When Not to Follow Up
Posted February 7, 2011 in Getting Clients
Following up on leads is crucial for your freelancing business. Indeed, many freelancers lose business because they fail to follow up.
I definitely don’t want to diminish the importance of following up on your business leads. In most cases, any time that you make contact with an interested prospect you should definitely take that next step and follow through with the lead.
However, occasionally follow up can be over done or done incorrectly. In these situations, being overzealous can actually hurt your freelancing business. Here are some instances when it is inappropriate to follow up.
When You’ve Been Asked to Stop
There’s nothing more annoying than someone who continues to contact you after you’ve asked them to stop.
At least once a week a well-known phone service provider calls our home number and tries to persuade us to switch Internet providers, despite the fact that we’ve told them to stop. We are completely satisfied with our current service, as my husband has explained repeatedly.
Yet, they continue to call. I am sure that they think they are following up with us, but what they are actually doing is annoying us and invading our privacy.
If someone has opted out of receiving email marketing materials or has asked you to stop contacting you, you need to honor that. Not doing so is not only bad business, in some cases it may be against the law.
When You Haven’t Done Your Homework
Fairly often, I’m contacted by someone who I’ve never heard of who wants to sell me a product or services that I have no interest in and no need for. It’s important to learn as much as you can about your prospects. One size definitely does not fit all.
If I respond to these one of these “follow up” contacts, it quickly becomes evident that the person contacting me hasn’t done their homework. Despite the fact that my freelancing business is promoted online and I often discuss my business openly, these marketers seem to know very little about my business.
Just a few minutes spent reading several of my blog posts would be enough to tell them a little bit about my business, yet their contact makes it evident that they haven’t even bothered to do this.
If you want to sell your freelancing services to an individual or an organization, take the time to do your homework and really learn what their needs are before you contact them.
When You Are Really Cold Calling
There’s no doubt that cold calling works well for some freelancers. When handled well, cold calls can sometimes lead to new freelancing clients.
But, if you are cold calling someone, don’t pretend that you are following up with them or that they should somehow know you already or that you have already met somewhere. Nothing turns me (and probably also your prospective client) off more than insincerity or feigned familiarity.
Instead, be positive, friendly, and upfront about your business opportunity when you make your initial contact. Remember that your first contact with a prospect can set the tone for any future relationship. So, be honest and sincere.
Handling Your Leads the Right Way
Instead of making these mistakes, you can learn to handle your prospective client leads the right way. The following points will help:
- Identify your ideal client and project. This will help you determine which leads are the strongest.
- Respond quickly and courteously to all requests for information. Having a plan to do so will help keep potential clients from slipping through the cracks.
- Really listen to what your prospect has to say. Listening is an important part of customer relations, and unfortunately, it is a skill that many people do not have in today’s marketplace.
- Make sure that you have a high quality portfolio and references ready to go. Knowing that you’ve already done similar work and done it well is very persuasive.
Doing things the right way instead of the easy way is the best way to get repeat business and referrals.
What About You?
Are you careful about the way you follow up on leads, or do you take a “one size fits all” approach? Have you ever botched a prospect follow up? What advice would you add?
Share your answers in the comments.
Related posts:
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- Open Thread: How Do You Choose Who to Follow or Friend on Social Media Sites?
- 11+ Tips You Can Follow to Increase Site Traffic
- People to follow on Twitter for design resources
- How to Land More Projects with Smarter Follow-Up Steps
About the author: Laura Spencer is a freelance writer from North Central Texas with over 20 years of professional business writing experience. If you liked this post, then you may also enjoy Laura’s blog about her freelance writing experiences, WritingThoughts. Laura is also on Google+.
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27 Comments
Samar
February 7th, 2011 at 8:47 amCold calling and following up are both tricky. You can end up giving the wrong impression if you’re not careful.
The trick with cold calling is that you have to do your homework and focus on the prospects. Let them know you’re aware of their business strength and weaknesses and then work your way around to showing them how you can help them.
With a follow up, it doesn’t always have to be ‘Do you need a freelancer now?’. Send them a report or article or any thing that you know they will find helpful. Connect your last conversation with them to this one. Something as simple as:
‘I was readng this report and remembered that you mentioned concentrating on xyz aspect of your business when we last talked. Since this report addresses the same issues, I thought you might find this helpful.’
Compell the prospect to think of you as a valuable contact instead of just another freelancer pitching his services.
Laura Spencer
February 7th, 2011 at 8:53 amThanks Samar!
What you say is very true. :) Following up doesn’t have to be selling–it’s really a matter of keeping your name in front of the prospect. However, sometimes a “prospect” wishes to opt out of even that.
As you point out, it can be tricky. I think even a lot of seasoned sales professionals get this wrong.
Vivek Parmar
February 7th, 2011 at 9:03 amfollowing-up is necessary because a single client can offer you lots of clients. It works in a chain. The only thing you have to make sure that you know your strong areas and no one is ale to dominate you in that niche
Laura Spencer
February 7th, 2011 at 9:13 amVivek–I agree with you. Following up is definitely necessary. However, not every type of marketing should be treated like followup. As Samar points out, when you do follow up it needs to be done with sensitivity and respect for the customer.
paul de wouters
February 7th, 2011 at 12:49 pmI was recently contacted about some work, but I got no reply when I followed up with the prospect. I sent another message just in case, but now I’m hesitant to contact them a third time.
Christina
February 7th, 2011 at 1:47 pmCold calling works best for me. I get told frequently that I can sell snowto an Eskimo. One of my first cold calls back in the early 90s landed me a celebrity client by accident. I think some people have a knack and some don’t.
Laura Spencer
February 7th, 2011 at 3:35 pmPaul de wouters–Odd thing sometimes do happen with client contacts. Are you following up by phone or email?
Christina, I think that there ARE natural sales people. You’re definitely right about that. :) However, the rest of us will have to learn what we can and work on our sales skills…
Bogdan Pop
February 7th, 2011 at 5:06 pmHow about stop to follow up when the contact is unresponsive. For example, I’ve had a couple of people interested in service A. Had phone conversations with them, explained and detailed a bit the offer and closed the phone call with an agreement we should hear soon from each other in order to sign the contract and get the service running.
But then, the contact hasn’t responded for days. I contacted them, they didn’t act surprised or unaware of what’s happening. It was just they weren’t ready to start the project. Another week, another call, same answer.
Now, if a potential client has that much interest in his/hers own project, you may move forward and never look back or have any regrets.
paul de wouters
February 7th, 2011 at 6:20 pm@Laura, it’s through linkedin messages
Impulse Magazine
February 7th, 2011 at 9:19 pmI try to follow-up with my customers at all cost just so i can know if it is an area that I need to improve on.
TLC
February 7th, 2011 at 9:56 pmLike Bogdan, my concern is when to quit following up. I did a full proposal for a prospect, followed up by 3-4 emails and another 3 phone calls. No messages were returned.
A salesman once told me he follows up only 3 times. If people don’t return calls or emails, he leaves a message that says something like this: “Wow, it’s great that you’re so busy you don’t have time to call back. I’m glad your business is going so well. If you decide you’d like to move ahead, please give me a call back.”
So I’ve adapted this rule and it’s saved me some time.
Laura Spencer
February 7th, 2011 at 11:04 pmPaul–I would say if it’s LinkedIn messaging and you’ve tried several times, they may have lost interest. If you have a newsletter, or some regular way of staying in touch with your clients prospects you could always offer it to them just to keep your name in front of them. But sometimes projects just evaporate. :)
TLC, Actually, that does sound like fairly good advice. As long as the 3 contacts are timely, that’s probably adequate for most instances.
Issa @ Ajeva
February 8th, 2011 at 2:32 amI think that the worse thing one can do when following up is sending a canned message and sending them to the wrong recipient. Lesson learned. I think that twice is okay for a follow-up, but more than that, you just simply need to move on. Besides, when someone closes the door of opportunity and slams it hard on your face – there’s always an open window, and sometimes, you’ll find a much better client/project than what you’re chasing right now.Thanks for the awesome tips!
Bjarte Edvardsen
February 8th, 2011 at 2:56 amWhen following up way too late it’s best not to pretend they should remember you from when you spoke to them last time. Safer to assume they’ve forgotten about you, and take it as a bonus if they start remembering :)
angelee
February 8th, 2011 at 5:56 amI remember a prospect client before. We had a positive conversation with him in tweaking his website to integrate an e-commerce. Though he sounded so interested, his decisions weren’t sure because of the budget constraint. If I remember, I sent him quite a few follow-up emails. I was asked to do call calling but apparently we stopped when he became unresponsive. Same with the @Bogdan’s case!….
Some Design Blog
February 8th, 2011 at 11:30 amIt sounds like a lot of commenters have had the problem of someone contacting them about work, then not responding to their followups. I’ve definitely been there. As a rule, I’ll only try following up with those people so many times. How many depends on the client/project, but in the range of 1-3 times. Ultimately, you start to learn the warning signs of time wasters, and learn what questions to ask to identify them early.
Laura Spencer
February 8th, 2011 at 11:42 amIt’s also important to remember that some folks who contact you about work aren’t serious prospects. They may be tire kickers who simply can’t afford to hire anyone. Or, they might even be your competition trying to determine what your rates are. :(
Of course, when someone contacts me about work, I always take it seriously and follow up. However, I think the “disappearing prospect” syndrome is pretty common.
Chanelle Henry
February 8th, 2011 at 12:37 pmReally informative post! I often battle with trying to figure out the best way to “slip in”. I usually do so with cold “emails” as I feel they are less invasive, but sometimes struggle with a feeling that it may not have gotten to them or it be in their SPAM folder so I always try to email about 3 times before just totally letting up. Sometimes when I think I’m being a pest, I’m actually being a reminder as a lot of people are usually busy and forget to write me back as they usually explain, and are thankful that I was “persistent”. There is always a thin line though between persistence and annoyance.. lol
Cold calling I’ve always been afraid to do, I’d rather walk into an agency before calling (which I’ve done on a couple occasions.. ), and it turned out to be a fun experience but I could tell there is always a shock value when that happens.
At any rate, it seems like finding the perfect balance of contact and knowing what to say, being personable and friendly has to be the perfect recipe. Its definitely a fun journey, and I’m learning each day about myself!
GraphicDesignBoss
February 8th, 2011 at 11:10 pmG’day Laura, great post.
Being sensitive and emotionally aware of where your prospective client is at is vital to seizing the right moment to get the job.
Last week, I met my neighbour who is starting his own business and I was dying to follow up a previous conversation that we had about me helping him with his design work and strategic branding advice. But it hadn’t come up in the conversation we had. Just when I thought the moment had passed and I had made a wrong call not to bring it up, he brought the topic back up and we will be getting together to talk about it.
The business relationship feels natural and I know he doesn’t feel like I’m pushing him along which I think will help me in the longer term get the work with him feeling like I’m pressuring him.
I just blogged about that experience & another opportunity on my blog “4 Lessons I Learnt About Finding Potential Clients From A Street Party” http://bit.ly/hrPwwn
uk shop fitter
February 15th, 2011 at 9:45 amim usually sucessful on followups but this year has been the oposite!
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