One of the most essential ingredients in any marketing campaign is trust. But trust is not something you can build by talking about it. Trust results as a consequence of actions and, quite often, it takes a lot of action in today's climate before people even consider trusting someone who has something for sale. I've shifted my focus away from making the sale toward being in the right place at the right time.
By that, I mean being there when the client is ready to make a buying decision. The way to ensure you're going to be the agent your prospect turns to when he's ready to buy is follow-up contact. Fortunately for you, most of your competition doesn't do this well. I hear from prospects all the time that someone else never got back to them when they were sincerely interested.
Of course, part of the reason agents lose touch with potential customers is that it's a lot of work. That's why you have to build systems to automate contact, which will help you keep up with a growing number of prospects.
Work on your business – not just in it!
The more you streamline your work, the less you have to work to expand your business. Fortunately, this can be easy with auto responders from various email systems like aweber.com, constantcontact.com or verticalresponse.com.
You can also set up reminders for yourself to do follow-up phone calls to give your marketing the personal touch that's so important. You'll want to style your follow-up to sound individualized, so add your own pictures and stories from time to time.
Action step no. 1: Pull a list of prospects from your existing records and focus on what they have in common. What type of information would they open and read? Almost everyone is interested in getting something they need at a lower price and that's where you can get the maximum value out of your expertise.
Action step no. 2: Spread your insider insight around by informing your prospects when an opportunity is knocking at the door just waiting for them to open it. Take 30 minutes to jot down ideas about what you know that could save your prospects money.
