July 2, 2024 • 11 mins
In this episode of Tuesday Tips, Belinda Ellsworth concludes her series on the top 10 mistakes to avoid in business by emphasizing the critical role of follow-up. She explains that a lack of follow-up with new customers, current customers, and future leads is a major oversight. Ellsworth recommends having a specific system in place to manage follow-ups and ensuring to respond promptly to referrals and introductions. She also discusses customer follow-up strategies and the value of engaging customers for feedback before launching new products. Lastly, she advises allocating time for making new connections and managing follow-ups to advance business growth effectively.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Work from your Happy Place, the podcast that equips you with the
knowledge and inspiration to live your dreamsand find your own happy plays. You
will be encouraged by and learn fromentrepreneurs and artists who are already working from
their happy plays, all while pursuingtheir passion with a purpose. Be sure
(00:20):
to sign up for our free weeklynewsletter for our recap of the week's guests
and a preview of what's in store. We also have two special gifts for
you, a video the five coreprinciples still Living a half year Life and
a printable download title Top ten salesStrategies Go to work for your Happy Place
dot com, forward slash free.Fill out the attached form to receive your
(00:44):
gifts and be added to our newsletter. And now here's your host, Belinda
Ellsworth. Hello everyone, and welcometo Tuesday Tip. I'm belod To Ellsworth
and we are completing a series ofthe top ten mistakes to avoid in business
now. This has been a reallyfun series. If you have not got
(01:04):
a chea use to listen to theother nine tips, I would highly encourage
you to go back over the lastnine tuesdays check them out and listen to
them. It really does flow ina nice series and I really highly recommend
that you check those out now.I did save this one for last because
(01:26):
you've heard that saying save the bestfor last. It is not because it
is the least important. I actuallydo believe that this is one of the
most important things that you can doand having a successful business, and it
is one of the biggest mistakes thatpeople make. They get busy, they
think it's not important. And sowhat is number ten of mistakes to avoid,
(01:48):
and that is the lack of followup. You definitely want to do
follow up with new customers, yourcurrent customers, and any future that you
may have, Connections that you make, networking that you have with other vendors,
with other businesses, with new contacts. All of those things happen on
(02:10):
a daily basis. If you're puttingthe time in to make that happen.
If you get a referral from someone, you want to make sure that you
have allocated time in your schedule forfollow up. You want to make sure
that you have a system in placeto do proper follow up so that things
(02:30):
don't fall through the cracks oftentimes thatI know this happens to me. You
get inundated with emails. I getabout on average, one hundred and fifty
to two hundred emails a day.Some of them are super important and it's
the way that they're flagged. It'smy assistant in how she's saying, did
(02:50):
you follow up with that? Andsometimes you're overwhelmed and it just falls through
the cracks. You need a veryspecific system in place that you can tag
things as urgent, you can tagthings to come back to. You need
someone that is going to assist youwith that follow up. That's the first
(03:12):
thing. The second thing is thatyou need to make sure that you allocate
time in your schedule in order todo proper follow up. Now, what
kinds a follow up is there?Well, there's basic referrals, and networking
is one type of follow up thatmeans one person introduces you to another person.
(03:34):
Let me do an introduction. Ithink the two of you have some
mutual things that common or could bebeneficial to one another. A referral from
someone and an introduction like that isso amazing and you want to at least
respond now. I try to respondright away, because if I let my
day get away from me, thenI sometimes might not respond at all.
(03:58):
It gets lost in the show shovelof life in a business. So I
try to respond right away saying thankyou so much for this, so that
it acknowledges the person who sent it. So that is first and foremost,
thank you so much for this introduction. That's very kind of you. I'm
so happy to meet you. Tothe individual, I am sure that we
(04:23):
have some things that we can shareand have a mutual interest. I'd love
to send up a time possibly chatabout it when it's convenient for both of
us. When I do that straightout of the gate, what's really awesome
is now I have acknowledged the personthat did it, and I've acknowledged the
person that they're sending me. Thatfollow up is so important. Sometimes those
(04:47):
leads go somewhere, and sometimes thoseleads go nowhere. But the point of
it is is two things. Youmay not know where it may lead you.
It may be the person. AndI've had this happen so many times
that I talk with that person andthey're like, yeah, I really don't
think that there's anything I can doto help you out. But you know
(05:08):
what, I have a friend andI have been then directed to that friend.
Now, this is a referral froma referral of someone that I really
don't even know that well and Iprobably would never have met otherwise, And
so they are now saying, here, I think this person might be of
(05:29):
interest. You guys might be ableto help one another. So then they
do an introduction, and I've hadthat completely take off in a whole new
direction that I wasn't expecting at all. It's through those connections that we can
really sometimes move our business forward ina way that we weren't expecting. So
(05:50):
first and foremost acknowledge all referrals ofintroductions that you may get. That's one
type of follow up. Another typeof follow up is with your customers.
Your customers are one of your greatestassets, and yet so often we don't
do any type of customer follow up. I'm kind of blown away on a
(06:12):
regular basis when I ask people aboutthis and they're like, well, you
know, if they want something else, they'll come to us, or you
know, I don't really know whatour people really want, but hey,
let's come out with this new productwithout having any ideas at all about what
their customer base really wants. Now, I have a firm belief in If
(06:32):
you've got a customer, acknowledge them, thank them. It doesn't hurt to
do random customer follow up to sayhow are you enjoying your product? I
just wanted to say, give youa personal thank you, and if there's
anything that we can do, youknow what, I would like to do
a poll with our top buying customers. So sometimes I will do this.
(06:54):
I will take people that have spentover a certain threshold of money and I
will say I like to do apoll with our most important valued customers.
If we were to come out witha new product, what is something that
you'd be more interested in this orthat? Or I would say, of
all of the different things we have, what is one thing you would like
(07:15):
to see us come out with asa company. And so people will give
their wish lists, or they'll say, oh my gosh, thank you so
much. They feel honored that youare asking them their opinion. So anytime
before you launch a new Cords ora new product, reach in and ask
your customers what's important to them.The more you have that answer, you
(07:41):
can avoid going to market with aproduct that nobody wants to buy, or
that no one needs. You canactually identify through these types of focus groups
what may be the product that peoplereally want. You might change what your
thoughts were originally and then come outwith something different. So there's customer follow
(08:03):
up, there's referral follow ups,and then of course there are connections.
And that's when either people reach outto you randomly. Now sometimes I get
a lot of these, and youat least want to respond. You can't
set up fifteen minutes or thirty minutes. I always think it's kind of funny
(08:24):
when people want to always set upthirty minute conversations with me, and that
could be most of your day ifyou did this all day long. So
find a mutual common ground or findsomething of interest that maybe you could chat
about. I like to do itthrough messaging first, and then if I
see that it warrants a connection orit warrants a meeting, but I try
(08:46):
to say fifteen minutes. I cangive you fifteen minutes because and if it's
going well, then it's usually theyset it thirty on a calend lee link.
But if you do fifteen minutes,and then that's all that there is
and you don't see that that's reallygoing anywhere. Then you've got fifteen minutes
(09:07):
in. If it's going really well, then oftentimes I will take the entire
thirty minutes and we find that wedo have common ground or there is a
mutual benefit to one another. Sothere is referrals from people that you know
in introductions, there is your customerfollow up, and then there is call
it cold call following up, likeif people do reach out to you.
(09:30):
Now this is I've obviously covered thislast, but new connections. So I
have set that I want to tryto make three connections in a day.
So that means I'm reaching out topeople or I'm setting it on my calendar.
It doesn't necessarily always mean that I'llhave three in a day, but
I certainly don't ever want to havemore than three in a day because you
(09:56):
don't want to waste a lot ofyour time on the that may not go
anywhere, and yet you want toallocate sometime for discovery and curiosity because you
never know when one of those thingsis going to turn out pretty spectacular.
So be smart in this, butmake sure that you have some type of
(10:20):
system in place so that you cando good and adequate follow up with your
customers, referrals and connections because thisis going to advance your business further and
quicker than you could possibly imagine.So this dove conclude our top ten mistakes
(10:41):
to avoid in business. I hopeyou've enjoyed this series. Thank you so
much for tuning into the series.Thank you for being part of Work from
your Happy Place. Make sure thatyou follow our subscribe so you don't miss
a single great episode. So thankyou everyone, and we will see you
next time on Work from your HappyPlaces. M
Welcome to Work from your Happy Place, the podcast that equips you with the
knowledge and inspiration to live your dreamsand find your own happy plays. You
will be encouraged by and learn fromentrepreneurs and artists who are already working from
their happy plays, all while pursuingtheir passion with a purpose. Be sure
(00:20):
to sign up for our free weeklynewsletter for our recap of the week's guests
and a preview of what's in store. We also have two special gifts for
you, a video the five coreprinciples still Living a half year Life and
a printable download title Top ten salesStrategies Go to work for your Happy Place
dot com, forward slash free.Fill out the attached form to receive your
(00:44):
gifts and be added to our newsletter. And now here's your host, Belinda
Ellsworth. Hello everyone, and welcometo Tuesday Tip. I'm belod To Ellsworth
and we are completing a series ofthe top ten mistakes to avoid in business
now. This has been a reallyfun series. If you have not got
(01:04):
a chea use to listen to theother nine tips, I would highly encourage
you to go back over the lastnine tuesdays check them out and listen to
them. It really does flow ina nice series and I really highly recommend
that you check those out now.I did save this one for last because
(01:26):
you've heard that saying save the bestfor last. It is not because it
is the least important. I actuallydo believe that this is one of the
most important things that you can doand having a successful business, and it
is one of the biggest mistakes thatpeople make. They get busy, they
think it's not important. And sowhat is number ten of mistakes to avoid,
(01:48):
and that is the lack of followup. You definitely want to do
follow up with new customers, yourcurrent customers, and any future that you
may have, Connections that you make, networking that you have with other vendors,
with other businesses, with new contacts. All of those things happen on
(02:10):
a daily basis. If you're puttingthe time in to make that happen.
If you get a referral from someone, you want to make sure that you
have allocated time in your schedule forfollow up. You want to make sure
that you have a system in placeto do proper follow up so that things
(02:30):
don't fall through the cracks oftentimes thatI know this happens to me. You
get inundated with emails. I getabout on average, one hundred and fifty
to two hundred emails a day.Some of them are super important and it's
the way that they're flagged. It'smy assistant in how she's saying, did
(02:50):
you follow up with that? Andsometimes you're overwhelmed and it just falls through
the cracks. You need a veryspecific system in place that you can tag
things as urgent, you can tagthings to come back to. You need
someone that is going to assist youwith that follow up. That's the first
(03:12):
thing. The second thing is thatyou need to make sure that you allocate
time in your schedule in order todo proper follow up. Now, what
kinds a follow up is there?Well, there's basic referrals, and networking
is one type of follow up thatmeans one person introduces you to another person.
(03:34):
Let me do an introduction. Ithink the two of you have some
mutual things that common or could bebeneficial to one another. A referral from
someone and an introduction like that isso amazing and you want to at least
respond now. I try to respondright away, because if I let my
day get away from me, thenI sometimes might not respond at all.
(03:58):
It gets lost in the show shovelof life in a business. So I
try to respond right away saying thankyou so much for this, so that
it acknowledges the person who sent it. So that is first and foremost,
thank you so much for this introduction. That's very kind of you. I'm
so happy to meet you. Tothe individual, I am sure that we
(04:23):
have some things that we can shareand have a mutual interest. I'd love
to send up a time possibly chatabout it when it's convenient for both of
us. When I do that straightout of the gate, what's really awesome
is now I have acknowledged the personthat did it, and I've acknowledged the
person that they're sending me. Thatfollow up is so important. Sometimes those
(04:47):
leads go somewhere, and sometimes thoseleads go nowhere. But the point of
it is is two things. Youmay not know where it may lead you.
It may be the person. AndI've had this happen so many times
that I talk with that person andthey're like, yeah, I really don't
think that there's anything I can doto help you out. But you know
(05:08):
what, I have a friend andI have been then directed to that friend.
Now, this is a referral froma referral of someone that I really
don't even know that well and Iprobably would never have met otherwise, And
so they are now saying, here, I think this person might be of
(05:29):
interest. You guys might be ableto help one another. So then they
do an introduction, and I've hadthat completely take off in a whole new
direction that I wasn't expecting at all. It's through those connections that we can
really sometimes move our business forward ina way that we weren't expecting. So
(05:50):
first and foremost acknowledge all referrals ofintroductions that you may get. That's one
type of follow up. Another typeof follow up is with your customers.
Your customers are one of your greatestassets, and yet so often we don't
do any type of customer follow up. I'm kind of blown away on a
(06:12):
regular basis when I ask people aboutthis and they're like, well, you
know, if they want something else, they'll come to us, or you
know, I don't really know whatour people really want, but hey,
let's come out with this new productwithout having any ideas at all about what
their customer base really wants. Now, I have a firm belief in If
(06:32):
you've got a customer, acknowledge them, thank them. It doesn't hurt to
do random customer follow up to sayhow are you enjoying your product? I
just wanted to say, give youa personal thank you, and if there's
anything that we can do, youknow what, I would like to do
a poll with our top buying customers. So sometimes I will do this.
(06:54):
I will take people that have spentover a certain threshold of money and I
will say I like to do apoll with our most important valued customers.
If we were to come out witha new product, what is something that
you'd be more interested in this orthat? Or I would say, of
all of the different things we have, what is one thing you would like
(07:15):
to see us come out with asa company. And so people will give
their wish lists, or they'll say, oh my gosh, thank you so
much. They feel honored that youare asking them their opinion. So anytime
before you launch a new Cords ora new product, reach in and ask
your customers what's important to them.The more you have that answer, you
(07:41):
can avoid going to market with aproduct that nobody wants to buy, or
that no one needs. You canactually identify through these types of focus groups
what may be the product that peoplereally want. You might change what your
thoughts were originally and then come outwith something different. So there's customer follow
(08:03):
up, there's referral follow ups,and then of course there are connections.
And that's when either people reach outto you randomly. Now sometimes I get
a lot of these, and youat least want to respond. You can't
set up fifteen minutes or thirty minutes. I always think it's kind of funny
(08:24):
when people want to always set upthirty minute conversations with me, and that
could be most of your day ifyou did this all day long. So
find a mutual common ground or findsomething of interest that maybe you could chat
about. I like to do itthrough messaging first, and then if I
see that it warrants a connection orit warrants a meeting, but I try
(08:46):
to say fifteen minutes. I cangive you fifteen minutes because and if it's
going well, then it's usually theyset it thirty on a calend lee link.
But if you do fifteen minutes,and then that's all that there is
and you don't see that that's reallygoing anywhere. Then you've got fifteen minutes
(09:07):
in. If it's going really well, then oftentimes I will take the entire
thirty minutes and we find that wedo have common ground or there is a
mutual benefit to one another. Sothere is referrals from people that you know
in introductions, there is your customerfollow up, and then there is call
it cold call following up, likeif people do reach out to you.
(09:30):
Now this is I've obviously covered thislast, but new connections. So I
have set that I want to tryto make three connections in a day.
So that means I'm reaching out topeople or I'm setting it on my calendar.
It doesn't necessarily always mean that I'llhave three in a day, but
I certainly don't ever want to havemore than three in a day because you
(09:56):
don't want to waste a lot ofyour time on the that may not go
anywhere, and yet you want toallocate sometime for discovery and curiosity because you
never know when one of those thingsis going to turn out pretty spectacular.
So be smart in this, butmake sure that you have some type of
(10:20):
system in place so that you cando good and adequate follow up with your
customers, referrals and connections because thisis going to advance your business further and
quicker than you could possibly imagine.So this dove conclude our top ten mistakes
(10:41):
to avoid in business. I hopeyou've enjoyed this series. Thank you so
much for tuning into the series.Thank you for being part of Work from
your Happy Place. Make sure thatyou follow our subscribe so you don't miss
a single great episode. So thankyou everyone, and we will see you
next time on Work from your HappyPlaces. M
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