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7 Ways to Follow Up Persistence without Being a Pest

Written by: Merra Lee Moffitt

Article Overview: Follow up on every lead without appearing too persistent. Be viewed as a professional and not a pest.

7 Ways to Follow Up Persistence without Being a Pest

The communication game is changing faster than we can keep up with it. It used to be that we could send an email and expect a response in a day or two. We could send a voicemail and assume that if we got no response in three days they weren’t interested. We even trust that the good old USPS paper mail delivery the USPS would deliver in 2 days local and 5 days cross country.

Now we don’t know if the message was even delivered. Even with good spam filters, seemingly reliable voicemail, and USPS it seems more stuff is delayed or lost. There is a local municipality that I routinely have clients tell me they got a letter or invitation I sent three weeks later. Several people in the same area report the same thing, so I know it’s not just ignoring the mail. Emails get lost in the sea of daily incoming backlog. And even voicemails occasionally take hours to get through.

Our communication systems are generally so reliable that we take for granted they are working. But sometimes they don’t and that’s why you need to follow up if you want to make the sale, provide good service, or just stay in touch. But how do you draw the line between peristence (looking virtuous) and pest (looking desperate or unprofessional)?

Here’s 5 ways to be persistent without appearing a pest.

1. Don’t assume that someone is not interested just because they don’t call you back. I have had many instances where I reached someone on the fourth try, after leaving three voicemails only to have them thank me because they didn’t get back to me yet. More than likely those people went on to do business with me.

2. Follow up important emails, incoming or outgoing, with a voicemail. These days people have three or four email accounts beyond their primary one. Sometimes they don’t check those secondary accounts for days. So you may have sent it to a slow response email box (which may have been the primary when you wrote it down originally).

3. Sadly, the same goes for a fax (yes, people do still send those). Just becasue you got a confirmation that the fax went through, they may not have gotten it. Fax machines are in distant rooms. The faxes get picked up inadvertantly by someone else. Sometimes it’s sitting in memory waiting for paper. So call and leave a voicemail saying that you sent it.

4. Leave more than one voicemail. We think voicemail is reliable but it seems to be getting less so as time goes on. When someone asks a question and you want to answer, but you only get their voicemail, leave a message. Try every couple days and leave another voicemail. Make sure the span of time is more than a week because the person may be traveling. If I really want to talk to the person and let them know I’ve been following up, I’ll call at different times of the day.

5. Tell them that you value being reliable and that’s why you are following up multiple times. Say something like, “I pride myself in being responsible so I am trying again. If you have already gotten your answer and don’t want me to follow up, drop me a voicemail or email.” It may seem obvious to you that you have a high level of commitment just because you did follow up, but stating your commitment is much more powerful.

6. Keep it light and use it as a way to build a better relationship. Say something friendly like, “Hi, I was just trying to get back to you and get your questions answered so I thought I’d try again.”

7. I try to leave no more than four voicemails before switching to one or two emails and vice versa. Sometimes switching communications gets the response. The book “The 22 immutable Laws of Marketing” claims that the true battle for territory is the battle to position yourself (the brand called “you”) skillfully in the front end of the clients mind. I try to make part of my brand “persistently reliable” because most of my clients and friends are as busy as I am.

Secondly, 80% of sales are made after the fourth contact, so don’t be part of the 73% that stop after two contacts. See my other blog Follow up is Free and Profitable on that topic.

So what are your thoughts on rules of thumb you use in follow up?

Related Articles
  Importance of having Persistence in your Business
  What Is The Value Of Persistence?
  Starting a Home Business Requires Persistence
  Kurlan's Law of Increased Sales Effectiveness
  Building a Client Base for Business

Article Tags: backlog, communication game, communication systems, cross country, email accounts, instances, invitation, mail delivery, municipality, paper mail, secondary accounts, slow response, spam filters, usps, voicemail



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Re: Suspicious/Problematic Users - Well spotted Trent, we must have seen this joker at the same time. I have just sent off a p.m to GT as well under the heading "Pest Control" Mal.
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Re: What are your January Goals? - Here's a quick update on mine: Goal #1: Hire New Writer = done - Post job description on oDesk - Set up trial job - Pick top candidate Goal #2: Follow up with Clients = done - Create and send quarterly report - Touch base with last year's clients - Follow up with 4 connectors Goal #3: PERSONAL = about 70% done on the month - Do something nice for my wife each week - Exercise 4 times per week - Daily stretch - want to touch my toes
Re: Why Some Websites Sell and Others Don’t? - Thanks for starting this inspirational thread,am working on owning my own site.This is a vital info for me. I will take note of this important quote as a beginner "Forget about the magic bullet that will make you rich overnight. Persistence is more important than intelligence"
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