Follow-Up Phone Calls: Get More Sales Meetings Using This 5-Step Process

There is one marketing activity that strikes fear into the hearts of most independent professionals: making follow-up phone calls. Everyone avoids it, and no one is very good at it.

A follow-up call might be defined as a call you make to a prospect to explore if he may (or may not) be a good client for you. The purpose of this call is to ultimately set up a selling conversation where you'll convert the prospect into a paying client.

There are many opportunities for follow-up calls.

You might call someone you met through a networking event. You might follow up with an individual referred by a client or associate. After giving a talk, you might have several people you can reach out to. And then there's the "warm call" where you follow up with a past client to drum up some new business.

As author Napoleon Hill said, "It's always your next move." The reality is that very few of the people you connect with through networking, speaking engagements, and referrals are going to call you. That's your job. And how you do that job can be the difference between success and failure as a self-employed professional.

Other than the familiar garden-variety fears that everyone experiences in making follow-up calls (I'll be rejected, I'll be seen as unprofessional, people don't want to be bothered), we avoid making these calls because we just don't know what to say.

The purpose of marketing is to generate attention and interest in your services. Every business identity, website headline, article title, and verbal message needs to accomplish this. The same goes for follow-up calls.

Here's a proven step-by-step process (with scripting) that will make these calls easier and more successful. They'll get the attention of your prospects and make them want to take the next step in working with you.