Sales Funnel Radio SFR 278: Do I Have Too Much Follow-Up?
I'm frequently asked how you know when you’re following-up too often? Here's my answer, some stats, and a few guidelines to consider…
"Steven, how much is too much emailing? How much is too often to follow-up with somebody after I try to sell them?"
(Those of you who are experienced might be chuckling just a little bit here…)
But or those of you who are brand new at this game or haven't had success yet - this follow-up question is pretty common for me to get asked!
And funnily enough, the answer is very, very simple - so I wanna give you a few examples to illustrate.
SALES FOLLOW UP?
I recently heard Frank Kern talking on Instagram.
He had this bowl of mints and he put them in 3 different piles…
- A small pile of mints = people who are ready to buy.
- A medium-sized pile of mints = people who are ready to buy in the next 60-90 days.
- A HUGE pile of mints = People who will buy sometime in the future.
He said that one of the biggest mistakes people make is ONLY targeting those who are ready to buy immediately.
Funny enough, he said that it's not actually those who are ready to buy right now that you need to be focusing on…
You should actually focus more on the second group who’ll be ready to purchase in 60-90 days
And I totally get what he's saying.
By all means, #GetTheSale by focusing on those people who’re ready to purchase…
But don't neglect those who need to wait 60-90 days in order to buy…
… because it’s actually a much larger pot.
I was like, "Oh, that's super clever."
One of the major benefits of publishing frequently, (if you've chosen to follow my advice and do that), is that it allows you to warm up the 60-90 day pot.
HOW TO FOLLOW UP WITH LEADS...
So here are the general questions I tend to get asked:
- How much follow-up is too much follow-up?
- How many emails are too many?
- Can I send more than a few follow up emails a day?
My standard follow-up sequence for a funnel is usually about five days long...
However, there are other scenarios where the follow up is much longer than that.
I was talking with Trey Llewellyn, (we both went to Myron Golden’s speaker training event)...
I was like, "Holy crap, that's Trey."
And Trey looks up and goes, "Oh, my gosh, that's Steve. Look at those eyes."
Anyway, we were chatting and he told me about one of his webinars where he's got something like a two-month follow-up sequence.
I was like, "Holy crap, that's BIG!"
He goes, "Yeah, yeah, I know."
He told me that he ALWAYS gets a few more people buying because of the length of the sequence.
There are A LOT of marketers who will wake up and add an additional email at the end of a massive email sequence...
...so now they have this year-long email sequence.
Follow-up is EVERYTHING.
I FOUND THIS IN MY CUPBOARD!
When I was doing door-to-door sales, they handed us this manual, and I still have it. 😂
I found it in my cupboard ...and it has some really interesting stats about follow up.
This is actually from that old door-to-door sales manual:
“If you've ever watched a four-year-old, “No!” doesn't bother them.
So the next step is just to keep asking.
Don't be stopped by the first ‘No’ - continue to ask for the sale until they give you a ‘Yes!’”
Now, if you’ve studied any kind of sales, or if you are a salesperson, you know that the first “No” is actually when the sale begins.
When your prospect says “No” ...it actually guides and helps you know what you should be doing next.
So this is a powerful principle to understand 'cause most people think “No” means NO!
But usually, ‘No’ means…
- "Not right now."
- "Hey, I can't focus on this right now."
Most people are NOT ready to purchase right out of the gate.
To illustrate my point, I'm just gonna read you a few stats...
F
47% of salespeople stop after the first “No”…
That means that ALMOST half of salespeople NEVER follow up.
You might be thinking, “Well, Steve, that doesn’t apply to me, I’m NOT a salesperson!”
BUT…
If you're an entrepreneur, make no mistake, you ARE a salesperson.
That means that almost half the people who are out trying to sell their things never ask more than one time, EVER!
Think about that… that's crazy!
YOU’RE LEAVING MONEY ON THE TABLE
Most people never even do just one follow up and, let me tell you, the majority of my money comes from follow up.
But most people don't even follow up once…
#CRAZY
Twelve percent of people will fail to follow-up after the fourth rejection.
However, statistically, it takes six to eight follow ups before MOST people are willing to say “Yes.”
Now, there’s a way to follow up that's annoying…
... I'm NOT telling you to do high-pressure sales.
However, I looked at a ton of credible sources for this data, and it confirmed, "Yeah, a lot of times people need more follow up."
But…
- That doesn't mean you gotta bug people...
- That doesn't mean you need to be annoying...
There's a way to do follow up with A LOT of value.
ASKING FOR THE SALE
You’ll notice that a lot of my Sales Funnel Radio episodes have the same outro and the same call to action at the end of the episodes.
I use the same outros over and over again.
That's me asking ‘again’ for the sale.
So understand what I'm telling you about here…
You can continue to ask over and over and over and over and over and over and over …
But it doesn't mean you need to be annoying…and it doesn't mean you need to be high pressure.
In fact, I ask you to NOT be high pressure, because that's gonna be hard on your future sales…
… you’re really gonna piss people off!
Here’s another stat for you:
94% of salespeople fall short after the fifth ”No!”
But if you think back to what Frank Kern was talking about…
Most people need the 60-90-day range to make a good decision.
That doesn't mean don’t get sales from those who are looking to buy, it just means don't neglect the greater percentage who aren’t ready to purchase yet.
There’s a ton of marketers who are solely email-based, and they just add another email or two to the end of their sequence…
... and they end up with a giant sequence.
I think the longest one follow-up sequence I've ever heard of is well over a year.
You join their list and it's all automated and the money comes in during the follow up.
DON’T BE AN AMATEUR
I think it's Brendon Burchard who says that he spends aggressively to acquire customers.
He's willing to be in the hole for several months because…
The follow-up is where he makes his money.
You've probably heard Russell Brunson mention that amateurs focus on the front end…
… and the reason why that’s true is that the professionals know that people joining your list is NOT enough - *you gotta go follow up*
I’ve got a few students that ask “How many times is too much?”
( ...and I wanna get into that in a moment with you)
But during my research, I found one blog that was kinda funny; it said that there are only a few scenarios where you should stop following up with somebody…
- If they die.
- If they send you a cease and desist letter.
It was joking... but there's some seriousness to this as well... 😂
Another reason to stop following up with a prospect is…
- If someone buys from you.
But then you should just start following up for the next sale.
I think we get a little bit weak on our follow up 'cause we get nervous.
However…
There's a way to follow up while adding a lot of value
...and I ask you to follow up in that way.
THIS MAY PISS YOU OFF!
When I'm creating a follow-up sequence I do a standard five emails; usually, within three days.
That's just kind of my standard rinse and repeat version.
But I don't want just anybody on my list!
It common practice for some marketers to routinely download their list, and then remove everybody who hasn't opened their email for a while…
…. and from an email deliverability standpoint, I get it.
But from a marketing standpoint, I have to say, that “I feel like that's somewhat of a failure to do that…”
So instead...
I want people to NOT like me so much that they opt-out.
#GOOD!
Think about how much I spend to put somebody on a list… and then I go take them off???
In my opinion, they should opt-out because I've been aggressive in my marketing and because they’re truly just NOT a fit.
I would rather people opt-out my list than remove them myself because I was NOT marketing hard enough.
Does that make sense?
LIST MANAGEMENT LARSEN STYLE…
I honestly, I don't take anybody off my list...
Instead…
- I'm very loud
- I'm very opinionated
- I’m very polarizing
....about what I believe or don't believe in!
I'm so aggressive that people will opt-out if they’re NOT a good fit.
I use SendGrid and I've got four different SMTP accounts…
- Across the board, my open rates are like 40% higher (for the most part).
- Most of the click-through rates are significantly higher than is usual.
- My reputation is at the 99% level and higher.
… it's awesome!
And I think it's because I truly do share a lot of my opinions on here.
- If you like it = awesome.
- If you don't like my opinions = you opt-out and leave.
In fact, some of the funnels I've launched in the last four months…
For example:
Any time I launch Make Affiliates Great Again, I mean, come on, it's totally a play of Trump's thing; “Make America great again!”
We even put Trump's toupee looking wig on top of the logo.
… and it was offensive to people!
I knew it would ruffle some feathers, but I didn't realize how many feathers it would ruffle.
It was A LOT of feathers.
People started opting out….
#GOOD
I wasn't like, "Oh my gosh, how many unsubscribes there are?"
I would rather it was that way; I don't wanna go clean them out myself. I want them to opt-out.
The Capitalist Pig thing; people opt-out…
… that's okay.
I get about 80 to 100 people joining my list a day and I think I get 10 to 20 leaving every day too.
I’d rather be that way.
I'm gonna clean house, man, but I'm doing it with a marketing message.
Meaning, I don't wanna go send it to some list scrubber.
THIS WORKS!
Here are the rough numbers to prove it… 😉
Every single month, I usually make about 30 to 40 grand in front-end kind of offers.
And if you're like, “Steve, I don't see any front-end offers?”
It’s because I treat my affiliate things as front end offers, and we do 30 to 50 grand a month in those things…
Now, if we didn't do any follow-up, if there was nothing else I could push too, it would end there…
But we actually do anywhere from 120 to usually 200 grand a month.
So we're making another couple of dollars per person we're bringing on in.
The fortune’s definitely in the follow-up
YOUR ‘NEW’ FOLLOW UP STRATEGY
So when people ask how much follow up is too often, I don't know…
I haven’t found the limit yet!
When people build lists and they say, “I don't know what to do with it?” - my answer is SIMPLE...
Man, send messages to them!
If they don't like it, then they’ll leave and actually do you a favor
... so don't worry about it.
I get it, I had the same fear.
However…
The faster you get over the fear of following up, the faster you're gonna have a thicker wallet.
That mentality in your head is directly tied to revenue.
So think through about how you're gonna treat your follow-up as seriously as your promotions.
- What's the follow-up sequence you're gonna go put together?
- What’s your rinse and repeat follow-up sequence?
... I shared mine with you a few episodes ago.
I have a little SOP around how I'm gonna treat my follow-up sequence regardless of what it is.
The fortune is certainly in the follow-up.
Remember, you don't *STOP* until they…
- Die...
- Send you a ‘cease and desist…’
- Buy…
… 😉
Anyway, hopefully, you enjoyed this! I appreciate you, and I’ll see you next time ( unless you unsubscribe 😎).
Bye.
Haha! Awesome episode, right?
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… that's a fair question!
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Go figure.
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