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What is Follow Up?

Why do some people seem to consistently get more positive results? Why do some people have an almost uncanny ability to close an important sale, get tickets to a sold out event, obtain a reservation at a popular restaurant or get more repeat business from their customer base? The answer isn't magic and it isn't a trick or a tip. People who consistently get better results in life have internalized an important lesson: Being tenacious achieves results. In short, these people are less willing to take no for an answer than people who consistently fail to get positive results out of their activities.

Now tenacity has nothing to do with being pushy or rude or obnoxious. Quite the opposite. Tenacity is all about applying a consistent and even pressure against the obstacle that you face. It is not about rushing in. It is not about destructive force. It is not about crushing the competition. Instead, tenacity is about staying in the picture and the game, not giving up and waiting for the best possible moment to make your case and get the results that you desire. So, where does follow fit into this process?

Well, follow up, in a very real sense, is about not giving up. It's about believing in yourself and what you have to offer and having the tenacity to wait as long as it takes for other to realize this. You see, success is very often about communication. You can't be successful unless you are able to effectively communicate with someone else. Follow up is about keeping the lines of communication open. It's about keeping your foot in the door. Most of all, it's about remaining positive in the face of impassivity.

There's a story about Bono of the Irish rock band U2 that perfectly demonstrates the process and power of the follow up. Before U2 were huge international stars, they were four young Irish kids from the tough streets of Dublin trying to get signed to a record contract. One of the places they were trying to get signed was at Island Records, a company owned by Chris Blackwell. Blackwell had already discovered and signed talents like Bob Marley and Bono was determined that Island Records was the place for U2. Bono had already sent the Island A&R representative a tape of U2 performing, to no good results. The A&R man was noncommittal. So, he decided to go straight to the top and deliver the tape directly to Blackwell himself...over fifteen times.

He would travel from Dublin to London about once a week and stop in at the Island Records headquarters and ask to speak with Blackwell. Each time he brought a copy of the same tape and left it for Blackwell's attention. After some time, the Island staff got to know him by name and to expect his regular visits. After weeks of this, his persistence paid off. Blackwell contacted him and asked him why he was bothering his staff. Within weeks of that conversation U2 were signed to Island Records and the rest is history.

Bono easily could have taken the non-committal A&R man's indifference as a no and left it at that. Instead, he followed up his initial contact with a steady, yet polite, stream of follow-up contacts that, over time, bore spectacular fruit. His tenacity in the face of impassiveness is what allowed him to reach his desired goal, in this case a record contract. This is the essence of the follow up process. If you want to get to where you want to be you have to be prepared to go the extra mile and keep the channels of communication open, even if the other party you're trying to communicate with remains silent. Insistent persistence is what the follow up is all about.

Another excellent example of follow up comes from superstar chef Grant Achatz. Achatz is the owner and head chef of the world renowned, three star Michelin restaurant Alinea, among others. Achatz is known as being at the forefront of the molecular gastronomy revolution in cuisine, and his restaurants regularly are listed as among the best in the world.

However, back in 1996 Achatz was an unemployed 22 year old, recently graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, who had a dream. You see, Achatz wanted to apprentice under Thomas Keller, the famous chef and owner of the French Laundry restaurant in Northern California. Achatz didn't know Keller and had no contacts who knew Keller, but he didn't let that stop him. Every day, for twenty-nine days in a row, he sent his resume to Keller. Finally, on the thirtieth day he received a call from Keller whose first words were "What is wrong with you?" Shortly thereafter, he traveled to California for a tryout. He worked at the French Laundry for four years, rising to the position of sous chef before he left to start Alinea.

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Etiquette

Email is a world filled with unwritten rules and potential pitfalls. Whether you're an email marketer building a list of hungry prospects, or a freelancer looking to cold email potential clients, you need to adhere to basic email etiquette. In this chapter we'll go over what you need to know to stay on the good side of whoever you're emailing.
Don't make it too long

Most of us have, at one point or another, come across a person who seem to write a short novel in each email they send out. These emails require you to take a big chunk out of your today to read and reply, and while that may be fine for personal email, it's not a good idea in a business setting. Imagine getting 4 or 5 of these in a single day, you wouldn't be able to get anything done!

Admittedly it is sometimes completely necessary and justifiable to write longer emails, but taking a couple of minutes to "trim the fat" before sending them out is guaranteed to be appreciated by the recipient.

Note that in the case of newsletters the rules are a little bit different. People are generally more forgiving if those are long because they rarely, if ever, reply to them. It's one-way communication for the most part.

Include a greeting and closing

It's good to make a habit of including a courteous greeting and closing in each email you send. It doesn't have to be very formal, even a simple combo of "Hi !" and "Regards" will do just fine in most situations. Replace the ending with "Thank you" or similar if appropriate. It's usually best to avoid being overly formal as it tends to look odd and out of place nine times out often.

There are exceptions though, of course, and if you know you're in a business where it's expected to keep a high level of formality you should just stick to that.

Use a minimum of HTML formatting

Most email clients are capable of reading and sending email with HTML formatting, but this doesn't mean you should go overboard with it. The reason is that except for the most basic formatting tags (bold, italics and so on), email clients tend to parse and display such emails differently. Point is you cannot be sure that the recipient sees the email as you had intended. If you're unlucky it may just show as an unreadable mess. It can even get caught in some spam filters.

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Why Run an Event?

This is the most basic of planning questions. If you don't know the answer to this one, there is no way that you can pull off organizing a cohesive event for your attendees. You need to quantify in your own mind what goals you have for the event itself. Are you seeking to get increased brand awareness? Are you trying to establish yourself as an expert in your particular field? Are you looking for greater interaction with your customer base or community? As we discussed in the introduction, a business event is an excellent opportunity for you to get valuable face time with your customers and potential customers. So, getting this type of opportunity is a prime reason why any business owner should organize an event.

In addition, it turns out that there are several other benefits associated with a face-to-face event.

First, meeting with customers and potential customers at your own business event is an excellent way of building trust with them. Remember, as a business owner, you have to put yourself into your customer's shoes. By nature, a potential customer is wary. Meeting with them face-to-face allows them to get to know you and to trust you as a person. This bridge of trust between you and your customers is the first step to making a sale. So, if you need a reason why you should run your own business event, increased sales is as good a reason as any.

Second, a business event allows you to get your product or service right into your customer or potential customer's hands. Face it, people like to kick the tires when it comes to any purchase they make. When you run your own business event you give your customers exactly that opportunity. They get to examine what it is you produce or provide. This further reinforces their feeling of trust in your business, which, once again, results in increased sales.

Finally, a business event lets you get personal with your client base. You have an opportunity to hear exactly what they want and desire when it comes to your product line. It also gives you an opportunity to respond directly to those concerns and desires. This type of direct feedback and commentary is invaluable to you as a business owner when it comes to servicing your customer's needs.

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Why it's important

In our daily lives we're constantly bombarded with people and ads telling us what to do, what to think, what to buy. Thankfully we're usually able to filter out information that we deem irrelevant or not trustworthy. We don't listen to just anyone. If a random person on the street told you he's going to invest $10,000 in a specific stock you'd probably wish him good luck and count yourself lucky that you're not the one gambling your money away on the stock market. But, if that person was Warren Buffett you'd probably be on the phone, calling a stock broker two seconds after the conversation ended. Why is that?

It's simple really: Warren Buffett is a Wall Street authority. Over the years he's built a reputation that makes people see him as an expert investor. You know he's the real deal, and if he was to give you a top secret, insider stock tip you'd probably listen to every word he had to say.

The same is true in any other field. The word of a reputable expert is always treated like gold, whether that expert is a plumber, a doctor or a personal development guru. And, it's the person who's put in the effort with personal branding that is most likely to achieve that expert status.

Say you were to launch an SEO marketing firm. Selling your services would be a lot easier if you were well-known and highly regarded within the SEO industry. Who do you think people would rather hire? The guy with 10,000 Twitter followers who consistently delivers ground-breaking SEO case studies, or the "nobody" who's been working quietly behind the scenes for 20 years, never sharing his techniques with anyone?

Even if they're on the same skill level, and have both had major success in their field, it's safe to assume that the first guy is well ahead in terms of authority and therefore much more likely to gain the business of people looking for an SEO expert.