Do you want to learn how NOT to be spammy?

“I don’t want to ‘bug’ people”. That is one of the things that holds up people in network marketing/ social selling/ coaching.

In today’s podcast, I’m bringing some experience to you not just as a successful retailer in the network marketing/ social selling space, but also as somebody who spent a lot of time in public relations.

This episode covers:

• Buyer behaviors
• Six of my top tips for following up without being spammy

Our job is to educate potential customers and continue to follow up until they are ready to make a decision. It’s not until you feel uncomfortable, it’s until they’re ready to make a decision.

Join me for this episode and find out all about the non-spammy follow-up!

If you are enjoying this content, please share the podcast with your friends!

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Listen to the podcast here

Non-Spammy Follow-Up

Do you want to learn how to not be spammy? Out of all of the things that hold people up in network marketing, social selling, and coaching is not wanting to “bug people.” I’m bringing some experience to you as a successful retailer in the network marketing and social selling space, but also as somebody who spent a lot of time in public relations following up and making sure I got results.

Anyone who has done client work knows that when a client is paying you, you will do what you need to do to get the results you need. As entrepreneurs, sometimes we don’t treat ourselves with that same level of accountability as we would if we were hired by somebody else. Let’s pay ourselves, shall we, my friends?

I want to talk to you about some skills, some winning language that you can use and some buyer behavior. Let’s start with the buyer behavior. Most people need several exposures before they make a decision about anything. It’s very rare that the person who first sees something will be immediately ready to buy it. Odds are they have already been thinking about something when they are ready to purchase.

It’s very rare that you hit someone with something that they haven’t seen before and they are immediately ready to buy. Now, if it’s a low-level purchase perhaps. Typically, the customer has been exposed to the concept and the idea of the product several times, they have gotten educated, they have gone through the thought process.

Let me give you the range of purchase behaviors. Let’s say, on the left-hand side, you’ve got people that are ready to purchase immediately. On the right-hand side, you’ve got people who would never purchase, ever. They are not interested. There’s no way you can convince them. The majority of people are sitting somewhere in between those two ends, and your job is to give them enough information so that they can make a decision.

The first principle I want you to know is most people are not ready to make a purchase behavior at any given time. Your job is to help them get enough information to make a decision. The second piece of this is as a business professional, part of your job is to not be emotionally attached to whatever decision they make. This is the hardest thing as a social seller, is you’ll get excited about the potential of somebody buying some products, maybe joining your team, and when they say no, you can take it very personally.

I want you to think, in terms of like a retailer. Let’s say Target. Everybody loves Target. I go online at Target and I am looking at something I want to buy, and then I leave my cart. Target sends me an email saying, “You left something in your cart,” and I ignore it. I decide not to buy it. Is Target going to stop reaching out to me? Is it Target going to assume I no longer want anything from their store? No.

I want you to start to think like a business owner. Think that it’s your job to follow up. Your job is to help people get enough information to make a decision, and whatever decision they make, you are going to be okay. Those are the first things. The posture in your education process with your prospect or your potential customer is immediately going to change the vibe of the conversation.

I can feel if someone is needing me to do something. If someone is approaching it as, “I’m following up with you. I want to make sure you’ve got all the information you need.” I can feel that they are not emotionally attached and our friendship is not on the line. That’s the first thing. Posture is the first thing. Understanding buyer behavior and how many exposures it takes. Your job is to educate and you are not emotionally attached to the outcome.

With that being said, I’m going to go into six of my top tips for following up without being spammy. The first one is you can acknowledge that you are reaching out again. I find if you put the awkwardness in front and joke about it, it takes the awkwardness away. If I followed up with someone many times, I will say something like, “I know I have brought this up several times,” and I will update them on something.

This is called the unusual circumstance or the update, and I will give them some update. For example, our company is having a promo on a product you’ve mentioned that you were interested in before, and friends don’t let friends miss out on a sale. I’m circling back. Circling back is one of my favorite terms. I’m circling back to see if now is a better time. You can also always say, “Or if you’d like to take a pass for now, let me know.” I love a pass for now. Circling back and take a pass for now. Acknowledge that you are realizing that you are reaching out again. That’s number one.

Number two is to use your voice. I love leaving voice messages for people. The intonation of our voices comes across so differently than text. Taking the time to leave a message and I find, my friend, this is often faster than typing something out is leaving a message for someone. Leaving a message and using your voice. Having that sincere quality to your voice is going to make a huge difference, and it doesn’t sound spamming when you are saying it.

When you use your voice, you can also use humor. Number three is using humor. I like to say, “It’s me again. I hope I’m not being a pest.” I certainly don’t mean to be a pest. I will joke about it. Using humor is number three. Number four is to be sincere and be human. Act like a person. It sounds silly, but when you sound like your authentic self and it doesn’t sound sincere, it sounds spammy.

I want you to think about why you are reaching out to that person and try to build that human connection. “Lisa, how are you doing? I hope you are having a great weekend. I check on people, social media feeds. I saw the pictures of your family. It’s so cute. It made me think of you. I don’t want to be a pest, and I know I followed up with you about this a couple of times. It so happens that I was helping a bunch of friends order these products that you had mentioned before, and I thought of you and thought I would circle back to see if now is a better time.” You can do that without even having a sale.

Why you thought of them? Be sincere and be human. Why you thought of them is a super authentic, sincere, and human form why you thought of them. That’s number four. Two more and then we wrap this up. This is going to be a quick one. Number five, this is my favorite is to give updates. There’s always an update to be given, and sometimes you might need to be a little creative in your updates particularly if you are working with a company that doesn’t provide a lot of sales or offers. You might need to come up with some, but let’s start with the easy ones.

When your company has a promotion, that is an opportunity to update anyone who has raised their hand before and said that they were interested in your products. I am talking about follow up. These are people that have already raised their hand in some way. The follow-up is they said, “I’m interested,” and they have not yet done anything.

That’s different than a cold prospect, which we could discuss at a different time. This is the follow-up. Give some updates. One is the latest promo. “I know that you were interested in our products at a point in the past. I don’t know if this is a better time, but it so happens that ‘fill in the blank’ what is happening right now.” Seasonal is a great update, so it’s a perfect time to get ready for summer. I know that the cold and flu season is starting and back to school. Anything is an update that would be a perfect opportunity to give an update.

A great update is any type of customer success story that you want to share. I know in my company that we have an amazing Facebook group that has people posting their results all of the time. It’s amazing. If I want an update, I always have an update. I can go in. I can see someone who has had a great result and say, “I know you were interested in these products before. I saw this post from Tammy with her great results and I thought of you. I wanted to pass them along. Let me know if now is a better time or if you’d like to take a pass for now.” The pass for now is giving them what I like to call an exit ramp. A pass for now says not right now, and it gives you an opportunity to on-ramp and ask them again.

The last one, and this is the most important one is being consistent. Consistency compounds. We know this. Finding a way to put your prospects on some type of CRM Customer Relationship Management system of your own where you regularly follow up with them where you are checking in with them sometimes about the opportunity to purchase products and sometimes about life.

You are not rolling in with the sale, rolling in with, “Just checking in to see if you are ready.” Being consistent as a sincere human, and also you being consistent on social media. We are talking about social selling. You being consistent on social media so that you are regularly in front of the people that are interested in purchasing your products and services.

Let me run through this one more time. The first is in the beginning, understanding the sales cycle. Understanding that majority of people are not ready to purchase yet. What is your job? Your job is to educate them and continue to follow up until they are ready to make a decision. It’s not until you feel uncomfortable, it’s until they are ready to make a decision.

Once you do that, here are the six tips. 1) You can acknowledge that you are reaching out again. Acknowledge the elephant in the room. 2) Use your voice. 3) Use humor. 4) Be authentic, sincere, and act like a human. My favorite tip for my team, talk like a human. 5) Give updates. That is probably like highlight, underline, and circle that one because that’s your reason for following up. The last one is to be consistent. Consistency compounds and builds trust. A lot of times without even realizing it, people are waiting to see if you will continue to show up if you mean business.

Many of us give up too soon because we get emotionally drained by the emotional work that it takes to follow up. Let’s be honest. It’s not hard to follow up. It’s hard because it’s emotionally vulnerable, but it’s not hard. You can do this. I’m proud of you. If this was helpful, please put a review on any one of the podcast platforms. I’d appreciate your review and get in touch with me. Let me know what else you need help with. Let me know what was helpful. I appreciate you. I will see you back here again next time.