Have you ever provided your name and email address for receiving a Quote for Insurance OR Refinancing a Mortgage?
Have you ever watched a FREE presentation/Webinar after providing your name and email address?
Have you ever bought products online?
If you answered YES, then I am sure you must have received a Follow up email to educate you the options available/promote their product or services/get your feedback about the product.
Follow-up may seem to be a boring topic for discussion, but in my personal, career and business experience, I have benefited immensely by making a simple follow up call or email or letter. One simple follow up email has helped my clients achieve phenomenal results, generated thousands of dollars worth sales, and maintain good relationship.

What does follow-up mean and with whom do you follow up?

According to Thesaurus Follow-up is an activity that continues something that has already begun or that repeats something that has already been done. There are several reasons for a business owner/Entrepreneur to follow up. Here are some reasons:

Follow up with prospects to convert them to clients

Follow up with clients with a survey to assess the quality of service.

Follow up with Service Providers like Virtual Assistants, Bookkeepers, Accountants, Business consultants for delivering prompt service

Follow up with buyers for payment of Invoices.

Follow up with employees for reports/results/accomplishment of a task.
Following up may seem a boring task, but let me assure you fortune is in follow up.

Why should you follow-up?

Sometimes the prospects may forget or they may be busy. By following up you are giving them an opportunity to revisit the chances of becoming your client. Sometimes just a follow up phone call can lead you to sales worth thousands of dollars.

By following up your customers with a survey, you can get a true picture of your product, services and ideas for improvement.

A business owner can run his business efficiently and profitably only if his Service providers deliver services in time.

Cash flow is the blood of a business. Hence if you offer credit to your buyers, you must follow up closely for prompt payment.
Employees are considered as human assets. To ensure productivity, you must have systems to follow up for timely submission of reports.

How can you follow-up?

Follow up can be done by an email, Instant messaging, letter, phone call or even a personal visit. There are automated systems that can make following up easy and effortless. You must always take steps to automate follow up process.

When should you follow up?

You must be persistent and not be a PEST. After the initial conversation, ask permission to follow up after a specified period of time. People respect your follow up and appreciate the gesture if done with permission. In my experience I have found follow up within 2-7 days seems reasonable.

Action Steps:

Here are the two action steps you can take right now:

When you follow up, please let Go of the thought of coming across as a pushy person and ALLOW yourself to feel that you are helping your customers/prospects/employees to MOVE them to action.

Now that you have a good feeling and great mindset about following up, identify two follow-up tasks and make that call/send an email right away.

Author's Bio: 

Lalitha Brahma helps Consultants, Home based business owners and Small business owners improve their bottom line by inspiring and moving them to action. Is your Regular paycheck stopping you from exploring the ENTREPRENEUR in you? If you answered “Yes”, go ahead and sign up for her FREE Ezine to learn the secret of breaking the Regular paycheck barrier at http://www.elbeeservicesllc.com