Follow Up – How Many Times Should You Contact a Lead

Follow Up. The other day in one of the professional groups I  belong to on Facebook I saw someone lamenting the fact that prospects were not returning his emails. He asked, “How long do you follow up before you just feel like you are being a pain?”

I was astounded by the answers given by these professional social media people. The answers ranged from “one and done” to “You’ve done your job to follow up with them, now they need to do their job and respond.”

I had to step in and this is what I told them:

Follow up needs to be consistent, persistent and personalized. No I do not mean pester the person. I do not mean call and email them every day. But what I do mean is that you need a gradual flow of information that reaches the prospect after they inquire.

This information needs to be:

• Relevant to their inquiry
• Delivered in a systematic manner
• Have calls to action
• Be personalized (Which doesn’t mean it can’t be automated)
• And it needs to be prolonged

You pay a lot of money to generate a lead. Think about all the time and money you put into marketing from the design of your website, to the time spent on social media. Why would you essentially throw away a lead after 1-3 contacts?

Be smart about your follow up and value every lead. That also means treating them the way you’d like to be treated. Don’t fire information at them in an email. Ask questions, be personalized. You will eventually win a response.