Don't Allow Potential Customers Forget About You ?

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EDITOR'S NOTE: The following article by Tom Kulzer had a major impact on how I do business on the Internet.
      For months now I have been talking about the importance of following up, with prospects to establish a relationship and to close sales.
      I thought I understood the importance of dialogue with potential prospects. I thought I was doing just that. That is until I read the following article.
     Tom has developed a scheduled follow system using not one but up to seven pre-scheduled follow up messages. After reading his article I signed up both as a customer and as a reseller. In two weeks my sales have more than doubled.
     In his article he explains the process so well you can do it without purchasing his system. But if your time is worth anything to you you will want to use the complete follow up program automatically.
      After you read his article below visit the free web page he set up for me and run the free demo. If you sig up for the service from my page let me know, on confirmation I will fun a free 6 line ad in the weekly email newsletter.
             http://www.smithfam.com/autoresponder.html

Do Potential Customers Forget About You ?
By Tom Kulzer

With a web business you probably have customers inquiring about your products or services from around the globe. When you get an inquiry via email or your website you try to rapidly send more information to that hot prospect. By satisfying that person's need for information quickly you can dramatically increase the likely hood of making the sale.

Once you deliver the first bit of information to your prospect do you send any further information?

Most internet marketers do not.

When you don't follow up with additional information you are letting valuable customers slip from your grasp. These are customers that may have been very interested in your products but simply lost your information or were to busy when your first information letter was sent. Some customers even purposely wait to see if you find them important enough to follow up with. When they don't receive a follow up message they take their business else where.

Are you loosing profits due to inconsistent or ineffective follow up?

Follow up is more than just a process, it's an art. To do it effectively you need a system and then you need to stick to that system EVERY DAY! If you don't follow up with prospects consistently and in a timely fashion regarding their INDIVIDUAL information request then you might as well forget the whole process.

Consistent follow up gets results.

When I first started marketing and following up with prospects I used what I call the "list technique". I had a large database of names and email addresses of people that had specifically requested information about my products and services in the past. Since they had already seen my first letter when they made their information request I usually used the latest news from the company for a follow up piece. Once I had my follow up letter written I would send it to everyone that had previously requested information from me. While this gained me a few additional orders it wasn't totally effective. Lets look at why this method is not effective.

It wasn't consistent because I only sent it when the company had "big news".
It didn't give the buyer additional information about my services so they could make an informed buying decision. It merely told them about our latest news. Why should they care if we just moved into Canada when they wanted to use our service in California?
The "big list" mentality. When I wrote the follow up message I was writing a bulletin to everyone, not the individual that made the information request.

OK, so what method have I discovered that really works?

Individual follow up at preset times with pre written messages will dramatically increase your sales. I have spoken with several others who use this same technique and they have all at least doubled their sales of various products. To setup this system you need to do some planning.

First you'll need to develop your follow up messages. If you've been marketing on the internet for any length of time then you should already have your first information letter. Your second letter (or first follow up) should go into more detail than the first letter. Fill in with additional details where you didn't have space to do so in your first letter. Make sure you stress your product or service's BENEFITS.

Your next 2-3 follow up messages should be rather short and stress the benefits. Make lists of benefits and potential uses for your product and services. Write the letters so your prospect can skim the contents and get the full force of your message.

For your last couple of follow up messages you should create a sense of urgency in your prospect's mind. Make a special offer to give them a reason to order now instead of waiting longer. The key is creating urgency so you'll need to look at your product or service and see how you can make your prospect want to order immediately.

The final 1 or 2 follow up messages should be in the form of a question. Ask your prospect why they haven't ordered? Try to get them to respond. Ask if the price was to high, the product wasn't the right color, not the right features, or were they looking for something else. By this time it's unlikely the person will order from you but their feedback could help you modify your follow up letters or product and services so that other prospects will order from you.

The timing of your follow up letters is also important. You don't want to have one prospect receive a follow up the next day when another prospect waited over 3 weeks for a follow up. You should always send the first follow up 24 hours after the information request. You want a hot prospect to have more information quickly so they can make an informed buying decision. The next 2-3 follow up messages should be sent between 1 and 3 days apart. Your prospect is still hot and is probably still shopping around for information. Provide them with the benefits they want and you will make the sale. The final follow up messages should be sent with much more time in between them. You don't want to annoy your prospect so make sure the letters are at least 4 days apart.

TOM KULZER is the creator of AWeber Systems a unique autoresponder system that actually follows up with prospects automatically. To see a demonstration of this technique in action email <mailto:affaweber@aweber.com>or visit our website at http://www.aweber.com Join our FREE Affiliate Program and make a 20% monthly commission on all of your sales!