people who have an 'Attitude of Gratitude' tend to be happier, healthier, and live longer.

Here are some highlights from the article that I found most interesting....

Gratitude can be taught and we can live it by example.  It’s even healthy for us and may counterbalance the damaging health effects of our overindulgence all year long, especially at Thanksgiving.  If we can extend the “thankful” part of our lives beyond “turkey day," we may be happier, less stressed, and around to see many more turkey days with our loved ones. 

“Throughout history, philosophers and religious leaders have extolled gratitude as a virtue integral to health and well-being.  Now, through a recent movement called positive psychology, mental health professionals are taking a close look at how virtues such as gratitude can benefit our health. And they are reaping positive results... Grateful people take better care of themselves and engage in more protective health behaviors like regular exercise, a healthy diet, [and] regular physical examinations.”

Gratitude research is suggesting that feelings of thankfulness have a positive value in helping people cope with daily stressors at home and at work.   Think about it.  If you are grateful, you are probably more optimistic and that is a “... characteristic that researchers say boosts the immune system.  A report from The University of Queensland in Australia also supports the findings that, “A positive attitude can improve your immune system and may help you live longer.”

So let us carry our Thanksgiving gratitude throughout the whole year.

Wishing you and your family a Very Happy Thanksgiving.

Click here to read the entire article. 

 
Your comments are welcomed and appreciated. 

Happy Thanksgiving,
Annette
Painted Lady Enterprises

'Helping You and Your Business Look Good'