Have you found yourself in this scenario?
1. You meet someone who is familiar with your business.
2. They ask you for more information.
3. You follow up, answering their questions.
4. Prospect stops following up.
5. You worry you will lose their interest.
6. You bombard them with emails and phone calls.
7. Still no response.
8. You lose a potential new partner.
I have found myself in that situation on several occasions. What I've learned is that sometimes NOT following up works just as well. I had a new prospect contact me not too long ago who was already familiar with my business. This person asked several questions and I made sure to follow up promptly.
After some time, I didn't hear from this person. I decided to try something different from my usual follow up routine. Since this person was already familiar with the business, I felt there was no need to persuade with information overload. Sometimes we are overly eager and give out way too much information. The natural tendency is to follow up too much because the thought of no response makes you feel rejected.
After a week or so, this prospect followed up with me again and was ready to start their own business within my network. This person thanked me for not being pushy and giving time to make a decision.
You see, people who are already familiar with what you do will do comparison shopping. They may reach out to others who do the same thing to get a feel for who they want to work with in the long run. Other people may have been pushy and continued to press for someone to join their network. Often, that tactic pushes people away.
When someone makes it clear that they have an idea about your business, you shouldn't treat them as someone who has never heard about it before. Following up with prospects who have never heard of your business should be handled differently. Give a someone who is familiar more time to make their decision.
Chances are they are doing more research and if you are disrupting them during this process, they will not view you as someone pleasant to work with. Put yourself in their shoes. While it is exciting to think that you could possibly have someone new in your network, sometimes you need to step back and let the person come to their own decision.
Constantly following up is not always the best answer.
This is a follow up article to my last post titled: