Good followup practices to make 2009 your best year

Your phone won't ring if you don't call.

Do you stay in touch with your prospects, customers and referral partners?  You probably have good intentions to do so, but life and work just get in the way. 

Good intentions don't cut it when it comes to followup.

People need to hear from you and know you are interested in them to remain an active, contributing part of your network.  If you let the connection die, you have just wasted all the effort you put into creating it as well as the potential for mutual benefit in the future.

How does someone with good intentions and not a lot of time stay connected?

First, change your attitude. There is nothing more important than staying in touch with the people who support you.  This is a necessary part of being in business, not an extra.

Speaking practically, you can do quite a bit to make it easy to follow through on your good intentions by automation.

• Use an online card service like Send Out Cards to easily construct card campaigns for prospects, customer birthdays and anniversaries, and regular "how are ya?" cards.  Set it up once and let it work for you all year long.  You can even use your own handwriting font.  Inexpensive, easy, and effective.
• Develop a system for following up with new leads and established contacts.  When you have it in writing it is easier to follow and refine (see the post on "systems"), and the consistency will add to your good reputation.
• Speak to your customers regularly to find out how they are doing.  Divide the number of customers by the days you work per year to see how many calls you should make a day to touch each one.  If you can do it, talk to them 2-4 times a year outside of everyday business topics.  Schedule an hour a day to do this, or one morning a week.  You will get huge dividends from this very simple activity.
• An informed customer is a happy customer, and of course you want to keep your referral partners in the loop when you have a new product or achievement to announce.  Use PR and social media outlets to shine a light on what you are doing and let customers know they can follow you on your blog, Twitter, Facebook, ezine, etc.
• Consider email marketing.  You can separate your clients in a variety of ways to send targeted information to just the right people.  They appreciate that you bothered to get to know them so well, and the people who don't fit that special offer appreciate one less unnecessary email.  You can get started with Constant Contact for $15/month with unlimited emails, and their tutorials about email marketing are terrific.  Remember, this is permission-based and should not be sent to anyone who doesn't request it (have a signup form on your website and make it a topic of your new customer process).

Gary Keller of Keller Williams Realty built a multi-million dollar business on systems of staying in touch with people, and you can do that in your industry, too. 

Do you have a favorite tip or suggestion for following up or staying in touch? Leave it in the comments.