This one can be a real “forehead slapper.” Here’s how I helped one of my clients, a regional sales director for a major pest control company, transform his follow up emails to get more clients.

I had shown my client how to create lists of perfect potential clients using local and internet resources, and we had already gone through the process of how to be great with shifting short term clients into being long term clients. He had been promoted, been given a larger territory and bigger clients, and had record sales for the slowest months of the year in less than 6 months. BUT, now that he knows what he wants his Perfect Day to be, he’s got some fabulous BHAG’s (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) for the year, and he wasn’t getting the results he wanted from reaching out to the companies that he could help.

Here was the problem—the follow up email.

Here is his original email to follow up after having a brief first phone or in person chat with a potential client:

Original Follow Up Email

Good morning Dawn,

Thank you for taking a few minutes to chat with me. Below you’ll find a brief summary of {HIS COMPANY’S} history & my contact info.

Please keep us in mind for your pest control needs.

Thank you,

Name

Company Name

Phone Number

The Problem And The Solution

Remember how the teacher’s voice sounded in Charlie Brown cartoons? That’s how this email sounds. It’s totally forgettable, totally impersonal. Something very important to remember about followup emails is that they are like a thank you card. Every contact with a prospect is an opportunity to create relationship from one human being to another. It doesn’t matter if you’re offering a massage or carpet cleaning, make sure your personality shines through! My client has a FANTASTIC personality. He’s warm, funny, and sweet. He genuinely cares about his clients and the work he does. None of that was present in his follow up email. Here’s how we transformed his follow up email, and I highly recommend that you use this example as a template for you to use for your own follow ups.

Transformed Follow Up Email

Dear Dawn,

Great to meet you this morning and I appreciate you taking a couple of minutes to chat with me. I know that with how cold it is that pest control probably isn’t top of mind for you right now, but I like to make sure all my customers are prepared for what’s to come. After all, it’s way less stressful to prevent a problem than it is to deal with a crisis, right?

Just so you have all the information you need, check out what I’ve put together for you below, and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to email me or give me a call on my mobile number at XXX-XXX-XXXX. If you see something buzzing or crawling, I’ll make sure it gets taken care of.

{video} Be Prepared for Pests! Warning Signs for your building, business, or facility

{PDF} Company Profile & Our Commitment to Our Clients

I’d like to stop by next week and make sure your questions are answered—when is a good time for you and what do you take in your coffee?

Thanks again and I look forward to helping your business.

Warm Regards,

Name, Title

Company Name

Phone Number

Website

Would you want to do business with you more from the first email, or the second email?

When you’re following up a potential client, be YOU. People want to know that you care, that you’re not just a number, AND that you know your stuff. This is so crucial because it’s the first opportunity you’re giving people to really interact with you as a professional and demonstrate your ability to fill a need and follow up and respond.

Now I’m going to dissect the elements of this email so that you can craft your personal followup template. Include the following elements in your follow up email:

Your Email Follow Up Template

Dear NAME,

{APPRECIATION} Great to meet you this morning and I appreciate you taking a couple of minutes to chat with me. {CONVERSATION THAT INCLUDES YOUR COMMITMENT} I know that with how cold it is that pest control probably isn’t top of mind for you right now, but I like to make sure all my customers are prepared for what’s to come. {POWERFUL QUESTION} After all, it’s way less stressful to prevent a problem than it is to deal with a crisis, right?

{CARING INVITATION} Just so you have all the information you need, check out what I’ve put together for you below, and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to email me or give me a call on my mobile number at XXX-XXX-XXXX. If you see something buzzing or crawling, I’ll make sure it gets taken care of.

{SUPPORT MATERIALS & INFORMATION}

{video} Be Prepared for Pests! Warning Signs for your building, business, or facility

{PDF} Company Profile & Our Commitment to Our Clients

{CALL TO ACTION/WARM INVITATION} I’d like to stop by next week and make sure your questions are answered—when is a good time for you and what do you take in your coffee?

Thanks again and I look forward to helping your business.

Warm Regards,

Name, Title {POWERFUL TITLE}

Company Name

Phone Number

Website

Ready to give it a try? I challenge you to take the time this week to send follow up emails to some of the folks you’ve talked to in the past and create connection–get the conversation flowing and remember, it’s all about YOU help THEM solve a problem, not making a sale. Got questions or comments? We love your comments. 🙂

Here are 4 steps to writing sales pages and making it easier on you to create sales and program pages that are authentic.

I really blame sucky sales pages on the internet for a lot of things. Customer dissatisfaction, lack of registrations, over saturating the market, and excessive yelling at computer screens. Maybe that last one is just me…

BUT, even if you partially or entirely outsource your sales page writing (more on that later) you still have to participate in writing them if you want your work to be accurately represented and in YOUR voice.

AND, if you want to use the Internet as a source of sales for your business, regardless of your industry, you need pages on your website where people can buy your stuff, or register for your course or program, or schedule an appointment.

The solution? Here are four steps to making it easier on you to create sales and program pages that are authentic (and won’t make me yell at the computer-you wouldn’t want that, would you?). This process will also help you create new programs and products as well, because time is gold, doing things twice is lame, and you want to be reading a good book with a glass of wine very soon, yes?

Step 1: Design Your Course or Program

Key Question: What are you going to offer and how?

Choose the topic for your program, product, or workshop and outline what it will include. Oftentimes this is something you already have done but you’re not sure how to get it out into the world. You will also need to choose the “vehicle” you’re going to use-whether that’s a live workshop, teleclass, webinar, online course, etc. Choose what content you will include, the number of sessions, your price points, etc. If you’re not sure what the best direction is for you or what the right vehicle for you would be, that’s something I can help you with one on one.

Step 2: Create Your Program Promises

Key Question: What will people get from you?

In bullet points, determine what your audience can count on you to deliver. What will they learn? What materials will they get? What’s the format? What are the benefits?

Step 3: Real World Application

Key Question: How will participants apply what they learned out in the world?

If you’re providing knowledge and techniques, what can people do with that out in the real world? Write out examples (If you’ve worked with people before around the topic you’re offering) and all the ways you can think of that people can use what you’ll be giving them.

Step 4: Paint a Picture of Results

Key Question: If participants take what you’re giving them and they used it fully, how would their lives change?

Imagine participants taking what they learned and applying it fully. Write down either in a narrative or in bullet points all the results they could create, achieve, and generate. This is why we do what we do-for people to have amazing results!

This is not the end of the process.

You have two options at this point now that you’ve got this all written out.

1. You write the page yourself
2. You outsource the writing

If you write the page yourself, then you do this: You REVERSE steps 1-4 for your sales page, like this:

• 4. Begin with painting a picture of the results people get
• 3. Tell them this is how it gets used in the real world
• 2. Outline what the promises are
• 1. Share with them the points of the course/program/product itself.

BONUS WRITING TIP: Remember to write your page as though you were talking to one person rather than an audience of people. Imagine a particular client or friend in mind who you know is your ideal audience for this program or product as you write.

Give this process a try and let us know how it went. Did you add any other steps?

Ready to get your next product, program, or service ready to launch and want some expert guidance? Schedule a Discovery Call and we'll explore the best options to meet your goals. 

The best ways to get clients are the most authentic to YOU. That’s why while it’s important to have reliable systems, a lot of the cookie-cutter programs out there don’t work the way they’re advertised.

One of my fabulous clients shared her breakthrough week with me, outlining not just the results she generated but the lessons she learned on the way as well. I was so blown away by her insight that I asked her if I could share what she learned with all of you as a case study in generating new clients for a new business. One of the many things I love about Gail Jessen is that she can WRITE. Man, can she write. I couldn’t put what she shares into words here any better.

#1 Way

THE COACHING: Write up a detailed, visceral description of your Perfect Day (using the audio exercise I gave her) and share it with at least 30 people. Originally, Gail wanted to approach this in a more analytical way, but we moved her through that so that she could receive the full benefit.

WHAT GAIL DID: She wrote up her Perfect Day as a blog post and shared it with her subscribers.

THE RESULTS: She booked a workshop registration within 12 hours of putting up the post.

LESSONS LEARNED (in Gail’s words):

1. Vulnerability and authenticity are crucial to building a personal brand. I put the semi-vulnerable perfect day out there and bam…someone resonated and registered within 12 hours. It makes me hopeful when I think about the other posts I’ve lined up to promote my workshops. It reinforces to me that my writing is a significant feature of my brand. It also reinforces that marketing is really just resonance and attraction.
2. Networking and giving time/info for free can be ultimately beneficial. Once a month I go to a Desire Map book club. I didn’t know anyone when I first went last fall. It’s been a good social outlet, but also good conversations very focused on this particular topic. I never knew what may come out of it business wise, but I take my business cards and I talk about my workshops anyway. Well, the person who registered is part of that crowd and now she’s officially in my growing workshop tribe. Bam.

#2 Way

THE COACHING: Create a coaching product(s) for private, one-on-one coaching as a follow up product for your Desire Map workshop participants. Private coaching was not part of Gail’s original business model, but we worked together on her stepping into this part of her identity as she’s more than qualified.

WHAT GAIL DID: Put together 1 session and 3 session private coaching products and put them up on her website, sent a follow up email to her workshop participants letting them know it was available and that she was available to support them further in their journey.

THE RESULTS: She booked a private client in a quick 15 minute conversation who called after she received the email.

LESSONS LEARNED (in Gail’s words):

1. Done is better than perfect. I have zero infrastructure behind the private coaching product I put online and posted half-heartedly on my FB biz page. I don’t even have a sales page for it or integration into my current sales page…just the product in the shop. Old Me would’ve meticulously planned every last detail to death before she even spoke about the product out loud. Well, surprise. Now I get to scramble a bit before this first client comes online, but I feel so calm and right about that. I really only mean I need to create a worksheet or two that gives some meaty structure to the conversations I’ll have with people. The fact that it excites me to scramble to do that tells me I’m on the right path (vs debilitating panic attacks in the bathroom at my other work when someone asks me for a budget report, a’la two weeks ago).
2. I can charge my friends money to talk to me…and it was easier than I thought. This is so so so huge. We’ve talked about this being a block for me. The person who wants to book the hour session is a friend. She’s not a hang-out-regularly-inner-circle friends, but she’s also not a stranger. We’ve known each other for years and have a lot of mutual friends that keep us all connected. In our 15-min Q&A phone call, I spoke calmly about the two different coaching options. Answered her questions about what the outcome is intended to be. Didn’t offer a discount or offer to “just talk” to her anyway. It felt like I was a real live grownup business owner 🙂

Also, I’m so grateful for your coaching. We’ve been working together for maybe almost two months and bam. Magic. Intention is magic. If Gail hadn’t taken the coaching and implemented it, the results wouldn’t be there. I’m grateful to have clients who do awesome work in the world and who allow me to help them expand and grow.

I want to share with you four little words to grow your business, get referrals, more clients, and create unlimited resources for your business and your life.

Today I want to share with you a short “how to” video: How to grow your business with celebration and contribution. And you don’t even have to talk to strangers.It all starts with four little words that are incredibly powerful. These four words have been used by my clients to do amazing things like double their clients in six months! Check it out, then try it out, and let me know what you think.

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