The Power of Following Up
I was a maybe for a long time.
In 2015, I took a role that I knew would be a trainwreck of stress, but I thought I could handle it with the resources that I was promised my leaders would add to my team.
(Spoiler alert, those resources never showed up).
And just a few short months later, I knew I needed help. The job I had - and my outlook on work generally speaking - was consuming me and leading to some pretty deep depression.
I started lots of healing modalities: this was the year I found my tarot card reader, quit drinking for a year, started therapy, and started consuming self-help and development content. That year I found my gateway book, Jen Sincero’s You Are a Badass.
But I knew I needed to work through my relationship with work and careers, and I thought I’d want a coach for that process before coaching became more mainstream.
At that time in Portland you think it would be easy to find a career coach?
But it wasn’t.
This was before you could search social media for a coach before you could see if there were reviews on Google or threads on Reddit before most coaches had a podcast or newsletter you could binge before you booked a call.
But I found one who I wanted to try out.
So I sent an email (because this was before Calendly made scheduling infinitely easier), and tried to book a session.
We went back and forth for almost two weeks trying to find a session time that worked for us. I received my overwhelmingly long intake documents that required me to have time to think and contemplate doing the work.
But the kicker? I was going to have to show up IN PERSON, during my work day for our calls, as Zoom wasn’t really mainstream in the industry yet.
And in my mind, I’m freaking out.
“I barely have time to get this session scheduled, and I can do that over email. How in the h*ll am I going to find time to LEAVE campus, drive somewhere, have a deep dive coaching session, have the inevitable existential crisis, drive back, spend 20 minutes trying to park, and not be freaking out THE ENTIRE TIME about what fire cropped up while I was gone for a few hours during the work day.” (Yes, parking on the Nike campus was so atrocious that it was a barrier.)
And of course… not feeling like I could step away was at the root of the problem I was looking for support with!
While I could afford the cost of coaching, the other barriers - both spiritual, mental, and logistical - kept me from making the leap and engaging in the deep work.
So I canceled our first session and never heard from the coach after that.
Later that year, I had enough and got myself into a less stressful role within Nike.
And after a few months in that role, when things settled down logistically… I still hadn’t resolved the root of my relationship with work.
But by that time, I was focused on other areas of my life - I was in training to become a holistic nutritionist, I hired a dating coach and decided to become a life coach myself. The irony.
It wasn’t until another two years later (we’re now in 2019), a cross-country move, and continued life coach training that I decided to hire my life coaching trainer/coach to help me. Our sessions did not focus at all on my business but were the transformational coaching support I needed to heal and craft my new relationship with work.
I spent 3 years as a maybe.
And I often wonder, would I have worked with the first coach if she’d followed up and built a relationship with me?
What about if she’d reached out once I was in a slightly less stressful job?
What if she’d sent me a useful link or a card when I was thinking of hiring the dating coach (who did do calls over Zoom)?
Or reached out after I announced I was moving, to lend me support?
But she didn’t. I simply wasn’t quite ready for the deep work when I initially reached out, even though I was an “ideal client.” But the opportunity was missed.
The realities of who’s ready to work with us
I am not sure where I read it first, but I’ve read that our audience/marketplace is comprised of five groups:
3% are “active buyers”: their needs aligns with what you’re offering and actively reach out
Another 7% intend to change: they have a need and would be interested in working with you to solve their problem, but aren’t actively pursuing options
30% have a need but aren’t ready to act: they are learning about what you do and see that you solve a problem they might have, but lack the time, budget, readiness, or urgency to solve the problem right now.
30% don’t have a need: they may like what they read from you or otherwise want to stay connected, but won’t be a purchaser.
30% aren’t interested in your company: hopefully, many of these people aren’t in your world or in your newsletters, but who doesn’t subscribe to some of the online biz gurus just to see what they say? Just me lol?
So if you’re only responding to the 3% active buyers who reach out, book discovery calls, and actively show up, you’re missing out on key components of your audience.
Those who need to change but are too overwhelmed/busy/unaware of what you offer to actively reach out.
And those who have a need but aren’t ready to act yet.
These are your maybes.
For every 1 discovery call, you might have 2-3 more people who would respond positively to outreach and 10 people who need consistent nurturing before they are ready to make a purchase.
How might we turn our maybes into “yeses”?
Build relationships over time
Don’t be the spammy person on LinkedIn with an automated check-in sequence.
“Did you see my last DM?”
“Don’t miss out on the chance to get 30 qualified leads each month.”
”Are you sure you don’t want to hop on a call?”
But do have a regular cadence of connecting - relationally.
Commenting on what they post on social.
Sending actual check-in emails, cards.
Making valuable connections and sending resources.
Inviting them to non-sales community and client appreciation events.
And every once in a while, invite them to an offer to experience your work or let them know you have spaces open - WITHOUT just relying on your broadcast email. If you’re a service provider or filling intimate groups, actually follow up through your personal email and personal invitations.
"McKinsey folks are famous for saying, “McKinsey doesn’t sell.” This may seem like an odd statement from a consulting firm with $13.5 billion in revenue. But it's an expression of ethos, energy, and elitism that McKinsey doesn’t need you as much as you need McKinsey. But the most successful senior partners at any consulting firm know the “No-Sell” Sell is far more about radically generous, strategic servant leadership, and the right sprinkle of swagger.
This is how the No-Sell Sell works at McKinsey and for practically every other great senior partner:
- First, you identify senior decision-makers you genuinely like and want to help. If you like the person, you'll come off as a missionary instead of a mercenary.
- Second, you listen and be curious about their biggest business problems. Don’t bring up a proposal or anything commercial.
- Third, you become radically generous and add a ton of value through casual conversations, helpful articles/data, and introductions to experts.
- Fourth, you proactively frame huge upside opportunities and clever ideas for solutions for them.
- Lastly, you wait…until they eventually say, “Please help me unlock this opportunity. What will it cost?” You then charge them a fraction of the upside.
Successful senior partners have 8+ of these conversations going on at any time. - Category Pirates
This is one of the reasons I like sales calls versus simply announcing things to a list - you get to hear their goals, the context of a decision to buy not or not, and can support them through their journey towards their goals anyway.
Mitigate their cost / adjust your offer
When we think about our offers, our customer is weighing the VALUE of the outcome against the COST:
The time: how much time do they need to invest in your work?
The effort: how much work will this be - both time-wise and energetically?
The risk: what’s the risk? Can they be assured they’ll get the result promised for the value?
The actual $: Is this where they are choosing to spend their money versus all other options?
So for your maybes, how can you decrease the total landed cost of what’s on offer?
A shorter duration.
A more targeted scope, or the first part of your process.
A more productized solution.
A commensurately cheaper price.
This might look like a new lead product or a short-term, time-bound discount if you’re in real need of cash.
Always expanding your maybes
I recently took Justin Moore’s 7-Day Pitch Challenge to learn how to pitch and book brand deals, and at the end of the offer, he made a pitch to join the Brand Deal Wizard program.
And I said no - though I left a really positive testimonial about the program.
Because I’m not ready yet for a program like that in so many ways. I’m building up my channels person by person, taking on my business-building priorities (hi book and program launch, I’m looking at you), and making other financial investments.
So Justin could have considered me a "non-buyer" from a challenge conversion perspective.
But when I’m ready and this is a priority, I’m buying - from him. And I'm telling everyone I know who wants to book more sponsorships to learn from him.
In a year, or two, or three - I know that if this program still exists, I’m buying it from Justin. So while I’m not an immediate conversion, he proved the value of what he does for when the need is a priority.
Creating experiences to go from cold to warm
If we believe those metrics above and need 5-10 new clients for our services per year, that means we need 11-22 people who maybe inquired or expressed some interest but weren’t actively looking or completely ready to buy.
And we need another 50-100 who are aware of our work but not ready to buy from us yet.
As I learned from Justin in the challenge, when you cold pitch brands on a deal, they might not be able to say yes on the pitch. They’ve already given their budget to other creators or finalized their creative for the campaign you pitched.
But the goal isn’t really to get a yes on the first call, even if you desperately need the cash. It’s so that you get on their radar - and when they’re putting together an upcoming campaign, they might think of you and get in touch. Even better if you’re following steps 1 and 2 and proactively reaching out to those influencer managers!
So if you’re giving away audits, or hosting roundtables, or coaching calls through a coaching project and you deliver powerfully - but they aren’t ready to work with you yet - you’re still building “maybes”. That might turn into a yes over time or become a referral source. And this is why we need to always be expanding our networks, even when we are booked with clients.
