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Have you noticed the epidemic of poor follow up? Recently, I did a LinkedIn survey asking this question and 88% of respondents said ”yes.”
Think about how many times you’ve left a message for someone, and it took days or weeks to hear back from them, if you were lucky enough to hear from them at all. It happens not only in your business life but in your personal life, too.
You can’t escape it!
Your clients ignore your request for information, COIs act like your emails disappeared into thin air, prospects fall off the end of the earth, the person on FB who’s selling the pop-up camper you want goes dark and your cousin hides behind “sorry, we were busy.”
Seriously? Aren’t we all busy?
Are you guilty of poor follow up and part of the problem? Because it’s an epidemic, it’s likely that we all have been guilty of poor follow up a time or two. Sometimes we want to ignore the person in the hopes that they will just go away. Sometimes we are distracted by the bazillion shiny objects and pinging noises that surround us every moment of the day. Then there are other times when we simply forget to respond to someone. And remember the times you felt that person wasn’t a priority, so you intentionally dismissed them. Yep, it happens, but it never makes it right.
When you take a minute to view the situation from the other person’s perspective, it’s rude and lacks common courtesy, not to mention professionalism. If you don’t like it when it happens to you, let’s look at what you can do to not perpetuate the problem and enhance the chances of people following up with you.
Make a rule (and stick to it)
Create a culture in your firm to respond to all inquiries within 24-48 hours. Set the expectation from the top down and follow through on this promise. Make it clear on your recorded messages and train your team on what to say when they leave a voice mail. Carry this rule into your personal life and teach your children the importance of good follow-up.
Set an example of good follow-up
As you stick to your rule of following up with all inquiries, people will notice. You will stand out in a positive way by responding to people in a timely manner. Even if you don’t have time to talk to someone at the moment, you can still take a few seconds to inform them with a quick email or text that you got their message and will get back to them within 24-48 hours. Don’t be surprised if your courtesy rubs off on someone else or if people start sharing this about you with potential referrals.
Mark your calendar with FU
No, not that “FU.”
We all have a million and one things on our mind. Losing track of who we need to get back in touch with gets buried under the mountain of other things causing us stress. I get it. It happens to me, too. So, one thing that works for me is to use my calendar as a follow-up reminder system.
If I tell someone I will get back to them in 24-48 hours, I will immediately open my calendar and schedule an appointment for follow-up. In my calendar, FU equals follow up. It will appear like this in my calendar, FU with Karol Nichols about speaking. On the other hand, if I have left a message for someone else and I am waiting to hear back from them, I will also make an appointment that will reflect, HIHF (have I heard from) Karol Nichols about speaking.
These two triggers keep my follow-up system in check as I can easily move the appointments forward as needed. It helps me to stay on top of people I’m waiting to hear from and keep my promises of reaching back out to others.
Find out their communication preferences
Communication is personal. Some people prefer to text or email while others prefer a phone call. To increase the chances of someone following up with you, ask them to tell you how they would prefer for you to follow-up with them. Then follow their instructions. If they ask for you to email them in two weeks, then make yourself an appointment in your calendar and email them in two weeks.
If you fall victim to the epidemic and fail to hear back from someone using their preferred method of communication, consider sending them one last message asking for their help. I don’t like to be a pest, so I give them a choice of how to respond to me. I might include options such as: I’m still interested but I need another month, or let’s talk again next year, or thanks, but I’m no longer interested. Whenever I send this final message, I always get a response. Give it a try.
Treat people the way they want to be treated. Nobody appreciates rude behavior or being ignored. However, I do know a lot of people who want the common courtesy of knowing that their message was received and that they will hear back from someone in a timely manner. That’s the professionalism that we all crave and that we all deserve. Let’s all do our part to put an end to this epidemic of poor follow up.
Michelle R. Donovan owns Productivity Uncorked LLC where Michelle (Referral Coach) and Patty Kreamer (Productivity Coach) offer a one-two punch to help financial advisors be more productive and more profitable. Michelle’s books have become Wall Street Journal best-sellers, Amazon best-sellers and published in seven languages. If you want to enhance your productivity, set a time to chat with Michelle, email her at [email protected] or connect with her on LinkedIn.
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
