Prospect: "Absolutely. Give me five of the very best that you have, with all of the fixings. Here is my credit card. I will be sending you 10 referrals on tomorrow."
In an ideal world, every interaction that takes place between individuals serving in the direct sales industry and their prospects would end this way. Unfortunately, we are not living in an ideal world, and the fact of the matter is that the majority of our new customers, and/or business partners will not join our opportunities following the initial presentation. Thus, it is of utmost importance that we quickly establish a system for following up with the individuals who have attended our hotel parties, house parties, PBR's, etc, without taking action.
The most important thing to understand here, is that when it comes to direct sales, "NO" usually means "NOT NOW." There are a vast number of methods that we can use to go about following up with the prospects that we are looking to add to our networks. For the purposes of this post, I would like to elaborate on the importance of utilizing each of the following methods: the telephone, email marketing campaigns, and word-of-mouth advertising.
Telephone
Consistency is the key in matters concerning business follow-up. Establish a time period that you would like to implement for following up with individuals who have attended one of your business presentations, and try to stick with this same time period each time that you schedule your follow-up calls. A good rule of thumb, would be to follow up with every prospect within 48 hours of your business meeting.
I stress this 48 hour window, because your prospect (s) will still be excited about the information presented at your business meeting, and the information that was presented will still be fresh at this point. This initial follow-up call, should be very informal and relaxed, and you may even want to create a script that you can use with each follow-up call.
This is not a pressure phone call. The purpose of this call is to simply thank your prospect for showing up to your meeting, and to keep your opportunity fresh in the minds of your prospects until they have reached a purchasing decision. Once this initial phone call has been made, it would be most effective if future follow-up calls could be limited to once every other week. It would benefit your business a great deal, if you could prepare follow-up scripts, so that you know exactly what needs to be said, prior to your prospect picking up the phone.
Email Marketing Campaign
One of the most valuable tools that one can use in the business of direct sales, would be the email marketing campaign. Create a visitor's sign-in sheet for each of your business meetings, and leave spots on this sign-in sheet for phone numbers, as well as email addresses. You will then be in position to transfer this valuable information to a mailing list, which can be used to initiate an email marketing campaign.
There are direct sales companies that will already have these software programs in place for all new business partners. However, if your company does not offer the ability to create email marketing campaigns, you can easily look these opportunities up on the internet. The idea here is to create an email campaign that sends newsletters out to each of your prospects every few days or so, depending upon the settings that you choose for each individual campaign.
Each prospect will have the ability to unsubscribe from your email marketing list, but for those who choose to remain, your email marketing campaign will be a very effective way of keeping your opportunity fresh in the minds of prospects, and also for providing additional information about your opportunity that may have been missed at your business meeting. If you have not done this yet, be sure to take action immediately to begin to utilize email marketing.
Word-of-Mouth
We each have this innate desire to belong to something. No one wants to miss out on the ACTION. Thus, one of the most powerful methods of follow-up that you can use in your direct sales business, is to create powerful testimonies, involving the products, and/or services that you offer, and to then use these testimonies to reach out to the friends of friends that have been exposed to your opportunity.
Example: Lisa and Jenny attend your business meeting together, to hear about your weight loss product. Lisa takes action, and joins on the spot. Jenny is a bit of a skeptic, and so she walks away without making a purchasing decision. Two weeks later, you receive a message on Facebook from Lisa. Lisa is jumping out of her SEAT with excitement, because she has already dropped 8lbs on your product! This would be an EXCELLENT time to have Lisa contact Jenny to share her PERSONAL experience with your product.
What are the chances of Jenny receiving this phone call from Lisa, and remaining doubtful about the effectiveness of your products? The answer is SLIM & NONE, unless Jenny is simply DUMB & DUMBER! Pardon the movie reference there, but I'm sure that you're clearly understanding my point. Word-of-mouth advertising is POWERFUL, and it would be WISE of you to use this to your benefit!
Follow up with the customers who have joined your opportunity. Look for feedback, and customer reviews on the products, and/or services that you offer. EVERY SINGLE TIME that you receive a positive story that involves positive results with the products or services that you offer, IMMEDIATELY request to have these individuals share these stories with others who have attended your presentations without joining.
Conclusion
This is obviously just the tip of the iceberg. I could literally write an endless document on methods to be used for following up, follow-up scripts, etc. However, for the sake of longevity, I would like to encourage you to perform your own research to discover effective follow-up techniques. You would be amazed to know of the number of times I have been "rejected" by prospects, only to have them end up purchasing my products weeks and months after attending my business meetings.
There are a variety of reasons as to why a prospect would postpone joining your opportunity until a future date. These reasons may include: a lack of funds, skepticism regarding the effectiveness of your products, lack of information, etc. Your job as a direct sales representative is not to analyze the reasons behind these delayed purchases. Your focus simply needs to be on CONSISTENTLY following up with each prospect until a FINAL decision has been made with regards to your product.
I certainly do hope that this information has been of some benefit to you. Again, I would encourage you to continue to study the "art" of following up with prospects. There are literally thousands of articles on the internet regarding this topic, and you can also pick up books from your local library. The GREATS in ANY sales based business EXCEL in the area of follow-up. Blessings.
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