I’d like to offer you 3 tips to streamline your follow up successes and help you become pro-active around the follow-up process.
You’ve made your initial contact, sent your first email, letter, or complete packet. Now the next step is crucial and often can mean the difference between throwing money or time out the door or getting what you want. Follow-up is not fun and often I hear artists say, they made the call or sent the packet so they’re done. What was sent is so often forgotten and three months later they wonder why they haven’t heard back from the person, the label, the media contact or the venue booker.
Here are 3 Tips to Streamline Your Follow-Up Successes.
- Keep your initial lists to bookers, media or other industry professionals, SHORT. Face it, there is no way you or anyone else can do adequate follow-up on a 400 piece mailing or emailing let alone a 4000 piece mailing or emailing and get the results you are looking for.
If you do your research first, then target 5-10 prospective venue bookers, media or industry professionals to contact, you are then able to track that submission and set strategic follow-up calls or emails for those few contacts. You’ll feel like you are accomplishing something rather than being overwhelmed by the enormity of the task of trying to follow-up on huge numbers.
- Create a simple list or chart that you can keep in a visible place where you’ll see it everyday. Unless you have a pop-up program in your calendar that opens first thing and gives you your callback list, having this information buried in your computer, may be less helpful than having something printed out and visible. That way it hits you when you walk into your office or workspace. On it, indicate the contact name, emails, phone numbers, date sent, what you sent and the date and time you intend to re-contact them.
- Now if you have an email program or if you have a (CRM) Contact Relation Management program that has the ability to set up a legacy series of emails, you can set up an email sequence to send follow-up emails automatically over a defined future period. The series will reconnect with your prospect sending gentle reminders from you without you feeling like you are bothering them. You won’t even have to remember when to do it.
But if you are not there yet technically, then schedule your follow up calls based on how you sent your material or information.
For instance:
- If you sent a FedEx packet—call the next day to make sure it arrived. Then schedule a time to talk a day or two later, giving them a short time to review the info
- If you sent an email, you might schedule a callback shortly after your initial email or the next day
- If you sent regular mail, then, give it a few days depending on the recipient’s location
The point is—you must call in as short a time as possible to keep your contact aware of you as you demonstrate your professionalism. The more time that slips by, the more forgettable your initial contact, no matter how wonderful that contact might have been.
Don’t expect them to call you. It won’t happen. Plan on being the one who initiates all follow-up contact. You are the one who is asking for something, you must be the one to follow-up.
When you let the follow-up process drag on, you are loosing gigs, deals, interviews and media coverage.
Now, think of your most recent contacts to whom you sent something and make note of when you spoke to them or heard from them last. Are they due for a follow-up call? Set up your list and make contact this week.
How effective is your follow-up process? Is there anything you might do to make it more efficient and effective?
Leave me a comment below or on the Performingbiz Success Strategies Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/PerformingbizSuccessStrategies.
I can’t wait to hear about your success.
Now, Thanks to the Band Curfew from the UK for providing the Biz Booster theme Music, Future Dance. Check them out at www.curfew.co.uk
And for more career boosting tips, articles, books, resources, tele-seminars and online courses, visit me at Performingbiz.com
